Balm in Gilead Journey of a Healer Author:Sara Lawrence Lightfoot "This biography describes the journey of Margaret Lawrence from her childhood as the daughter of a black Episcopalian minister in Mississippi to her own professional success as a child psychiatrist in New Your City. It is unforgettable because Sara Lawrence Lightfoot, a distinguished sociologist, is her mother's biographer." Christian Science Mo... more »nitor
"Imagine a well-crafted combination of 'The Color Purple' and the life of, say, Karen Horney, and you see the mixture of elements that make this book both informative and inspiring." Harvey Cox, Harvard University
"The story of a daughter's spiritual and emotional journey to discover her own identity by attempting to understand her mother's life . . . Lightfoot admits that the opportunity to collaborate with her mother on this book was a rich and rare experience. So it is also for the reader." The Nation
"Lightfoot, a wonderful writer as well as a noted sociologist, has produced an enthralling work that explores a much-unexplored sociological subject: the black middle-class family . . . . Through her family's story, the reader sees the effects of skin color on black people, the ambivalence African-Americans feel about the South, the struggle of the lone black person, the fragility and strength of children, and the crisis of male-female relaitonships that repeats itself through generations." Atlanta Journal-Constitution« less