SOURCE: “Black Family Matters,” in Washington Post Book World, August 13, 1995, p. 8.

In the following excerpt, Mitchell offers a positive assessment of The Longest Memory.

Many contemporary black writers exhibit a preoccupation with history—both public and personal—in their work. Because blacks have not always had the opportunity to engage in self-representation, they understand the importance of being able to tell one's own story. Toni Morrison, Charles Johnson and Maryse Conde have situated their most critically acclaimed novels—Beloved, Middle Passage, and I Tituba, Black Witch of Salem, respectively—within the historical context of American slavery. By presenting slavery from the slaves’ perspective they not only record and preserve the slaves history and culture but also provide a look at the interior lives of black men and women. Younger black writers such as A. J. Verdelle, Fred D'Aguiar and Lionel Newton also situate their recently released novels within...