Generations By Lucille Clifton, introduction by Tracy K. Smith 104 Pages. NYRB Classics. $14.95. Lucille Clifton’s brief memoir Generations opens with her receiving a phone call from a stranger. The caller is responding to an ad Clifton had put in a newspaper, asking if there were records of her family line. The caller is a white woman, who gradually realizes that she is a descendant of the family that owned some of Clifton’s ancestors. In the hands of another writer, this scene could be depicted as chilling or somber, but for Clifton it is a moment of pride. While the white woman is “the last of her line,” when Clifton considers her own situation in life, she writes, “I look at my husband and our six children and I feel the Dahomey women gathering in my bones.”
Generations by Lucille Clifton
Generations by Lucille Clifton
Generations by Lucille Clifton
Generations By Lucille Clifton, introduction by Tracy K. Smith 104 Pages. NYRB Classics. $14.95. Lucille Clifton’s brief memoir Generations opens with her receiving a phone call from a stranger. The caller is responding to an ad Clifton had put in a newspaper, asking if there were records of her family line. The caller is a white woman, who gradually realizes that she is a descendant of the family that owned some of Clifton’s ancestors. In the hands of another writer, this scene could be depicted as chilling or somber, but for Clifton it is a moment of pride. While the white woman is “the last of her line,” when Clifton considers her own situation in life, she writes, “I look at my husband and our six children and I feel the Dahomey women gathering in my bones.”