theblackrose

Judge A Book By Its Cover

Book Reviews and Synopses

The Black Rose

Tananarive Due

Due, Tananarive. The Black Rose. Ballantine Books. New York, New York. 2001

The Black Rose is an inspiring novel about how chance, luck and a

proper attitude in life can catapult you to amazing heights. It was

written by Tananarive Due and based on a series of articles written by

Alex Haley for the Wall Street Journal in 1963. The Black Rose does an

amazing job of making you understand the difficulties that were

involved in Carolyn Walker becoming a millionaire.

The Black Rose starts with an article by Haley telling of the

childhood of Madame Walker in 1903. At the time the article was

written she was already dead. She lived on a small farm in Kansas

where her family made a meager living off of growing wheat. She

dreamed of becoming like the rich people who she sometimes saw as they

rode by on their fine horses and in their expensive riding clothes.

Carolyn’s parents saved enough money to let her go to school and she

excelled there. The narrative is broken by another story by Haley.

Haley talks about Carolyn’s days after school as she works at a

pharmacy in Peoria, Illinois. Then the stroke of luck came as she

accidentally knocked a small amount of white powder into a headache

mixture. The impatient woman grabbed the glass before Ms. Walker could

make another mixture and drank it. Stunned she neglected to mention

what had happened in fear of losing her job and the woman went off. A

couple days later she got a letter of thanks from the woman -- she had

just invented aspirin.

With the help of some friends and coworkers, she marketed her product

and made her way to fame as the world’s first black, woman

millionaire. She died in 1974 and was mourned by everyone who knew

her.

The Black Rose is a wonderful book that teaches great morals while

telling history in a witty way. The narrative is funny and makes you

want to read more. Then, just when you finish, you get a marvelous

revelation, but that is up to you to find.

5 out of 5 stars.

Contributed by D. Ozesmi

Sept. 7th 2011