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Meridian | 
 enlarge | Author: Alice Walker
Publisher: Harvest Books
Category: Book
List Price: $13.00
Buy New: $5.39
You Save: $7.61 (59%)
New (38) Used (29) Collectible (2) from $2.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  17 reviews
Sales Rank: 64262
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 264
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.4 x 0.7
ISBN: 0156028344
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780156028349
ASIN: 0156028344
Publication Date: May 26, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Meridian Hill is a young woman at an Atlanta college attempting to find her place in the revolution for racial and social equality. She discovers the limits beyond which she will not go for the cause, but despite her decision not to follow the path of some of her peers, she makes significant sacrifices in order to further her beliefs. Working in a campaign to register African American voters, Meridian cares broadly and deeply for the people she visits, and, while her coworkers quit and move to comfortable homes, she continues to work in the deep South despite a paralyzing illness. Meridian's nonviolent methods, though seemingly less radical than the methods of others, prove to be an effective means of furthering her beliefs.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 12 more reviews...
 Meridian - womanism? October 6, 2008
This is probably the single worst book I've ever read. I had to read it for a class so I couldn't quit.
Meridian, the main character in the novel, is very naive and stupid for a person with an IQ of 140. According to Alice Walker, Meridian not only had to study very hard for her classes but also didn't know why she was having sex with her first boyfriend. She didn't understand that she could get pregnant. She didn't understand that her new boyfriend, Truman (when she was about 18 years old) wasn't wearing a condom (no, she wasn't drunk). She couldn't convince a doctor to look at her head when she was blind instead of her vagina.
At one point Meridian watches a guy have sex with a married woman. Meridian gets wet. The author denounces the act of sex and the man who has sex yet somehow praises Meridian who is watching the act secretly from the married woman. Then the author says that she is not even interested in it and the only reason she is there is because there is nothing better to do on a Wednesday afternoon.
All the negative descriptions of the characters in the book are highly biased and unrealistic.
Most male black characters are not admirable while the girls are.
The philanthropists who sent her to school are not appreciated while random homeless girl that can't even talk is appreciated.
Too many sex scenes that contribute nothing to the novel.
 Not an easy read, but courageous, heartfelt and very real. February 28, 2008
Alice Walker's second novel, 'Meridian' (published 1976), is huge in scope but well-orchestrated and written, and she compresses a 25-year span into just 242 pages.
'Meridian' is tricky to get into. It's not at all that clear what's what & who's who to begin with & it would be easy to put the book down without going quite far enough to hold your interest. Persevere though, and you are rewarded with snippets of Meridian's story - her struggle into adulthood, to self-awareness, public-awareness, and ultimately her struggles for civil rights.
Meridian, as a young 17-year-old - married, divorced, one baby son, all of which happened almost without her even realising - kind of unintentionally stumbles upon some civil rights activists in her home town in the deep South... and from there, as she awakens into a world she has been sheltered from during her childhood, her involvement gets deeper and deeper. Reading just a little about the author's own life, you can see it's impossible to separate book and author here, as a number of parallels with Alice Walker's life in the 60s and 70s run through the novel.
Parts of the story are revealed in a non-chronological way, with themes running through that tie all the threads together - about losing children, inter-racial stuggles both in friendship and marriage and outside of it, the tensions between love and friendship, violence and peace, and of course the very human struggle for human rights. There are a few more themes to contemplate besides these.
It's a powerful and enlightening novel. Personally, I couldn't get on with the ending. I don't want to give anything away, but it doesn't really do justice to the Meridian we've followed haphazardly throughout a 25 year span - not quite a satisfying conclusion to an otherwise fascinating read.
 I have to agree with Reviewer no. 10, Jess D., and Jade Patten September 19, 2006
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
"Sad valor" in someone's eyes? A character who "doesn't know exactly what constitutes begging"? Come on. And those are just two examples of Walker's writing getting in the way of my enjoying the story. The only parts I liked were when they tried to recruit people to vote; that's where the heart of the story was for me, and that was only a few pages' worth.
 Read into it November 16, 2005
This is one of the best books I've ever read. I love Alice Walker. Meridian is a book that changed my life. Meridian, the main character, is a woman who feels so deeply and wants so badly to help other people that this feeling comes close to destroying her. Any woman who has ever cared about a cause so much that she felt she'd give her last breath if it would help will understand this book. Meridian is not judged for her depth of emotion, but the other characters often don't understand. She's not crazy - she's overwhelmed by racism and hurt and can't understand how anyone would be able to hurt anyone else. She is never jaded, never bitter, but always trying to find a way to make her life meaningful.
It's a bit slowgoing if you read it just for the story, but if you can get to the point, you'll want to read it again and again.
She has done better work October 22, 2004
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
This book is an enjoyable read if you have nothing better to do. I failed to be captivated by it. The characters lack the heartwrenching dramatic intensity that you find in her other works. Maybe it is because Alice Walker is such a phenominal author that people just expect so much from her. Still, this book is NOT making the cut for my personal library.
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