Jane-Fonda discusses raising black daughter, whose new book ‘The Lost Daughter’
By michelle-lee : “The Lost Daughter: A Memoir” by Mary Williams – Rider Press – 304 pages, $28.50
The Lost Daughter tells the author’s story of her two families – by birth to Louis Williams and Mary Kennedy, members of the Black Panther Party living in Oakland, California – by adoption (at age14) by Jane Fonda. Her father went to jail leaving her mother to bring up their five children while battling a heavy alcohol problem. Williams was raped and confided in camp counselors at a children’s camp being run by Fonda and her then husband Tom Hayden. A year later she moved into Fonda’s home and eventually graduated from college and obtained a Masters degree in Public Health. She traveled to Africa to help the boy soldiers of Sudan. Inspired by what she saw, she founded her own “Lost Boys Foundation and wrote “Brothers in Hope”. The Lost Daughter chronicles her journey from childhood to the present day as she bridges the gap between her two families in vivid and often heartbreaking detail. It speaks of sorrow and happiness, redemption and reconciliation with amazing insight.
“Dear Sir, I intend To Burn Your Book” is a lecture by author Lawrence Hill published by the University of Alberta Press – 33 pages – $10.95. Hill’s bestseller “The Book of Negroes” was burned (actually it was only the cover) in June 2011 in Amsterdam at Oosterpark beside the monument commemorating the end of Dutch slavery. The act was carried out by a group of Surinamese slave descendents who objected to the title, which in Dutch was Het Negerbock. “The Book of Negroes”– which should be on everyone’s book shelves – tells the story of slavery through the eyes of an African girl who was kidnapped and endured the middle passage, to end up a slave in South Carolina. Hill’s lecture addresses the subject of literary censorship. He expresses his very personal feelings and opinions
