LITERARY LAGNIAPPE
An addendum (or appendix) is as vital a part of a book as the main body, as it distills its essence.
Tolstoy's "Science of History," at the end of the epic historical novel, WAR AND PEACE is one such. Zora Neal Hurston's "My People! My People! My People!" at the end of her delightful autobiography DUST TRACKS ON A ROAD (1942, 1995) is another. And Theophile Obenga's "Conclusion " in the Addendum to his epic AFRICAN PHILOSOPHY THE PHARAONIC PERIOD: 2780-330 BC (2004) is epochal!
As pot liquor from collard greens is nutritious, is medicinal, as truth; as love, as order, balance, justice ; so also are appendices or addenda at the end of greatest books, literary "lagniappe!" An author's "Aloha!"
Amen!
