Product Description

Set in Chicago, this powerful novel by the author of "Just As I Am" dwells on four people, friends since college, whose lives have gone in different directions. When one of the group faces death, the crisis forces the others to recognize and accept the inner strength that the group has nurtured in each of them.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #218044 in Books
• Published on: 1998-07-15
• Released on: 1998-06-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780385486569
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Amazon.com Review
Four former classmates of a prestigious African American college have a "journal club" where, nearly 20 years later, they still meet regularly to talk about what's going on in their lives. Dwight is filled with resentment towards whites, and it's about to raise some serious conflicts at his job. Leland is still coping with the death of his partner, Donald, from AIDS. Riley's afraid that the love's gone out of her marriage, and that she'll never be able to achieve the success as a poet-singer she's dreamed about. And Yolanda... well, Yolanda's just started a romance with former pro football player Basil Henderson, but longtime E. Lynn Harris fans just know where that's going to lead. The multiple first-person narration can be confusing at times, but the convoluted plot does sort itself out neatly in ways sure to entertain Harris's previous fans, as well as anybody who likes Terry McMillan or Gloria Naylor.

From Booklist
Two women and two men, former classmates at African American Hampton Institute, meet monthly to share from their journals and to keep their friendship fresh. Nearing 40, the four have left behind spouses, lovers, and, in the case of Riley Woodson, still married to her college sweetheart (now an immensely successful, workaholic businessman), passion. But if the thrill is gone for Riley, for media consultant Yolanda Williams, it has rebounded big time in the person of pro football player Basil Henderson. Meanwhile, psychiatrist Leland Thompson is still enduring single bliss in the now years-old wake of his lover Donald's death from AIDS, and computer engineer Dwight Scott, whose anger over white condescension toward blacks still burns as strongly as when he was a student, faces losing his job because he refuses to lie to a black customer who is being wooed by his white-owned employer. Thus the stage is set for the overlapping romances and revelations that Harris spins out effortlessly, if a trifle woodenly as far as his prose goes. More in the vein of Terry McMillan than of Toni Morrison, Harris' buppie melodrama, full of happy outcomes (if not resolutions: Harris holds the door open for a sequel), is his bid to win an even larger audience than And This Too Shall Pass brought him. Ray Olson

From Kirkus Reviews
A journal-writing group helps four black college friends see each other through major and minor crises, in Harris's fourth outing (And This Too Shall Pass, 1996, etc.) Yolanda, Riley, Dwight, and Leland, all alumni of the Hampton Institute, gather regularly to read their journal entries and ask each other questions like ``What are you grateful for?'' Yolanda, a consultant who's extricated herself from a so-so marriage, has a take-charge attitude toward the many men who pursue her. Self-deluding Riley has an incredibly overbearing mother, a husband who's always away on business, and aspirations to be a poet and singer; her friends are gently discouraging, so she turns to the Internet for support. Dwight, a computer engineer, finds that his colleagues' racism and his exaggerated hostility toward whites cause problems at work. Leland, a gay therapist and Yolanda's best friend, is the gentle heart of the group; his chicken-wingmagnate uncle, also gay, dispenses homespun wisdom in abundance. Over the course of the story, the characters undergo cataclysms of varying intensity. Riley strikes up an E-mail relationship with a stranger who signs himself ``Lonelyboy''; he turns out, all too unsurprisingly, to be her own estranged husband. Dwight quits his job and contemplates going to work for a black-owned computer company in Washington. Yolanda, meanwhile, meets John Basil Henderson, an ex-football player with a high-intensity courtship style (limos, massages, surprise trips to New Orleans). But John is concealing a past that includes bisexuality and an episode of blackmail; Leland, who's learned from a client that John isn't all he seems to be, must wrestle with the ethical question of whether to tell Yolanda what he knows. What starts off as an amiable enough soap opera quickly becomes mired in byzantine subplots and friends-stick-by-each-other clich‚s. (Author tour) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Customer Reviews

Good Read
Years after graduation from Hampton University, this circle of friends keeps in touch through periodic meetings and journal writing. This is E. Lynn Harris' fourth novel so you know that at least one of the main characters is a gay man with a good heart. The infamous Basil Henderson appears in this story as well and adds twists to the lives of many. This time, though, E. Lynn sheds a little more light on Basil's background and you can, at least try, to understand why he behaves the way he does.

I liked this book because it is real about the friendships it portrays. Nearly 20 years after college, these characters are still fighting, loving and learning from each other. The familiarity of the families, college life and professional pursuits make this book very easy to read and relate to. For those who love his stories, this is a good one.

If This World Were Mine is crying for a sequel to tie up lots of loose threads.

A RELAXED READ
Really a good book. It was a page turner, it's got dramma, love, friendship, all that stuff that makes a good book. I recomend it if you want a relaxed read.

I loved it!!!

I've read all of Mr. Harris' novels and I anxiously await his next release. I never thought that I would enjoy reading about the gay underworld and how it relates to the heterosexual community. Mr. Harris' novels have helped me to keep an open mind when dealing with and accepting differences.

I also enjoy how the character Basil slowly but surely creeps into Mr. Harris' novels. With this book I was able to finally realize what issues Basil was dealing with. I hope the character, Basil and his healing is explored in furture novels. A great, great book.