78 Followers
48 Following
TinaNoir

Tina's Reading Books

Genre fiction lover:  Romance, Sci Fi, Fantasy, Mystery, Urban Fantasy

A Day Late and a Dollar Short - Terry McMillan This story is about the Price family. We get to meet them, warts and all, chapter by chapter. The first chapter introduces us to Viola, the matriarch of the family. Viola, in the hospital suffering from a massive asthma attack, is wearied and worried by her spouse and her offspring. In her first-person narrative voice that instantly evokes reminiscences of listening to my own grandmother's southern-black-English argot, we get to hear from Viola's perspective the strengths and weaknesses of her family. Because she sounds so real her impressions leap right off the page and into your own consciousness until you find yourself agreeing with Viola. Yes! Her husband is an ungrateful wretch who moved out with no warning. Yes! Her constantly-in-jail son is book smart but street stupid for allowing himself to fall into the trap that has snared so many other black men. Yes! Her oldest daughter is a control freak who spends too much time looking out for others and not enough time looking out for herself. Yes! Her second daughter is too blinded by jealousy to really see how much her family loves her and Yes! Her youngest daughter has been too dependent on others and can't stand up on her own two feet.

But wait a minute. Before you get too comfortable with these characterizations, Ms. McMillan switches gears and allows the others to speak for themselves. In Cecil's chapters we see a man who has a wife who is astonishingly self sufficient, grown children who don't really need him anymore and a life that has seemingly passed him by. We see someone who still has an enormous amount of respect for his spouse but who feels useless in her world. In Lewis' chapters we meet a man who is incredibly intelligent but who has never had anyone pushing him to succeed. Instead his family pigeonholes him into the slot of a drunken failure, never seeing the man underneath the surface who has dreams and aspirations like everyone else. In Charlotte's chapters we hear from a woman who has always felt like the outsider in her family. Doing desperate, sometimes unkind things simply to get them to notice her. She longs for the approval of her family and constantly seeks ways to get it only to be defeated by bitterness when she feels she's come up short in some way. In Janelle's chapters we visit a woman who having been the petted baby of the family is trying to re create what she feels is the perfect family and is desperately trying to create an identity. She marries unwisely and realizes too late the price she has to pay for her naivete. And finally, Paris' chapters reveal the oft told story of the oldest sibling given too much responsibility too early. Having been put on a pedestal, Paris strives mightily to live up to the image of perfection she believes her family has of her. But at what cost?

I usually get all bent out of shape when a story is told with shifting P.O.V.s but in this case, the voice of each of these characters is central to this story. Ms. McMillan has no trouble moving from the clipped, "proper" tones of the uber-educated Janelle and Paris to the more blue-collar street slangy tones of Lewis and Charlotte. Each sibling and each parent is fully in charge of the space he or she inhabits. The care taken in crafting each character in this book is so subtle that it is easy to miss how sophisticated the storytelling in this book really is. There is a reason that Terry McMillan was the vanguard for the renaissance and current popularity of African-American popular fiction and this book is represents that reason. Ms. Macmillan is an engaging writer who writes absorbing stories. I recommend.