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maximum_moxie's review against another edition
5.0
Gorgeously fluid and fiery and raw, written in juxtaposition and mosaic rather than any attempt at “realism”. But this text alludes to the struggles for cross-racial solidarity, the beauty and pain of hybrid identities, and the powers and pitfalls of stories in ways I’ve never encountered before. This book is a song rather than a text; let it wash over you and you’ll get something from it, even if you don’t understand what it is or how it was transmitted to you.
moirastone's review against another edition
4.0
Back in April, when the worst thing was still a global pandemic, I heard that my favorite used book store - Rodger's Book Barn in Hillsdale, New York, may it stay open forever - was doing book care packages for customers. So I sent them note with a line or two about my favorite authors and what I was looking to read next, and the next week I had almost two dozen paperbacks on my side table. It felt like magic, a silver lining all the more sweet for being unlooked for.
It's June now. You don't need me to tell you how radically our definition of "worst thing" has changed. But I now know that stack of books is in fact magic, because back in April I asked Karen at the Book Barn to help me remedy a gap in my reading life: 20th century writers of color, particularly women, and so exactly when I needed to read it, Michelle Cliff's Free Enterprise was at my fingertips. It is a transporting and prismatic take on the life of Mary Ellen Pleasant - were you taught about her in school? I sure wasn't - and it reads like it was written this past Monday, not almost 30 years ago. As a white feminist grappling with my own racism, I found indictment, grace, fury, and enlightment in its pages, couched in prose more beautiful than I can tell you.
Don't read it because I'm assigning it to you like homework. Read it because it belongs on your shelf between Beloved and Your Silence Will Not Protect You: revelatory, wondrous, magic.
It's June now. You don't need me to tell you how radically our definition of "worst thing" has changed. But I now know that stack of books is in fact magic, because back in April I asked Karen at the Book Barn to help me remedy a gap in my reading life: 20th century writers of color, particularly women, and so exactly when I needed to read it, Michelle Cliff's Free Enterprise was at my fingertips. It is a transporting and prismatic take on the life of Mary Ellen Pleasant - were you taught about her in school? I sure wasn't - and it reads like it was written this past Monday, not almost 30 years ago. As a white feminist grappling with my own racism, I found indictment, grace, fury, and enlightment in its pages, couched in prose more beautiful than I can tell you.
Don't read it because I'm assigning it to you like homework. Read it because it belongs on your shelf between Beloved and Your Silence Will Not Protect You: revelatory, wondrous, magic.
cerrifex's review against another edition
3.0
I had to read this book for a class. I was not a fan. I really didn't like it at all. HOWEVER. I can 100% see that this is an amazing book and why people love it. Cliffs writing is so unique and recognizable and beautiful. Which I can appreciate, which is why the rating is a 3.
rachelmatsuoka's review against another edition
4.0
Free Enterprise is a valuable novel on the economics of slavery and the necessity of keeping one's history alive, even if only orally. One aspect of this novel that I found particularly fascinating was the leper colony scene to illustrate the treatment of indigenous peoples and African Americans. The story is told in almost a dreamlike quality, led by two captivating and dynamic central female characters.
sumayyah_t's review against another edition
4.0
Less a novel of Mary Ellen Pleasant and more a collection of interactions, "Free Enterprise" is, nevertheless, an excellent book. Told almost in reverse, it begins with a woman (re)named Annie Christmas, who has made her home on the edge of Carville, LA, near the infamous colony of lepers. From there, a the story of a pair of cousins, Alice and Clover Hooper, is related. The reader is taken on a wondrous, often disjointed voyage that mixes United states and Caribbean history with African Diasporic mythology. Examinations of race, religion, and economy are made. Mentions of the original Annie Christmas, Nanny of the Maroons, and various African gods. The reader is given information about the Arawaks, the Carib, and the legend of John Brown. M.E.P, herself often a "hologrammatical man" as a visitor, who would be known in the future, years past her death, as "Detroit Red." 3.5 stars for failure to remain linear or focus solely on Mary Ellen Pleasant. 4.0 stars for the teaching moments, the lyrical, historic recountings, and generally being a thought-provoking journey.
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