WHAT LOOKS LIKE CRAZY ORDIN: 1 (Idlewild) - Softcover

Cleage, Pearl

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0061710385 ISBN 13: 9780061710384

Publisher: MorrowPb, 2008

Synopsis

After a decade of elegant pleasures and luxe living with the Atlanta brothers and sisters with the best clothes and biggest dreams, Ava Johnson has temporarily returned home to Idlewild--her fabulous career and power plans smashed to bits by cold reality. But what she imagines to be the end is, instead, a beginning. Because, in the ten-plus years since Ava left, all the problems of the big city have come to roost in the sleepy North Michigan community whose ordinariness once drove her away; and she cannot turn her back on friends and family who sorely need her in the face of impending trouble and tragedy. Besides which, that one unthinkable, unmistakable thing is now happening to her: Ava Johnson is falling in love.

Acclaimed playwright, essayist, New York Times bestselling author, and columnist Pearl Cleage has created a world rich in character, human drama, and deep, compassionate understanding, in a remarkable novel that sizzles with sensuality, hums with gritty truth, and sings and crackles with life-affirming energy.

About this title

Review:

At first glance Pearl Cleage's What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day seems pretty heavy going: HIV, suicide, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and drunk driving all figure prominently in the lives of narrator Ava Johnson and her older sister Joyce. It isn't long before crack addiction, domestic violence and unwed motherhood have joined the list--so, where's the pleasure? The answer lies in the sharp and funny attitude Cleage brings to her depiction of one African-American community in the troubled 1990s. Ava Johnson, for example, might be HIV-positive, but she's refreshingly forthright about it:

"Most of us got it from the boys. Which is, when you think about it, a pretty good argument for cutting men loose, but if I could work up a strong physical reaction to women, I would already be having sex with them. I'm not knocking it. I'm just saying I can't be a witness. Too many titties in one place to suit me."

As the trials and tribulations pile on, the experiences of Cleage's characters prove to be universal: death, love, second chances. Ava's acerbic, smart-mouthed narrative keeps the story buoyant; by the time this endearingly imperfect heroine and her cohorts have negotiated the rocky road to a happy ending, readers will be sorry to see her go, even as they wish her well. --Alix Wilber, Amazon.com

Book Description:

An Oprah Bookclub Pick, a love story, and a superb, page-turning debut novel about two sisters overcoming their own personal tragedies together.

About this edition

• Publisher: MorrowPb
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0061710385
• ISBN 13: 9780061710384
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256