text: This "book" is probably the worst written I've ever encountered. It was so flawed as to be considered literature. Alice Walker tries to "One-up" Harriet Beecher Stowe, in writing about brutality. Titles like these are weapons used in the Anti-Black Male agenda this society has long perpetuated. All the men depicted in this book are one-dimensional characters with absolutely no redeeming qualities worth noting. The women are portrayed as martyred, forlorn, pseudo-saints who have been set upon by beasts from hell. 
  
  The only persons capable of any sort of humanity are exclusively women. I've learned long ago, when absolutes such as these are presented, a greater agenda is at work. There are no "real" men in this book! Only distorted caricatures of Black masculinity. I only found value in this book as a comprehensive example of sexist misandry at its worst. I find this title as dangerous as Hitler's "Mien Kampf", in it's portrayal of Black men as evil and morally destitute. 
  
  Presenting such depictions is both dangerous and irresponsible. True, there are criminally abusive men in every culture. But there are also forthright, upstanding  men as well. To present a depiction of such vehement imbalance and disparity, only serves to distort the readers view of the people being written about. 
  
  Harriet Beecher Stowe's fictional "Uncle Tom's Cabin", sparked national outrage and eventually a bloody civil war. This title does no less in further distorting the readers perceptions of Black Men. 
  
  This book is fiction. However,it is not presented as such. I'm sure the abusive incidents depicted in this book have been based upon actual incidents. I have no qualm about outrage at such abominations. However, I do have a problem when there are absolutely no upstanding male figures who intervene in such aberrations. That is what I find so unbelievable and offensive about this book. 
  
  In my opinion, this novel does nothing to laud the strength of women so much as it demeans and distorts the readers/viewers of the people within it. I don't find it a testament to the strength of Black Women at all. I interpret this book as feminist misandry with two purposes...the further distortion of African-American culture and the deliberate depiction and denigration of the Black Male as being hopelessly inhuman.
  
  I'm sure Alice walker made a lot of money with this book. Feminist, racist extremism seems to have found a niche in literature. I wonder if this novel would have had the same accolades, were it a fictional depiction of White American Men brutalizing White Women. Most definitely not!!! I doubt it would have even found a publisher. America is comfortable reinforcing negative depictions of Black Men and African-American culture.
  
  My life as a Black man is difficult enough living as a testament and example against this sort of racial distortion. Whatever Ms. Walker's motivations were in writing this novel, I'm sure mercenary incentives were not discounted. 
  
  This is racist, misandrist propaganda masquerading as literature!
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  