Product Description

"A FRANK AND FUNNY TALE about the everyday lives of three Black women."
--Essence
Beverly, Charmaine, and Evelyn are three sisters living in the same Maryland town outside Washington, D.C., each wishing her life were just a little different. Beverly is twenty-nine and single. She's a successful magazine editor who would love to be in love. The problem is, no man can meet her high standards. Charmaine longs to finish her degree, but meanwhile, she has to juggle a thankless job, a beautiful child, and an irresponsible husband she doesn't quite have the nerve to leave. Evelyn seems to have it made. She has a successful psychology practice and her husband is a partner in a prestigious law firm. But there's trouble in paradise, and Evelyn refuses to face the facts.
Warm and bittersweet, believable and real, SISTERS & LOVERS is a novel of family and love, heartache and hope, and above all, the triumph of sisterhood.
"RIVETING . . . LIVELY . . . HILARIOUS . . . Three sisters who are remarkably different except in one respect: Their men are driving them crazy."
--Mademoiselle
"HUMOROUS, POIGNANT, REALISTIC, AND ROMANTIC . . . Finely crafted . . . [Sisters & Lovers] skillfully uses witty but realistic dialogue to keep the story moving along. . . . Recommended."
--Library Journal
"ENTIRELY READABLE . . . Briscoe's message is a warm one."
--The Washington Post Book World

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #556097 in Books
• Published on: 1996-10-01
• Released on: 1996-10-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 416 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Set in and around Washington, D.C., Briscoe's earnest debut novel centers on three sisters attempting to balance their needs for love and their self-respect in a male-defined society. Beverly, Charmaine and Evelyn each represent stereotypical "successful" African American women, forced to compromise their desires in order to hold on to their male partners. Charmaine, 35, is a secretary, mother of one and pregnant; she struggles to cope financially and emotionally with her immature, underachieving husband as he weaves bold-faced lies about work, drugs and money. Evelyn, a 37-year-old psychologist and mother of two, resists her lawyer husband's desire to start his own firm, fearing that their standard of living will suffer. Magazine editor Beverly, perhaps the most interesting of the trio, is single, "picky" and reluctantly watching her biological clock tick its way to 30. Determined to move on after her boyfriend takes up with another woman, Beverly finds herself resorting to blind dates, considering artificial insemination and dating white men. Briscoe's writing lacks the energy and sass that Terry McMillan brought to the same theme, and her passages of introspection can be awkward and heavy-handed. The audience for this book will find it enjoyable but not memorable. 35,000 first printing; $50,000 ad/promo; Doubleday Book Club and Literary Guild alternate; author tour.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
In this well-paced first novel by journalist Briscoe, three middle-class African American sisters living in the Washington, D.C., area face love, choices, and crises as they journey through life. Beverly, Charmaine, and Evelyn are quite different, yet the bonds of sisterly love remain strong. Briscoe's finely crafted novel is slightly reminiscent of Terri McMillan's Waiting To Exhale and will attract many of the same readers . It is at once humorous, poignant, realistic, and romantic and skillfully uses witty but realistic dialog to keep the story moving along. Because the lives of African Americans are so varied, it is refreshing to read fiction portraying black women in a positive light. Destined to become a keeper , this is recommended for all fiction collections and for libraries supporting African American collections, which far too often simply mirror the interests of "mainstream" America.
- Angela Washington-Blair, Dallas
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Beverly, Charmaine, and Evelyn, three black sisters, face turbulent relationships with one another, their parents, their husbands, and their lovers in this lively, realistic first novel. Beverly's anger over a broken date nearly drives her to vandalism and does drive her away from her family as she tries to sort out her sense of loss. Charmaine is raising a young son and coping with the infidelities, overspending, and unreliability of a man who'd like the good life without earning it. Evelyn, the envy of her sisters, owns a luxurious home and has a perfect-seeming family life but then discovers that her husband is markedly discontent. Although Briscoe lapses into soap opera at times, on the whole, she does a good job of dealing with her characters' sociocultural differences while telling a convincing, passionate contemporary tale. Briscoe knows her D.C. setting well, from her position as managing editor of American Annals of the Deaf at Gallaudet University. Denise Perry Donavin