Some Soul to Keep

Exuberant and heart-warming, Cooper is the living embodiment of the simple folk tradition in African-American literature associated most often with Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes. She writes with a transparent clarity and such exuberant energy that her characters leap off the page, bursting with the stories they've got to tell—stories of simple people, stories of families and fate, of love and marriage, of death and the triumph of the human spirit. The author of two novels and five story collections, it is her stories that have achieved the most acclaim and the broadest audience. Some Soul to Keep is amongst the finest and most enduring of her work.

Praise

"Her style is deceptively simple and direct, and the vale of tears in which her characters reside is never so deep that a rich chuckle at a foolish person's foolishness cannot be heard."—Alice Walker

"Cooper's stories beckon. It's as if she is patting the seat next to her, enticing us to come sit and listen as she tells complex tales about women, often poor women, chasing dreams of love, a house, and a family."—Ms.

"Cooper's stories dramatize the wages of sin and the rewards of patience, as well as the occasional sweet taste of revenge."—Chicago Tribune

"Cooper knows how to 'talk' her stories to us, as though each of them is told by a kindly and concerned friend. The sound of them is lovely, memorable, haunting."—San Francisco Chronicle

"Cooper is humorous, wise, self-deprecating, and always expressive . . . her stories are about simple truths told with great energy that makes them shine."—Kirkus Reviews

"The stories are wonderful, very human tales that sparkle with warmth, humor, and often, revernge."—Library Journal

About the Author(s)

J. California Cooper

J. California Cooper is the author of two novels, four collections of stories, and seventeen plays. She has been honored as the Black Playwright of the Year and has also received the James Baldwin Writing Award and the Literary Lion Award from the American Library Association. Ms. Cooper lives in California.