The women

What are the forces that shape us? In The Women, Hilton Als exploreswith breath taking originalitythe role of sexual and racial identity in marginalized lives. With a blend of fact and fiction, Als brings to vivid life a number of extraordinary characters, including: his mother, a singular woman whose West Indian heritage and determination inspired her son to write Malcolm Xs mother, whose mixed-race background and eventual descent into madness contributed to her sons burgeoning misogyny and fear brilliant, Harvard-educated Dorothy Dean, who deeply empathized with white gay men and Owen Dodson, teacher and poet, who played an important role in the authors development as a gay man, and thinker.Combining memoir, cultural history, social theory and storytelling, The Women submits both racial and sexual stereotypes to scrutiny, showing no mercy but every tenderness. The results are exhilarating. The Women is that rarest of books: a memorable work of self-investigation that creates a form of all its own.