From Publishers Weekly
One black woman's journey to fulfillment is the subject of Briscoe's new novel. As in Sisters and Lovers, social issues play a large role in her heroine's story. In Washington, D.C., in the early 1960s, Naomi Jefferson agonizes over middle-class teenage concerns until her older brother, Joshua, a college student agitated about racism, dies under suspicious circumstances. A few years later, after some romantic disappointments and rough times in college in Atlanta, a chastened Naomi returns to her parents' home and finds work in a city councilman's office, where dim prospects for advancement?and an unhappy, drug-addled relationship?drive her back to school. Eventually, she joins a large consulting firm and gets engaged to architect Marshall Underwood. Then her plans are disrupted not only by the denial of a promotion but also by the sudden appearance of an unruly teenager claiming to be Joshua's son. Other complications ensue, but a happy ending for Naomi is never in doubt. Briscoe's pacing is brisk, and the plot touches on a range of key social issues: civil rights, affirmative action and intragroup prejudice. Although the dialogue is sometimes self-conscious, and Briscoe lacks Terry McMillan's brash zest, her empathetic portrait of a modern woman wrestling with issues of love, work and family obligations should add to her popularity as a chronicler of contemporary African American life. $150,000 ad/promo; author tour.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
When we meet Naomi, she is a typical 11-year-old with her head buried in a Nancy Drew mystery. But this is no fairy tale. Naomi grows up at a time when blacks are still turned away from fine restaurants and Martin Luther King is alive. Journalist Briscoe (Sisters and Lovers, LJ 4/1/94) skillfully tells the convincing and passionate story of Naomi's life with her parents, who are mildly concerned with Civil Rights issues, and her brother, Joshua, who becomes a rights activist at college. Naomi is still a teenager when King is murdered, and when Joshua dies in a car accident on his way to a Civil Rights rally, and her life is changed forever. Naomi is determined to follow in Joshua's footsteps but is disillusioned with her white-dominated college and further loses her grip on life when a major romance sours. As a dropout, she comes close to drug addiction, but Briscoe doesn't bring doom. Eventually, Naomi returns to college. Readers, especially women, will nod in recognition as brilliant and successful analyst Naomi tires of kicking against the glass ceiling, leaves her job, and starts her own business. This believable and wonderfully written novel is highly recommended for all fiction collections.?Corinne Nelson, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
