P. G. County

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining....
Review: Connie Briscoe creates a soap opera-like melodrama in her latest release entitled P.G. County. The novel takes place in the posh Silver Lake community of Prince George's County, Maryland where we enter a world filled with a host of characters representing the various socio-economic classes. We meet the black elite represented by Bradford Bentley, a self-made, philandering millionaire and his wife, Barbara, a woman who hides her pain in the bottle. There is a "BUPPIE" couple represented by Patrick and his wife, Jolene who has an insatiable, materialistic desire to supercede Barbara regardless of the costs. The upper-middle class white matriarch, Candice, is comfortable living in a black world until her teenaged daughter begins dating a black man (Pearl's son). Pearl owns the local beauty salon and lives in the much frowned upon townhouse development on the outskirts of Silver Lake. We are also shown the impoverished suburb of Seat Pleasant and meet Lee, a young victim of child abuse in search of her real father.

Briscoe builds excitement with Bradford's extramarital affairs, mystery with Lee's search for her father, and suspense with Candice's genealogical search for the truth. Unfortunately this reader found that some of the story's climaxes fell short which made for slow reading at times. Nonetheless, Briscoe does a great job with character development. She provides a solid background for each of the characters so the reader has a clear understanding of their behavior, fears, and motives. The author ends the story in such a way that the reader suspects a sequel may be needed to obtain closure on some open issues and deferred dreams. I believe most Briscoe fans will not be disappointed with this novel because despite the intermittent lags P.G. County is a light, easy, entertaining summer read. Briscoe remains on my favorite author list and will no doubt win more fans with this new release.

Phyllis
APOOO Bookclub

Rating:
Summary: Fly on the Wall Drama
Review: PG County is the first book I've read by Connie Briscoe and I'm pleased with her writing style. She has an incredible way of describing the minute detail of each character to the point that you can see their physical flaws as well as feel their emotions. She allows you to be a fly on the wall in each of the character's homes and watch them deal with their daily lives.

The storyline is about several women residing in a predominantly black upper class neighborhood in Prince George County, Maryland. Briscoe introduces each woman in her own story line to establish the character's past mishaps, current situation, and future dreams. Throughout the book we see the women interacting (sometimes in catty manner), but there's 2 parties that truly provide the drama for the book.

The only negative aspect of PG County is the number of issues Briscoe attempts to address in one book. Barbara already has an adulterous husband, but Briscoe also gives her a reoccurring alcohol problem - simply drama overkill. The interracial dating between Pearl's son and Candice's daughter is needless if it's meant only to force Candice to search her family tree. At the end, the couple are excess characters. Finally, Lee's poverty stricken storyline just doesn't have a place in PG County.

Rating:
Summary: Um, where's the rest of it??
Review: Where's the other dimension of these two-dimensional characters?? Where's the rest of the book? It ended so abruptly. Where's the logic behind the actions of these people?

As you can see, I did not enjoy this book. Connie Briscoe truly dropped the ball with this one. The only reason I had for reading it was that I reside in PG County. I found the characters in this book to be horrible representations of the people here. Yes, I know, it's a book meant for entertainment, but come on!

1.Every single woman in this book had serious self-esteem issues: 1)Barbara--staying with a man that cheated on her repeatedly, 2)Jolene--money grubber...adulterer...skank, shall I go on? Cheated on her husband with 2 men (1 was Barb's hub) and felt that a man was only worth something if he had $$. What type of example was she setting for her young daughter? 3)Candice--main Caucasian woman in the book. Disturbed that her daughter, Ashley, whom she has encouraged to accept people regardless of race, status, etc, is dating a black man. 4)Pearl--disturbed that her son is dating the said white daughter. By far, the most racist person in the book as far as I was concerned. 5)Lee--some random character that popped up every five chapters or more. Added nothing to the book except for a overly dramatic ending.

This book did nothing for me. Pearl and Candice's resistance to their children dating was ridiculous. Somehow though, when Candice found out she was black (according to the ridiculous 1 drop rule), their relationship is all of a sudden something that is accepted! And what was the purpose of pointing that out to Lee? No sense at all. Lee's popping up added ZIP, NIL, NADA to the story!

I could write more, but I really don't feel like it. Do like I did. Buy this book for no more than $1.50. Or rent it from the library.