Daughters by Paule Marshall

Daughters Reviews

• 
  Tichaona Chinyelu

  With my latest rereading of Daughters by Paule Marshall, this book has entered the ranks of my favorites. It has always been a member of my favorite book ever list but now it is, officially, in the top ten.
  
  The ending of Daughters always devastates me. It represents the ultimate in UrsaBea's independence from a stereotypical daddy's girl role...while at the same time doing what is best for her father.
  
  Basically, Daughters is a beautifully, well-written metaphor for development.
• 
  Dana Miller

  This book took me a while to read. Not because it was boring but because Marshall writes in a way that forces the reader to move slowly. The reader can't skip ahead or gloss over any of the words unless they want to lose important details about the plot. Written poetically, and with abundant details about the characters, what they look like, where they are, and what they're feeling, Marshall is a master writer. I took my time reading it and I'm glad I did.
  
  Ursa is a seemingly successful Black woman living in Harlem. She has a boyfriend of six years, is working toward a master's degree, and works at a well-respected research firm. Unfortunately, her life is challenging in a number of other ways. Her relationship is stale. Her superiors at work are putting up multiple barriers for her to start a new research project. Meanwhile, her father, referred to as PM is seeking re-election in a fictitious Caribbean island (and also Ursa's birthplace), Triunion. Ursa appears to be interested in what is happening with her parents in Triunion but disinterested in returning there after many long years. Her life and theirs, despite seeming perfect in many ways, is extremely complicated.
  
  The story of the successful Black woman who deals with microaggressions at work and romance problems is not new. What makes this novel special is a number of things. Marshall writes about abortion, miscarriage, suicide, and IVF without ever naming them. Again, forcing the reader to pay attention to keep track of what is going on. It also makes apparent the ways society forces these experiences to be invisible; one might assume that these experiences are less common simply because a lot of women don't talk about them. The way Marshall writes about them here makes this apparent while also offering subtle commentary about how taboo these topics are. The second thing that makes this novel different from others is the bi-cultural identity aspect. Ursa is often reminded by her peers in the U.S. that she is from somewhere else. This identity works to her benefit at times, but in most cases the people in her life find a way to other her. Relatedly there is the unspoken obligation that Ursa feels to send money home to her family in Triunion to help with the elections. There is an obligation for many immigrants living in the U.S. to their families abroad, and this is no different here. There is also some great commentary here about class and race. Despite being a successful woman, Ursa is very aware that she is a darker-skinned Black woman, and therefore to society less desirable than Black women who are lighter than her. Viney, her best friend who she has a deeply intimate platonic relationship with, represents a foil to Ursa's character in this way, as is her mother Estelle in some ways, whom she despises because she takes after her mother but did not inherit her lighter skin tone. Class is also recurring theme, when we see how successful Viney is but she is still unable to protect her Black son from being harassed by police. Many of the characters in the novel do a lot to gain wealth and appear elite, only to be reminded by society that their Blackness serves as a barrier.
  
  The final thing I'll say about the novel is the way the mother-daughter relationship between Ursa and Estelle is illustrated. Marshall examines this relationship in her first novel, Brown Girl, Brownstones, where Selina and her mother are often at odds. Here, Ursa and Estelle are at odds for different reasons, possibly because Ursa does not understand her mother. This can represent a larger commentary about Caribbean literature, which often illustrates a fractious relationship between mothers and their daughters (see longer commentary about this on my blog).
  
  Overall, Marshall remains one of my favorite authors and one of the most underrated authors in the Black literary canon. It's a shame that I did not get to know her work until months after her death, but I will continue to suggest her to anyone who will listen.
• 
  Régine Michelle

  I read this book the summer before my first year in college for a summer institute. I remember disliking it at the time because of what I felt like were characters drawn too starkly ...10 years later I plan to re-read expecting new insight.
• 
  Beth

  Arrgghhh this took me sooo long to read! It's not that the book was boring, well maybe just a 'lil, but nothing really happened. During the present in the book nothing was really goin' on. Everything was the past, and, there was a chapter for everyone to explain how they felt about everything! This gets to be long. I especially thought the chapters by Celestine were dull. The characters that I really enjoyed were Ursa-Bea and Esther, the later was never fully explored and explained, but I guess that would have probably added another 20 chapters to the book. I can't say I didn't like this book, because I kept reading it, I was a little slow and more than a little repetitive.
• 
  Jennie

  Eh. Paule Marshall is one of my favorite authors and so I still liked this book and thought the main character was compelling. But I didn't feel like she wrapped up the story very well. Paule Marshall's real skill is in showing the importance of a place to an individual. Overall I think Daughters is a good summer beach read. But Praisesong for the Widow is really her triumph.
• 
  Emily

  I've really liked Marshall's other books but I just could not get into this one. Then...I got almost to the end only to find that 30 pages of the stinking book was missing and a previous 30 pages was repeated. Not cool. So I give up. I surrender. I was not meant to get through this book.
• 
  Vidyaratha Kissoon

  Beautiful book, compelling brave story. Wished I had read this earlier in my life..
• 
  Ray

  I am always looking for the next Gloria Naylor who is my all-time fav. Marshall is not her (at least based on this book) but I am intrigued.
  
  It's funny how dated the 1990s seem now. Daughters reminds me of that. At some level this is a nostalgic read (the plight of an islander in America, the corruption of political upstarts by the system in big cities, etc.) Unfortunately, Black women's fight for power and privilege is far from over and so that part of the book wasn't as historical as I might have liked it to be.
  
  In general the weaving together of different women's voices from different places (US and the Caribbean) and different ages was done well. And the commentary on how we all must fit into the place and the systems we have come from while also forging our own paths was on point.
  
  The ending was a little too open-ended for my taste, but thought provoking nonetheless.
  
  I def. want to read more.