Point of View

Since it is a collection of short stories, there are as many points of view in Temple Folk as there are stories. They alternate between third- person and first-person depending on the story. In addition, the main characters themselves all range in age; some of them are men and some are women. The one thing they all have in common is that they are all Black, and they all also have a connection to the Nation of Islam or an offshoot of the Nation of Islam after its initial disbandment in the 1970s. Within that, there is great variance between all of their perspectives. That said, there are also similarities between how many of them view the world and exist within it. Questions of race and the attendant difficulties of being Black in America are consistent among all of their stories, but they are pushed...