After Noir d’os (Bone Black: Memories of Girlhood), the eagerly awaited sequel to bell hooks’ memoirs: Rouge feu (Wounds of Passion).
By the time Rouge feu was published in 1997, bell hooks had already made a name for herself in the literary world with the publication of fourteen books, including Ne suis-je pas une femme? (Ain’t I a Woman?: Black Women and Feminism) written when she was 19, and Noir d’os, the first volume of her memoirs.
In Rouge feu, conceived as a chronological sequel to Noir d’os, the focus is no longer on childhood but on the passage to adulthood: bell hooks brilliantly continues her autobiographical work by recounting her entry into university, her first love affairs, the birth of her political commitment and the beginnings of her writing career. Along the way, she also discusses the difficulty of reconciling writing with a love life, and the redefinition of a sexuality in keeping with a feminist political conscience.
Full of hard-won wisdom, Rouge feu describes the struggle of a committed woman to devote herself to her vocation as a writer, sharing with marvellous boldness her victories, pleasures and failures.
