Rating: 
Summary: a wonderful book...
Review: ... that doesn't quite go far enough. Brown reveals some of the tradition of vodou and its adaptability and influence in modern America. Her research is good and her writing entertaining. For me though this didn't quite go far enough into how Vodou can be used in the 21st century western world. A good book that picks up where this leaves off is Ross Heaven's Vodou Shaman. I'd recommend you read them back-to-back. For it all though, Brown's book is certainly worth the 5 stars for what it does teach.
Rating:
Summary: Mama Lola I feel like I know you
Review: A friend recently reccomended this book to me. She lent me her copy and after only the first few pages I was hooked. This is a warm and compassionante story of a beautiful and powerfull priestess. Anyone who is looking for a book that will tantalize and fill them with joy should buy this one.
This book will keep you wanting more all the time.
Rating: 
Summary: Anthropological Insight
Review: Dr Brown provides a decent introduction to the collection of haitian traditions some call voodoo. I live in a haitian immigrant community in the Dominican Republic. I found this book useful in starting to understand a bit about what goes on every time there is a party for a saint.From the standpoint of Social Anthropology, Dr. Brown made several interesting decisions about how to represent her work with her informant. She does not build a wall between her own life and that of her informant, and she also has chosen to give voice to a narrative form that she believes is more accurate than spouting off facts or "expert" analysis. For a good comparison, see the way that Philipe Borgeousis' informant is represented in the book "In Search Of Respect." Dr. Brown's combination of life experience and "enlightened"-- perhaps women's studies influenced-- ethnographic methods make this an interesting read.
Rating:
Summary: Good Read
Review: I agree with a previous review in that this book does offer more biographical than "how-to" on vodou. This selection does have merit however in that it offers an insiders view to the world of vodou. As previously stated, this is a good choice for anyone interested in womens' studies as well as comparitive religions.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating portrait of a strong, vibrant Vodou priestess
Review: I found this to be one of the most fascinating books I've ever read, on any subject! The author's relationship with Mama Lola is the heart of this moving portrait of the Haitian immigrant community in Brooklyn. This book should be required reading for the scores of folks still harboring negative stereotypes of Vodou (please, people, forget all that sensationalistic Hollywood garbage!); it will take its place besides Luisah Teish's works as the definitive portraits of Vodou as a strong, empowering force for women. Brown herself was initiated into the Vodou community while on a trip to Haiti with Mama Lola and her family in 1981; her life has never been the same! Yours won't either, after reading this wonderful book. Required reading for all serious students of comparative religion and women's studies!
Rating:
Summary: a wonderful book...
Review: I read this book for a class, but found it very easy and enjoyable to do so. For many assigned books I have to force myself through them and not so at all with this one. Certainly, it is not meant to give a comprehensive look at Vodou and it doesn't do that. What it does do, though, is give someone with little or no knowledge of the religion a full and rich picture of the tradition. I very much appreciated the author's stance throughout the book that the spirits and the experiences of those in the book (eventually, including her own) were real. There was no questioning about whether the spirits "really" existed, but just the assumption that this was the reality for practioners of Vodou. One danger with ethnographic work is that the ethnographer is condescending when talking about those with whom she is working or studying, and this wasn't the case in the book. She seemed to view Alourdes and her family as equals and as friends.
Overall, I found the book interesting, not difficult to read (as is the case with many "academic" books), enjoyable and informative. It seems like it would be a suitable book for those interested in religion, vodou in particular, anthropology, ethnographic study, or those interested in Haiti.
Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable, informative, well-written
Review: I read this book for a class, but found it very easy and enjoyable to do so. For many assigned books I have to force myself through them and not so at all with this one. Certainly, it is not meant to give a comprehensive look at Vodou and it doesn't do that. What it does do, though, is give someone with little or no knowledge of the religion a full and rich picture of the tradition. I very much appreciated the author's stance throughout the book that the spirits and the experiences of those in the book (eventually, including her own) were real. There was no questioning about whether the spirits "really" existed, but just the assumption that this was the reality for practioners of Vodou. One danger with ethnographic work is that the ethnographer is condescending when talking about those with whom she is working or studying, and this wasn't the case in the book. She seemed to view Alourdes and her family as equals and as friends.
Overall, I found the book interesting, not difficult to read (as is the case with many "academic" books), enjoyable and informative. It seems like it would be a suitable book for those interested in religion, vodou in particular, anthropology, ethnographic study, or those interested in Haiti.
Rating:
Summary: Love in a Book
Review: I was given this book by a dear God sister of mine and fell in love with it right away. Mama Lola is a story of a beautiful, powerfull, witty, charming, and loveable priestess who came from Haiti to live in New York. The story starts with her ancestor Josef Binbin Mauvaunt and works its way through her family line to her and her children all the while intermingling stories of lif in Brooklyn. The author is a student and close friend of Mama Lola's and tells the story from her perspective after hearing the stories from Mama Lola. The author also relates many first hand accounts from trips on which she accompanied Mama Lola as well as rituals she attended including her own initiation in Haiti. If you want to know about some of the VooDoo traditions or perhaps just looking for a great story then you have found it!
Rating: 
Summary: Eh...
Review: I'm always wary of uncultural women who are first drawn to santeria/vodun/yoruba from an anthropological/sociological stance and then switch over to become practitioners. And I find that when these people write books about the subject and their increasing involvement in it, the resulting work is usually an unfocused, tedious read. Such is the case of Mama Lola. While the book IS a nice little documentation of what the author experienced in Brooklyn and Haiti during the early 80s, anyone who comes from the culture or has had experiences similar to that of the author will probably put it down before they reach the end.
Rating:
Summary: At least the ethnographer is honest about herself!
Review: In most ethnographies, the reader must dig around to find out about the writer. In this book, McCarthy Brown is true to herself and says who she is--an outsider, drawn to the power and community of these Haitian immigrants. If anthropology is the study of human cultures and communities, this author provides us with an honest attempt to understand another's life with all the mysteries and ambiguities intact. Mama Lola, as she serves her spirits and makes good luck for her spiritual godchildren, embodies the history of Haitian women and their creative mastery of many worlds within the New World. All the stories that Mama Lola relates "follow a line from mother to daughter" and emphasize the role of the matrilineal connections between Alourdes and her descendants (p. 16). The matriarch serves a special role in preserving the extended "family" of vodou practitioners. In Karen McCarthy Brown's ethnography, Mama Lola is the center of a complex web of relationships connecting West Africa to Haiti to Brooklyn to other points extending even farther. The reader discovers the rural world of Haiti and the urban world of New York City through an alternation of personal narratives, interviews, and imaginative fictional interludes about the ancestors and the spirits.
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