Sarah's Psalm

I read this book about a year ago, and plan on reading it again for an upcoming book club that I plan to start. This book was excellent. Florence Ladd has remarkable talent in bringing the characters to life. The love relationship between Sarah and Abrahim Mangane had already been established long before they even met each other. It was a beautiful and soft romantic story about Africa, women and the relationship between a man and woman. I admired Sarah's courage and strength in giving up a life as an upper middle class African American woman married to a politician, to follow her dreams and heart to Africa. I look forward to other novels by Florence Ladd.

I liked this book and read it twice. It is about people I know well. They do not ordinarily appear in American fiction although their world view points in the direction of our national future. The author has brought them to life in such a way that I eagerly await a sequel that will tell what happens next in the lives of the characters we meet in Sarah's Psalm. The cameo appearances of people like Ellis Haizlip and James Baldwin help to anchor the novel in the reality of its time and to emphasize the effect of these giants on their generation. The conflicts that move the novel along are nevertheless the eternal ones. They show how men and women relate to God, to each other, to their communities -- and what forces impel or restrain them in their journey through life. Immediacy and timelessness -- I like this book.

SARAH'S PSALM explores the life of an upper middle class African American woman whose childhood dream of Senegal takes her on a journey of discovery from the elite world of Harvard and a good marriage to Senegal where she becomes wife and collaborator to Senegal's most celebrated writer. The struggles of her second marriage and its abrupt end allow Sarah to reach beyond her childhood dream to work for the good of African women. Florence Ladd understands the complexities of women's lives!