Life for me ain't been no crystal stair / It's had tacks in it, and splinters, and boards torn up / and places with no carpet on the floor / bare. -- Langston Hughes .

*** A Canadian author with Bermudian roots visited the Island recently and offered a glimpse into the vibrant lives of Montreal's black community.

Mairuth Sarsfield's first novel "No Crystal Stair'' has been so well-received in Canada that she was awarded the "Chevalier de l'order national du Quebec'' as one of the country's most creative communicators.

And after Mrs. Sarsfield gave a reading to a group of students at the University College of Cork, Ireland, No Crystal Stair and fellow black Canadian author Dionne Brand's In Another Place, Not Here has been made mandatory reading in the African Canadian Writing course that was established as a result of the visit.

Mrs. Sarsfield visited Bermuda to spend time with relatives, and was invited by Bermuda National Gallery senior curator Marlee Robinson to show a film on blacks in Canada and give a fund-raising book signing last week.

No Crystal Stair is set in Montreal's "Little Burgundy'' during the 1940s and centres around Marion Willis, a widowed mother who values her daughter independence.

Much of the novel is about the resilient spirit of a community of black women under pressure to "submerge their cultural colours'' for white acceptance.

But according to Mrs. Sarsfield, the book is also much more than that.

"It's a work of fiction, but some of the women are almost recognisable because the core of the book is made up of a community that did exist in Montreal.

"It's a book which is also socio-historic, and it's not only about blacks because the tensions of bigotry were not only directed against blacks -- French Canadians were under the gun, Jews were not allowed to work at the banks, girls from Port St. Charles were looked down upon.

"So it's really an interesting look at the roots of bigotry and how it evolves.'' Mrs. Sarsfield said mainstream images of black people tend only to portray the experiences of black Americans, and she said No Crystal Stair was important as a piece of literature which shows the range of the black experience.

"Most of the world thinks we only exist in the US, but we do exist in other contexts,'' she noted.

"We weren't growing up in ghettos, and the book is not unlike an experience of growing up in Bermuda.

"People always want to know who I am... when you're an outstanding female and a black female (people tend to treat you) as if you're the only one they've ever met, like you don't represent your race.

"But even though we are black women, we can't pretend we are only Afrocentric -- that's to deny all the other streams that have fed us, which is a very counterproductive way of thinking.'' The book pulls from both historical and personal experiences, and Mrs.

Sarsfield said her own cultural background is very much connected to Bermuda even though she was born and raised in Montreal.

Mrs. Sarsfield's mother, Anne DeShields Packwood, emigrated from Bermuda to Montreal in 1905 with her father at the age of nine.

As an adult, Mrs. Packwood, an avid Langston Hughes fan and a member of Montreal's Coloured Women's Club, passed on a legacy of literature and cultural appreciation to her daughter Mairuth.

In fact, the Coloured Women's Club of which Mrs. Packwood was a member formed the foundation for Mrs. Sarsfield's understanding of black women's community portrayed so vividly in No Crystal Stair.

"They used the word `coloured' in those days instead of `black', but the African pride they felt was incredible,'' said Mrs. Sarsfield.

"They bought four graves in Montreal so no black would ever be buried a pauper... there was this sense of everyone belonging.

"The pride of these women remind me of Bermuda so much -- they taught me to shop sensibly and they pushed their children to go to school.

"It's very important to look at our evolution -- we weren't topseys, we didn't just grow.

"We stemmed from an African base and this is what gave you that sense of pride. Look at these women's actions -- they'd drag you to see a Paul Robeson performance even if it meant they could only afford to eat Jell-O for dinner that night.

"And that's what No Crystal Stair celebrates -- survival with grace.'' The book is already in its third printing and Bermudian Vance Chapman, who currently resides in Toronto, may be putting together the screenplay for No Crystal Stair.

"It would be wonderful to do a book like No Crystal Stair in a Bermudian setting, so people reading it could walk along Front Street and recognise what they'd read,'' said Mrs. Sarsfield.

"It's about capturing the culture in the here and now even if you put it in a past setting -- like taking Johnny Barnes, tracking back, and trying to imagine what he was like as a youngster. That's what writing's all about.

"The oral tradition and the cultural community is very important to me. I write novels because if you write history, only a small group of people reads it.

"But if you capture their minds and imaginations, they begin to see themselves -- and this is what people have to see.

"They have to respect all the things that have made them strong and beautiful, even the painful parts.'' Autographed copies of No Crystal Stair are still available for purchase at the Bermuda National Gallery.