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The Black Rose
Tananarive Due
Review by Carla Robinson
For a fictitious look at Madame C. J. Walker’s life, read The Black Rose.
Author Tananarive Due, best known for her supernatural novels The Between (1994) and My
Soul To Keep (1997), jumped at the chance to spin a tale about Madam Walker. Alex Haley
knew that Madam’s life was fertile ground for fiction when he began the research that
became the basis for this novel. Haley died before he was able to finish the work. His
estate tapped Due to revive the project, forwarding her twelve boxes of research materials
and giving her one year to complete the book.
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In tackling the job, Due was faced with a
wealth of material but a dearth of information regarding the most crucial moments of
Madam’s life. She addresses this in her author’s note, saying, “I have
tried to be faithful to the spirit of Madam C. J. Walker in this book, but The Black Rose
is a work of fiction…. Ultimately, no one knows how Madam devised her modification of
the steel comb or created her hair formula.”
The result of Due’s labor is a crisp, uncluttered novel. It is an exercise in
filling-in-the-blanks, using the history of the early 20th century to paint a plausible,
enthralling picture of Madam Walker’s interior life. Due characterizes Madam as
driven, yet sensitive and vulnerable; pious, yet tolerant. Read The Black Rose because it
is a compelling novel about an incredibly inspirational heroine. Then read On Her Own
Ground to separate fact from fiction. M
May 2001 |
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