The Same River Twice
Honoring the Difficult : A Meditation on Life, Spirit, Art, and the Making of the Film The Color Purple Ten Years Later
Book - 1996
In the early eighties, the peaceful, reclusive life of poet and writer Alice Walker was interrupted by the appearance of three extraordinary gifts: a widely praised best-selling novel (The Color Purple), the Pulitzer Prize, and an offer from Steven Spielberg to make her novel into a film that would become a major international event. This last gift, which Walker identifies as "the knock at the door", led her into the labyrinth of a never-before-experienced creative collaboration, principally with Spielberg and Quincy Jones, and the "magic" and perils of moviemaking. The Same River Twice: Honoring the Difficult chronicles that period of transition, from recluse to public figure, and invites us to contemplate, along with her, the true significance of extraordinary gifts - especially when they are coupled, as in Walker's case, with the most severe criticism, overt hostility, and public censure from one's community of choice. The book is composed of entries from Walker's journals, correspondence - including letters to Spielberg, Jones, and Danny Glover, who played the much reviled Mister in the movie - and essays and articles that document the controversy in the African-American community upon the film's release. It also contains Walker's original screenplay for the film The Color Purple, a screenplay that ultimately was not used by Spielberg and has never been published. In three new essays, Walker looks back at what was taking place in her life at that time: the onset of a debilitating illness, the failing health of her adored mother, and the betrayal by her companion of thirteen years. How do the private and the public mesh, she asks, during periods of intense creativity and stress? Inwhat ways do they support or weaken each other?
Publisher:
New York : Scribner, c1996.
ISBN:
9780684814193
0684814196
0684814196
Characteristics:
302 p. :,col. ill. ;,25 cm.


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Add a CommentAlice Walker is closest to being the female Jesus without being a Christian. She is God/Nature the all forgiving. Everyone who is searching for a reason to live and who truly believes God created Man and Woman in His/Her own image will see Her in The Same River Twice and we men all should read this book. Real Mother Earth. A gift to Mankind. It is good that Man has Woman to show us the Truth and Beauty.
This is a wonderful book chronicling the author's journey of making her novel The Color Purple, into a film. Interesting coincidences such as the character of Shug Avery being played by an actress named Margaret Avery.
Another example is that the character of Harpo's wife was played by Oprah Winfrey (with Harpo being Oprah spelled backwards).
Interesting that the novel with all its characters, was written in 1982, and the film was not made until 1985.