By The Light Of My Father's Smile (2005) - Plot & Excerpts
"By The Light of my Father’s Smile is held together by a construct that at first seems artificial initially: a father is looking down on his daughter after his own death. She was not even aware at the time of my death that she missed me. Poor child. She did not cry at my funeral. She was a stoic spectator. Her heart, she thought, was closed. (3)As an atheist, I found the idea of an afterlife from which the father was speaking a little disappointing. However it becomes far more interesting when reading on, because we discover that the tradition drawn on is that of the Mexican “Mundo” tribe, the philosophy of which features prominently in this book. On the one hand, the journey of the book is towards the reconciliation of the father and his daughers, Susannah and Magdelena. However the title does not only refer to the relationship of children and parents. It is also about the sublime experience of love-making, since the “Mundo” tribe, describe the sickle moon as a father’s smile blessing the procreative cycles, which allow sexual intercourse to be fruitful. At the beginning of the book, it is clear that sex for the daughters is a transgression and the journey towards reconciliation with the father is also a path towards healing their view of love-making.In Walker’s vision, a reconciliation of familial and sexual difficulties can only be allowed when the whole family has recounted its narrative and is at peace. For this reason, the narration moves between relatives, who all contribute to the telling of the family story. Flashing back to Susannah’s and Magdelena’s childhood, the family voices tell how the parents are denied funding to study the “Mundo” tribe, ‘a tiny band of mixed-race Blacks and Indians’ due to institutional racism (14). However as a family linked to the black church, the family can become missionaries, in order to live in Mexico and secretly study the “Mundo”. Walker’s novel is ultimately a passing narrative that depicts the hateful atmosphere emerging in an atheist family passing as Christians. The father, named only with the formal title Señor Robinson, describes how he is ‘sucked into the black cloth’ of the priest’s costume and his only relief is secret, transgressive sexual pleasure when making love to his wife Langley (156).Yet in hiding his own sexual pleasure, Señor Robinson also enforces his rule on his daughters, the uncertain Susannah and the more wayward, Magdelena. From Magdelena to Maggie to Mad Dog to June, Magdelena’s names map her course: from the innocence of childhood; to the adoption of “Mundo” peoples’ values (including a belief in the crazy wisdom of the mad dog); to the repression and domestication of her natural sexual instinct. Magdelena’s story is the most touching, as Walker conjures regret and the acceptance of lost ideals vividly.Yet the centre of the story is Susannah, who must learn to forgive her sister for inadvertently driving the family apart. In the process of this education, Susannah takes on many mentors: women who have had to fight in a society that frowns on difference. For example, Irene, the Greek dwarf, escapes the confinement of her place in society, while Susannah’s lover, Lily-Pauline, manages to build her own restaurant empire in spite of her experience of rape, a loveless marriage and poverty. In the case of each woman, she is saved by the redemptive qualities of friendship and physical love, which leaves the reader like Susannah ‘peering through the mist of the orgasm itself […:] seeking what is essentially beyond it’ (190)."Link: http://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/zoebrigley...
"When life descends into the pitI must become my own candlewillingly burning myselfto light up the darkness around me"This poem is the last entry of the novel. It tells about the next best thing to "hope" for – creating one's self, not without sacrifice such as getting burned, but also not without gain such as transforming into a flame - a light of hope. Whether by burning or transforming, life is being created; creating is living. This only shows how powerful the novel's chant is: We are closest to the Creator when we create.Perhaps women have the best opportunity, if not privilege, to enjoy such capacity to create. Early mothers created pots from clay; early society related the myth of creation to the clay – the first human beings were believed to have come from clay. It wouldn't be a surprise to hear that the Creator is a woman and her womb, the wondrous oven.But stories,visions,and ideas such as these have been conquered, along with the lands, forests, waters, springs, peoples. "History" has written off stories of Woman the Creator.However, in the case of the character Susannah, history was not able to completely write off the images of clay molded by a woman's hands. As she rediscovered herself, she came home to that part of history that was lost. Indeed, the capacity to develop compassion, peace, equality, security from within, is not something easily conquered. The self - love and intimacy with the self – is not something a passing historian can jot down and/or erase off. It is always there.This also means that history is written all over one's body. A person searching for history is one meant to come home to one's body, one's sexuality - the core of loving one's self and not just for reproductive purposes. Searching for history in one's body is a "crossing over" within. Achieving this means having to lose one's mind, especially when the mind has been conquered by nations, sucked into the cloth of beliefs, monetized by markets, zipped shut by fathers and brothers (sometimes by mothers and sisters).This is why the novel shares the image of a Mad Dog, which is considered wise because it has lost its mind. The idea is to have visions: "instead of thoughts, we have visions, and that is how we guide ourselves."A dominant vision in the novel is that of the moon, like an image of a father's smile; a moon half hidden, half exposed, signaling and blessing the fullness of the woman's longing, desires, sexuality. On the other hand, the moon is also the woman; recognized as the Mundo, revered as much as the idea that the woman is a creator. And so history needs to be retold.
What do You think about By The Light Of My Father's Smile (2005)?
This little novel is a delicious read. What a treasure is Alice Walker's writing, such a gift of wisdom and fresh insight.The storyline is of journeys home to the heartself along diverse paths linked by a common betrayal. It has the power to touch upon and stir the reader's own life journey.I found it crafted in a very interesting and clever style, moving in first person from one character to another. Often it would take several paragraphs to identify who was speaking.Sexuality is at the core of how the story plays out, and is treated with sensuality and sensitivity, never crass even when frank.My only mild criticism would be around the tendency to use characters to psychoanalyse, rather than providing the context for the reader to fulfil this role.All in all an excellent read.
—Ilyhana Kennedy
I really enjoyed By the Light of My Father's Smile and recommended it to my book club. There is a graphic sex scene in the first chapter, with a ghost watching, that may surprise the more conservative reader. This book is about sex, but it's not about sex. It's not 50 shades. It's about the role of sex in our lives and our cultures. Embracing sexuality in human-kind, and our growing adolescents. How to accept the intertwining of sex, love, and happiness. Being true to yourself. Learning yourself. I think I will read it again when I get it back from whomever I loaned it to last.
—Stacey
Delightful, unusual--I loved the structure and perspectives of the narrators. I think there are fabulous pieces of prose on nearly every page...so, I just flipped to a random page and will cite a sample here:"At one point Manuelito mumbled something about needing a drink. I would have died for a burger and fries. But we persevered. I thought I had to find on his body those few remaining places where he could still be quickened sexually. He thought he had to battle to find my center by pushing aside the fat."
—Virginia
