Rating: 
Summary: Good read!
Review: A true Pearl Cleage fan has waited, and now another good one has
arrived. I must say that the title really grabbed me. For a minute I wondered if Ms. Cleage wasn't going into the realm of some lame contemporary African-American literature. How could I doubt her? She has pulled off another good book. First let me do a little critical observation. Ms. Cleage definitely has something to say here. If anything I think she is telling the African-American community to wake up and do more to save ourselves. Through the community in this book, Ms. Cleage gives us hope and inspiration of what our communities could be (and possibly what they once were). In this book strong black men have a place and that place is right beside the black women and children that they love. The magical aspects of this book appeal to our African past and sensibilities. I often wondered if Ms.Cleage wasn't suggesting that we need to look back in our history for strong shining examples of black man/woman hood to move forward. That is what the magic of main character, Regina's, past life with Blue says to me at least.
More importantly, Ms. Cleage nicely underhandely gives us some suggestions for African-American political empowerment through characters Beth and Precious. Stylistically, as I always I loved the language. There are no over-the-top love scenes. The book is almost thoroughly "fleshed out." I did long for a little more about Regina's struggle with her cocaine addiction. The structure was pretty even. There are some really memorable characters here. And thanks Ms. Cleage for giving us real black girls a voice again and again. We can still have faith in black men, women, children, and black love. Peace
Rating: 
Summary: Unbelieveable
Review: A very enjoyable easy read. A magical story about love that will make you laugh and make you sad.
Rating: 
Summary: Highly recommended
Review: A woman who is in the midst of a life transition goes to Atlanta on business and finds much more than she could ever expect. Narrator Regina Burns is warned by her aunt that there is someone in ATL, an attractive man with 'the ocean in his eyes', so when eventually Regina meets him, she knows exactly who he is, or does she? Regina's encounters with this man, and with her new neighbors who are passionate about life and their surrounding community, changes her life and help to open up her heart. She is both brave and timid, sometimes releasing herself to accept what she feels deep inside so she can grasp the new and precious things that life has to offer. Pearl Cleage's writing sings in this refreshing and vivid novel, and her mastery of language is admirable. Cleage takes all manner of words, and connects them together like a fine piece of tapestry to create a moving and enriching story. Your social sensibilities might be stirred, and you may even find a little romance in this highly recommended novel that celebrates humanistic strength and integrity.
Rating:
Summary: So-So........
Review: Big Cleage fan, but this one didn't "hold me hostage" like the others. I kept waiting for something to happen, but by the end of of the book, it was pretty boring. It was almost fairy-tale-ish with the visionary aunt (fairy godmother), then everything falling so neatly into place with the whole Blue Hamilton thing. I guess I can assume that he "knocked off" anyone who didn't "act right" within the bounds of his territory. Still kinda lost @ how the whole "he's been searching for you across time" thing works, but maybe it was just me.
Rating:
Summary: So-So........
Review: Big Cleage fan, but this one didn't "hold me hostage" like the others. I kept waiting for something to happen, but by the end of of the book, it was pretty boring. It was almost fairy-tale-ish with the visionary aunt (fairy godmother), then everything falling so neatly into place with the whole Blue Hamilton thing. I guess I can assume that he "knocked off" anyone who didn't "act right" within the bounds of his territory. Still kinda lost @ how the whole "he's been searching for you across time" thing works, but maybe it was just me.
Rating:
Summary: Romance is still alive
Review: Blue Hamilton is the quentessential woman's man. He is strong, intelligent, sexy, but most of all, determined to protect his woman and all of the women around him. Once again, Pearl Cleage gifts her reader's with a strong, electrifying black male character. He is Prince Charming wrapped up in nubian wrapping paper. The story flows and moves with a fluidity that is only surpassed by the strong dialogue and the extremely believable characters. Even though Blue and other males in the book represent what many of us would like to see among our "menfolk" Cleage leaves hope for the reader that this doesn't have to be fiction. She leaves the door open for her readers to believe that real men do exist and are just waiting to be the men that they can be. Cleage restores hope for those hopeless romantics who believe chivalry is dead. Well it is not. It is alive and well and living in the mind and pen of Ms. Cleage.
Rating:
Summary: Loved It!
Review: Cleage really touched my heart with this book. She has a way of bringing her characters to life. Every time I read her work I feel like I discover or rediscover a part of myself. Regina Burns is definitely a hero I can get behind. I Wish I Had a Red Dress is one of my favorites, Some Things... will undoubtedly join the list as well. I can't wait to read Cleage's next effort.
Rating:
Summary: 21st Century Cinderella
Review: Fairy tales are easy to recognize. They usually begin with the phrase "once upon a time" or "in ages long ago," have a beautiful," in-need-of-rescue" heroine and a hero able to perform feats of magic while dislodging demons. Atlanta writer Pearl Cleage's latest novel Some Things I Never Thought I'd Do has none of these markers, but nevertheless, it is a fairy tale.
The first clue that the book is a fairy tale is Cleage's 30ish, single, black "in-need-of-rescue" heroine, Regina Burns. Like her counterparts in fairy tale fiction, Regina Burns has a serious problem. In her case, her problem is not caused by two evil stepsisters and an equally evil step-mother. Her problem is a bit more modern. She is a recovering cocaine addict, who blames her drug addiction on the hard-to-handle way her last love affair ended. When the novel begins, with no job or other resources, she has to find a way to repay the bank the $30,000 she borrowed while an addict against the house "where she and her mother were born" before the bank sells it.
In fairy-tale worlds, heroines have fairy godmother who, with the wave of a wand, can transform pumpkins into carriages, mice into footmen, and hand-me-down clothes into fabulous, one of a kind, Neiman-Marcus gowns. With no parents, no job, no support system-just a house that she expects to find "padlocked, with an overgrown yard and `a FOR SALE sign sticking up in the middle'- fresh from rehab, Regina needs that breed of godmother. In Aunt Abbie, Regina's father's third sister with whom Regina has had no contact since her parents' funeral, who somehow knows that Regina is in rehab and the exact day on which she will be released, Cleage creates one for her. Though Cleage gives this character no wand, she does give her extraordinary powers. Not only is Aunt Abbie able to transform Regina's house into a "generally spiffed up, freshly painted house with neatly trimmed grass," but in true god-mother style, she knows that Regina must take the job she has been offered in Atlanta so that she can meet a man there with "blue eyes" who has been looking for her across time, and release a "damsel in distress from a dragon." And, despite being nearly penniless herself (this is a modern fairy tale, after all!), knowing that Regina hates planes, she is also able to vanquish that worry as well with expensive sleeper accommodations to Atlanta on Amtrak.
In Atlanta, the fairy tale continues. Prince Charming is recast as "Blue Hamilton," a three-time married man with turquoise-blue eyes who looks like "a painting of an African warrior king," and who, in true-fairy tale fashion, not only has no problems from three marriages (wives, children) that will complicate his entering into a new relationship, but rents rooms in the house where he lives to two young, attractive single women, Aretha and Flora, who are as kind and helpful to Regina as they are uninterested in Blue as a potential mate!
And what an attractive potential mate he is! Prince Charming `s lifestyle is bland pudding compared to his. He owns not just one house, but two-- the house where he lives and a second home, a large beachfront house on an island--two cars, one of which is a limousine, is industrious, gives huge $100 tips, and is able to make the neighborhood where he lives, his kingdom, West End, one of the most crime-ridden neighborhoods in Atlanta, so safe that men do not even whistle at attractive women who walk past them.
When Cinderella gets her prince, the story ends and she has nothing left to do but go off to do whatever poor girls who manage to wed princes do. However, true to her 21st century pedigree, once Cleage's Cinderella (Regina Burns) lands her prince, her story is not over. She mutates from a woman in search of a prince into her male counterpart in fairy tales: a heroic figure able to easily complete impossible tasks. And the task she has would castrate even the most fearless fairy-tale hero! Regina's employer, the renown public figure, Beth Davis, wants Regina to orchestrate a ceremony honoring her son, who died in the 9-11 tragedy, with a building named for him at his alma mater, Morehouse. And, she wants Regina to do this without tarnishing his image by revealing that her much-respected son had a child with a stripper (of all people!) out of wedlock. That Regina is able to publicly disclose the son's secret life with a stripper and introduce their illegitimate child at the ceremony honoring the son without alienating her employer or losing the salary that she owes to her banker is final proof that Cleage's novel is a fairy tale. Where else but in a fairy tale could an audience love a public figure who pretends to live a life worthy of emulation when all the time he has had a relationship and a child with a woman who shows her body to others for a living. Where else but in a fairy tale could such a travesty end happily? Where but in a fairy tale could Cleage end her novel with her book's heroine leaving Atlanta ( read: "riding off into the sunset") for her NY hometown and her aunt Abbie with both her prince Charming and the money she needs to free her ancestral home from her weasel banker?
When comparing Cleage to Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou, and Terri McMillan, three black writers who share her audience, we can say that Toni Morrison's novels reveal a mastery of theme; Maya Angelou's of style; Terri McMillan's of plot. Although exactly what Cleage masters in her newest novel is subject to debate, what cannot be debated is that in it she does something I never thought she'd do- reduce the perennial struggle of black women for a suitable mate and a safe home to a fairy tale.
Rating:
Summary: 21st Century Cinderella
Review: Fairy tales are easy to recognize. They usually begin with the phrase "once upon a time" or "in ages long ago," have a beautiful," in-need-of-rescue" heroine and a hero able to perform feats of magic while dislodging demons. Atlanta writer Pearl Cleage's latest novel Some Things I Never Thought I'd Do has none of these markers, but nevertheless, it is a fairy tale.
The first clue that the book is a fairy tale is Cleage's 30ish, single, black "in-need-of-rescue" heroine, Regina Burns. Like her counterparts in fairy tale fiction, Regina Burns has a serious problem. In her case, her problem is not caused by two evil stepsisters and an equally evil step-mother. Her problem is a bit more modern. She is a recovering cocaine addict, who blames her drug addiction on the hard-to-handle way her last love affair ended. When the novel begins, with no job or other resources, she has to find a way to repay the bank the $30,000 she borrowed while an addict against the house "where she and her mother were born" before the bank sells it.
In fairy-tale worlds, heroines have fairy godmother who, with the wave of a wand, can transform pumpkins into carriages, mice into footmen, and hand-me-down clothes into fabulous, one of a kind, Neiman-Marcus gowns. With no parents, no job, no support system-just a house that she expects to find "padlocked, with an overgrown yard and 'a FOR SALE sign sticking up in the middle'- fresh from rehab, Regina needs that breed of godmother. In Aunt Abbie, Regina's father's third sister with whom Regina has had no contact since her parents' funeral, who somehow knows that Regina is in rehab and the exact day on which she will be released, Cleage creates one for her. Though Cleage gives this character no wand, she does give her extraordinary powers. Not only is Aunt Abbie able to transform Regina's house into a "generally spiffed up, freshly painted house with neatly trimmed grass," but in true god-mother style, she knows that Regina must take the job she has been offered in Atlanta so that she can meet a man there with "blue eyes" who has been looking for her across time, and release a "damsel in distress from a dragon." And, despite being nearly penniless herself (this is a modern fairy tale, after all!), knowing that Regina hates planes, she is also able to vanquish that worry as well with expensive sleeper accommodations to Atlanta on Amtrak.
In Atlanta, the fairy tale continues. Prince Charming is recast as "Blue Hamilton," a three-time married man with turquoise-blue eyes who looks like "a painting of an African warrior king," and who, in true-fairy tale fashion, not only has no problems from three marriages (wives, children) that will complicate his entering into a new relationship, but rents rooms in the house where he lives to two young, attractive single women, Aretha and Flora, who are as kind and helpful to Regina as they are uninterested in Blue as a potential mate!
And what an attractive potential mate he is! Prince Charming 's lifestyle is bland pudding compared to his. He owns not just one house, but two-- the house where he lives and a second home, a large beachfront house on an island--two cars, one of which is a limousine, is industrious, gives huge $100 tips, and is able to make the neighborhood where he lives, his kingdom, West End, one of the most crime-ridden neighborhoods in Atlanta, so safe that men do not even whistle at attractive women who walk past them.
When Cinderella gets her prince, the story ends and she has nothing left to do but go off to do whatever poor girls who manage to wed princes do. However, true to her 21st century pedigree, once Cleage's Cinderella (Regina Burns) lands her prince, her story is not over. She mutates from a woman in search of a prince into her male counterpart in fairy tales: a heroic figure able to easily complete impossible tasks. And the task she has would castrate even the most fearless fairy-tale hero! Regina's employer, the renown public figure, Beth Davis, wants Regina to orchestrate a ceremony honoring her son, who died in the 9-11 tragedy, with a building named for him at his alma mater, Morehouse. And, she wants Regina to do this without tarnishing his image by revealing that her much-respected son had a child with a stripper (of all people!) out of wedlock. That Regina is able to publicly disclose the son's secret life with a stripper and introduce their illegitimate child at the ceremony honoring the son without alienating her employer or losing the salary that she owes to her banker is final proof that Cleage's novel is a fairy tale. Where else but in a fairy tale could an audience love a public figure who pretends to live a life worthy of emulation when all the time he has had a relationship and a child with a woman who shows her body to others for a living. Where else but in a fairy tale could such a travesty end happily? Where but in a fairy tale could Cleage end her novel with her book's heroine leaving Atlanta ( read: "riding off into the sunset") for her NY hometown and her aunt Abbie with both her prince Charming and the money she needs to free her ancestral home from her weasel banker?
When comparing Cleage to Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou, and Terri McMillan, three black writers who share her audience, we can say that Toni Morrison's novels reveal a mastery of theme; Maya Angelou's of style; Terri McMillan's of plot. Although exactly what Cleage masters in her newest novel is subject to debate, what cannot be debated is that in it she does something I never thought she'd do- reduce the perennial struggle of black women for a suitable mate and a safe home to a fairy tale.
Rating:
Summary: Something I Never Thought I'd Have to Write
Review: Have you ever read a book that made you feel you were sampling a sinfully delicious dessert? This is exactly how the newest addition to the genre of contemporary African-American fiction by Pearl Cleage felt like. We meet our protagonist Regina Hall, freshly recovering from the downward spiral of cocaine addiction following a love gone wrong. Needing to repair burnt bridges (and to save her family home from foreclosure) she reluctantly journeys to Atlanta to amass some badly-needed capital via a consultancy extended to her from her former boss Beth Davis. Armed with little more than wild speculation on what awaited her there (courtesy of her "visionary" post-menopausal Aunt Abbie), she encounters new truths about the man who left her life and stumbles upon a new mysterious gentleman "who has the ocean in his eyes" that coincidentally has an eerie resemblance to the man Aunt Abbie described in her vision...
Like her past best-selling efforts, "What Looks Like Crazy on An Ordinary day" and "I Wish I Had a Red Dress," Cleage infuses her narrative with an intimacy and appealing eclecticism among her characters that makes them interesting and ultimately effective dispensers of truth. Themes familiar in her other works such as the Black man as protector (and the Black woman's response within this paradigm), the idea of creating a safe haven in communities of color and the notion of self-renewal as a prerequisite to community revitalization are deftly interwoven into the fabric of this work without being preachy or self-righteous.
This is truly a story I did not want to end. It gently illustrates what can happen when we remain open to gracefully accepting what we've asked the universe for-regardless of the actual packaging it shows up in. As readers and witnesses to this phenomenon in the experience of our protagonist, we are nourished, strengthened and that more receptive to the gifts that make their way into our lives through the most unlikely of channels. Idara E. Bassey, author of "Reflections of A Mystical Sistah: On Traveling Down the Road to Self Definition"(iUniverse)- For more information visit www.OneLightMessenger.com
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