Desert Rose

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY 7/05/2012

Penned by the late sister of Coretta Scott King, this posthumous volume offers a rudimentary retelling of the Kings' Civil Rights work, bookended by background on the Scott family and Coretta's continued commitment to social justice after the assassination of her husband in 1968. Bagley describes Coretta as playing host to an "indomitable sense of purpose" and a "deep desire for social justice." Though Bagley attests to Coretta's independence and own intellectual acumen, much of Coretta's life is nevertheless couched in terms of her husband's. Indeed, the 38 years that Coretta labored on in Martin Luther King Jr.'s stead are related in roughly as many paltry pages. Instead of an intimate portrait of Coretta, Bagley tends to deliver impersonal generalizations (as when she describes the Scott family history as being representative of Southern black history), and surprisingly few intimate exchanges between the sisters, relying instead on the reader's assumption of a bond. While providing relatively little new information, Bagley's portrait of her remarkable sister's life merits at least whatever value a fresh perspective can lend to the revolutionary couple's legacy. Photos.