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A Measure of Time
Dorine Davis leaves the rigid, segregated society of Birmingham, Alabama, for Harlem, in a tale of a Black woman's adventurous journey through life from the 1920s through the 1950s
354 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1983
13 people are currently reading
160 people want to read
About the author
Rosa Guy
28Ìýbooks76ÌýfollowersRosa Cuthbert Guy (1925-2012) was an American writer.
Born in Trinidad, Rosa Guy moved to the United States with her family at the age of seven, where they settled in New York in 1932. Soon after, her parents, Henry and Audrey Cuthbert, died. After, she and her sister went to many foster homes. She quit school at age fourteen and took a job to help support her family.
During World War II she joined the American Negro Theatre. She studied theatre and writing at the University of New York.
Guy wrote a number of books aimed at young adults. Many of her books reflect on the dependability of family members who love and care for one other. Her works include: Bird at My Window (1966), Children of Longing (1971), The Friends (1973), Ruby (1976), Edith Jackson (1978), The Disappearance (1979), Mirror of Her Own (1981), A Measure of Time (1983), and New Guys Around the Block (1983), Paris, Pee Wee and Big Dog (1984), My Love, My Love, or the Peasant Girl (1985), And I Heard a Bird Sing (1987).
She is divorced from Warner Guy, with whom she had a son, Warner Guy Jr.
Born in Trinidad, Rosa Guy moved to the United States with her family at the age of seven, where they settled in New York in 1932. Soon after, her parents, Henry and Audrey Cuthbert, died. After, she and her sister went to many foster homes. She quit school at age fourteen and took a job to help support her family.
During World War II she joined the American Negro Theatre. She studied theatre and writing at the University of New York.
Guy wrote a number of books aimed at young adults. Many of her books reflect on the dependability of family members who love and care for one other. Her works include: Bird at My Window (1966), Children of Longing (1971), The Friends (1973), Ruby (1976), Edith Jackson (1978), The Disappearance (1979), Mirror of Her Own (1981), A Measure of Time (1983), and New Guys Around the Block (1983), Paris, Pee Wee and Big Dog (1984), My Love, My Love, or the Peasant Girl (1985), And I Heard a Bird Sing (1987).
She is divorced from Warner Guy, with whom she had a son, Warner Guy Jr.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
April 26, 2024
Rosa Guy was born in Trinidad and moved to New York in the early 1930s with her parents. She worked in a variety of jobs and then studied at the American Negro Theatre. In 1950 with John Killens she started a workshop which became the Harlem Writers Guild. Its many members included Maya Angelou and Audre Lorde. She wrote novels and plays and for adults and children. She was also an activist and had a long and varied career.
This novel was published in 1983 and follows the life of Dorinne Davis, an African American woman born in Alabama (Montgomery) and moving to New York with her boyfriend Sonny in the late 1920s. Robert Lee’s description of Dorinne (who is a remarkable literary creation) in his book: “Gothic to Multicultural: Idioms of Imagining in American Literary Fiction� sums her up:
“� sassy Dorinne Davis who comes up from the Jim Crow South of her youth in the 1920s to be a survivor in the Harlem of the 1960s. At successive phases in the novel she is one of the jazz age’s black glitterati, a booster pulling off spectacular store heists, a Depression era hustler and a prison inmate who emerges to a world where Malcolm X and Martin Luther King offer the touchstones, and throughout she serves as a carrier of Harlem at its ambiguous best and worst.�
The main bulk of the novel covers the 1920s to the 1940s and comes to an end with the bus boycott in Montgomery. The joint star of the story, apart from Dorinne is Harlem itself. As Guy herself says:
“What I write about in large part is the state of mind of the Harlem community. My concerns are the actual, everyday existence of is people: the hostilities, the anger and the small snatches of happiness.�
Dorinne is a flawed character, which, for me, makes the novel more believable. Her attempts to survive are often misconceived and sometimes illegal and her taste in men dubious and often disastrous. The minor characters play their part, but Dorinne is the real star and she has a big heart, even when she is wrong. Through her the reader sees the nuances of opinion in the black community, the differences between those from the South and those from the Caribbean.
This is well worth looking up.
This novel was published in 1983 and follows the life of Dorinne Davis, an African American woman born in Alabama (Montgomery) and moving to New York with her boyfriend Sonny in the late 1920s. Robert Lee’s description of Dorinne (who is a remarkable literary creation) in his book: “Gothic to Multicultural: Idioms of Imagining in American Literary Fiction� sums her up:
“� sassy Dorinne Davis who comes up from the Jim Crow South of her youth in the 1920s to be a survivor in the Harlem of the 1960s. At successive phases in the novel she is one of the jazz age’s black glitterati, a booster pulling off spectacular store heists, a Depression era hustler and a prison inmate who emerges to a world where Malcolm X and Martin Luther King offer the touchstones, and throughout she serves as a carrier of Harlem at its ambiguous best and worst.�
The main bulk of the novel covers the 1920s to the 1940s and comes to an end with the bus boycott in Montgomery. The joint star of the story, apart from Dorinne is Harlem itself. As Guy herself says:
“What I write about in large part is the state of mind of the Harlem community. My concerns are the actual, everyday existence of is people: the hostilities, the anger and the small snatches of happiness.�
Dorinne is a flawed character, which, for me, makes the novel more believable. Her attempts to survive are often misconceived and sometimes illegal and her taste in men dubious and often disastrous. The minor characters play their part, but Dorinne is the real star and she has a big heart, even when she is wrong. Through her the reader sees the nuances of opinion in the black community, the differences between those from the South and those from the Caribbean.
This is well worth looking up.
December 24, 2015
Re-reading because it's been years since I first read it.
Want to read
May 2, 2009Just acquired a lovely paperback of this African-American woman's odyssey novel. Praised to the skies in its day, the early '80s, by Maya Angelou and others. I opened it and the writing was scrumptious. Why has this book been neglected or forgotten? It looks damned good. The story looks flavorful and the writing sings. Maybe the title is too generic. Let's find out.
April 14, 2020
I read this book as part of my quest to read a book written by an author from each country in the world. The author of this book was born and spent her early childhood in Trinidad.
The main character of this story is Dorine Davis. She and her boyfriend Sonny move from Montgomery, Alabama to Harlem, New York. They are young and fresh and eager to leave behind the post-slavery environment of the South.
Dorine is a character - I couldn't decide if I liked her or not. She is definitely a tough lady who goes after who and what she wants. Her taste of men is very questionable though and leads her into a number of troublesome spots.
Dorine often goes back to Alabama to visit her family. There Dorine experiences the difference in attitudes toward blacks. The South is much slower than the North to accept blacks as fellow citizens. Dorine keeps trying to tell her family that they should move up North.
The main character of this story is Dorine Davis. She and her boyfriend Sonny move from Montgomery, Alabama to Harlem, New York. They are young and fresh and eager to leave behind the post-slavery environment of the South.
Dorine is a character - I couldn't decide if I liked her or not. She is definitely a tough lady who goes after who and what she wants. Her taste of men is very questionable though and leads her into a number of troublesome spots.
Dorine often goes back to Alabama to visit her family. There Dorine experiences the difference in attitudes toward blacks. The South is much slower than the North to accept blacks as fellow citizens. Dorine keeps trying to tell her family that they should move up North.
April 16, 2021
My late friend was Ms. Guy's literary publicist a few decades ago and gave me this novel. She wanted to know my thoughts. That was years ago and I still remember how much I enjoyed it. I thought the story was provoking and her writing was excellent. I told my friend that I would definitely read her other books because I thought so much of this one. She went ahead and gave this message to Ms. Guy who, I was told, said how much she appreciated it. Sadly, my friend is gone and I never read anything else Rosa Guy wrote but intend to change that.
September 24, 2016
Ok read
This novel was hard to follow because of the language. The southern words made it hard to understand and I had to re-read several parts to get a clear understanding and I am from the south. Not sure how to feel about the main female character. Although she was strong in personality she was very ignorant in the same sense. Chasing a man for months that clearly is a pimp and then falling for a criminal.
This novel was hard to follow because of the language. The southern words made it hard to understand and I had to re-read several parts to get a clear understanding and I am from the south. Not sure how to feel about the main female character. Although she was strong in personality she was very ignorant in the same sense. Chasing a man for months that clearly is a pimp and then falling for a criminal.
September 29, 2012
The story was interesting and kept me reading, but I couldn't decide if I liked Dorine or not. After all, she made her money by being a thief! I guess you could say that she "robbed Peter to pay Paul", but she really didn't have many redeeming qualities. She never learned her lesson when it came to men! All of the main characters were sooo materialistic!
March 1, 2015
This is a gritty novel and I am not entirely sure I am correct in defining it as young adult, unless it's hitting a mature young adult. I'm kept it on my shelves for years, but I think it's time this book went sailing on to another owner because rereading it leaves me depressed.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
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