Sarah Phillips

After reading Interesting Women (loved it!) I searched long and hard to find other titles by Andrea Lee. I felt lucky when I was able to get used copies of both Russian Journal ( I'm still reading it) and Sarah Phillips. Sarah Phillips is a wonderful novel! Each story --linked by one centeral character--is alive with a sense of place, a specific mood, and emotion. Andrea Lee has a wonderful way of phrasing that balances the... Read Full Review

Andrea Lee took a brave step in writing this novel by going outside of mainstream African-American lit. Her protagonist, Sarah Phillips, is not a downtrodden southerner, but rather, the product of the elite black upper-class. While this portion of African-American society is not one typically explored, Lee's novel establishes that black society is as diverse in class and attitude as any race, and suggests the absurdity of... Read Full Review

The bad news is: Sarah Phillips was ahead of its time when it was published in 1984, and beyond the literary critics who praised Andrea Lee's elegantly unvarnished look at the upper reaches of black society, it did not receive much attention. The good news is: with the post-Waiting-To-Exhale realization by the white publishing world that there is no one black way of life, and that the way of life that appeared in Phillips'... Read Full Review

Sarah Phillips allows readers to gain insight into the black middle class, and the rituals and contradictions that the exposure to an integrated society can create. Considering the time frame in which the story is set, it is, at times, disturbing.

I cannot understand why it is that this brilliant piece of work is virtually unheard of. Andrea Lee's collection of stories about one central figure, Sarah Phillips, is masterful and universal in its exploration of the journey from girlhood to womanhood. These stories approach adolescence with a rare grace and subtlety that deserves a wide audience, one of all races and ages. Please read this book!