From Publishers Weekly
An African-American ad designer follows his luck from the hood to the U.K.Aand backAin this uneven but quite worthwhile first novel. At 31, having finally earned his B.A., narrator Chris Jones yearns to escape West Philadelphia, his rundown hometown. When Chris wins third place in a marketing contest, his entry catches the eye of David Crombie, a brilliant designer with Jamaican roots. David invites Chris to move to Britain and work for his tiny ad agency in Brixton (a largely black part of South London). Once there, Chris designs some ads and finds a passionate Nigerian girlfriend. His main job, however, is helping David's wife pick up the pieces after David's benders. Then there's a tragic twist of fate, and Chris must return to West Philly. Bitter and dejected, he takes a temp job at the electric company, phoning poor people to help them pay their bills. He must reconcile himself with his co-workers and clients, with his homegirl Alex and with the milieu in which he grew up. Johnson's portrait of West Philly is as nuanced, elegant and witty as his portrait of Brixton is lifeless and flat, and the urban American supporting characters seem alive and genuine in a way none of the English figures begins to be. Chris's inner journey toward peace with his hood and with himself remains bittersweet without being sentimental; it's in Chris's own psyche, and in his West Philly, that Johnson shows his gifts. If the author's next novel resembles the last half of this one, he will have become a writer to celebrate. (Sept.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Kirkus Reviews
Johnson's debut novel reworks a venerable theme: the young American who travels abroad to forge a new identity but ends by discovering that he is far more American than he'd realized.Chris Jones is a 31-year-old African-American, living in Philadelphia, who wants to work in advertising but is having trouble breaking into the bigger New York agencies. When a job offer arrives from a small London agency, he leaps at the chance. Initially, his middle-class London neighborhood of Brixton seems a paradise compared to inner-city Philadelphia. No drug dealers on the streets, no gun battles at night, no pervasive climate of racism. Just as James Baldwin and Richard Wright found sanctuary in Paris, London offers Chris a spiritual liberation that Philadelphia couldn't. But there are ripples in the seemingly placid surface: Chris's boss, David Crombie, is mercurial and unreliable, and his Nigerian lover, Fionna Otubanjo, seems more interested in his bank account than in Chris. Then, when David dies suddenly, Chris finds himself broke and out of a job. He returns reluctantly to Philadelphia, promising himself that he'll go back to London as soon as possible. Life at home is a struggle: enduring a squalid apartment, struggling to find work, seeing his hopes evaporate. Urged on by his closest friend, Alex, Chris finally lands a job answering phones at the electric company, bringing him into contact with precisely the kind of dream-deferred, inner-city life that he tried to escape in London. In scenes both corrosively funny and bittersweet, Chris discovers that he has an innate American sensibility not so easily discarded. The tale ends on an optimistic note, as Chris sees both Philadelphia and London in a newer, wiser light.Johnson's writing is uneven, often piling on similes and metaphors enough to slow down the narrative. But he gets his story told and his characters are real in what, on balance, ends up as a strong debut. --
Copyright © 2000 Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
