| Details | | Publication Date: | 1998-01-01 |
Industry Reviews
With just the right amount of attitude, the characters of Hayes's debut novel come of age in present-day Harlem. The virginal Leslie, 21, juggles a job as an apartment manager, night classes in TV production and her attraction to 35-year-old building contractor Benjamin. Their affair is complicated by the woman Benjamin lives with, and by his 13-year-old son, Kareem. Leslie's best friend, Rachelle, on the other hand, is a 35-year-old divorc?e trying to care for her three young children and to conduct relationships with two men: Anthony, an underemployed Romeo who's just barely legal to drink, and Eustace, a married man. Rachelle slowly recognizes her financial and psychic dependence on men and begins to turn her life around, while Leslie comes to the brink of losing her sense of self-respect before regaining her equanimity. Hayes narrates with admirable clarity, alternating between his central characters' distinctive voices. Unpretentious and honest, if unpolished in parts, this first novel is blessedly free of vulgar tough-talk and dysfunctional baggage. (Jan.)
White
With just the right amount of attitude, the characters of Hayes's debut novel come of age in present-day Harlem. The virginal Leslie, 21, juggles a job as an apartment manager, night classes in TV production and her attraction to 35-year-old building contractor Benjamin. Their affair is complicated by the woman Benjamin lives with, and by his 13-year-old son, Kareem. Leslie's best friend, Rachelle, on the other hand, is a 35-year-old divorc‚e trying to care for her three young children and to conduct relationships with two men: Anthony, an underemployed Romeo who's just barely legal to drink, and Eustace, a married man. Rachelle slowly recognizes her financial and psychic dependence on men and begins to turn her life around, while Leslie comes to the brink of losing her sense of self-respect before regaining her equanimity. Hayes narrates with admirable clarity, alternating between his central characters' distinctive voices. Unpretentious and honest, if unpolished in parts, this first novel is blessedly free of vulgar tough-talk and dysfunctional baggage. (Jan.)
(12/07/1998)
With just the right amount of attitude, the characters of Hayes's debut novel come of age in present-day Harlem. The virginal Leslie, 21, juggles a job as an apartment manager, night classes in TV production and her attraction to 35-year-old building contractor Benjamin. Their affair is complicated by the woman Benjamin lives with, and by his 13-year-old son, Kareem. Leslie's best friend, Rachelle, on the other hand, is a 35-year-old divorc¿e trying to care for her three young children and to conduct relationships with two men: Anthony, an underemployed Romeo who's just barely legal to drink, and Eustace, a married man. Rachelle slowly recognizes her financial and psychic dependence on men and begins to turn her life around, while Leslie comes to the brink of losing her sense of self-respect before regaining her equanimity. Hayes narrates with admirable clarity, alternating between his central characters' distinctive voices. Unpretentious and honest, if unpolished in parts, this first novel is blessedly free of vulgar tough-talk and dysfunctional baggage. (Jan.)
Publishers Weekly (12/07/1998)
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