Customer Reviews

A Love Noire: A Novel

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The title and the description on the inside cover made me raise my eyebrow a little bit. But I could not help but to be interested. The author is a scholar herself, and the character seemed to be living the life of my personal alter-ego -- a Ph.D student at NYU studying comparative literature. I mean, sounds good right? Well, it's okay. The book and the story have promise, but this may also be the story of an author who just tried too hard.

First hint that she tried too hard -- the character's name is Noire Demain, which is literally translater as "Black Tomorrow." For a self-described bohemian woman who shuns the black elite(Noire, not me), I thought the name was a little pushy. Too convenient. Second hint? The prose. Meaningless poetic sketches and clouds of incense and sexual haze. Third hint? Forced conflict. Noire is in love with a man named Innocent from Cote d'Ivoire, Africa. Innocent is supposedly the opposite of Noire -- rich and sophisticated, and a member of the black bourgousie. She's too artsy for him and he's too "mainstream" for her. But the only reason that I know that she and Innocent had conflict in their relationship is because the author says so. The author never SHOWS the conflict, using scenes and actions and dialogue. They ARGUE about differences, but there are curiously few scenes in which these "differences" are made clear to the reader. Noire's problem is apparently that she's too intense and passionate, and Innocent isn't -- I think because he's rich and hangs with other rich people. As a reader, I know I'm just supposed to accept that, but I couldn't. I was always thinking, "What was the big deal?" I never really get to understand what happens that makes them argue. Instead, I just got to read a lot of sex scenes.

Lastly, Noire was too confused to be likable for me. I can't figure out why in the world she thinks that an artistic and passionate nature are the antithesis of wealth and professional achievement. In fact, everyone in the story seems to fall for that tired stereotype. But even rich people can be passionate and eccentric.

Maybe all the missing pages ended up on the editor's floor. But in the end, A LOVE NOIRE falls short.

I would say that it is refreshing to read a book that has extremely intelligent black people who live outside their comfort zone but I couldn't really get into this book. The characters are old enough to know better. I think everyone can relate to that feeling that you may not fit into the lifestyle of your mate but how many people carry that insecurity into their 30's. Innocent was old enough to know better. Noire was annoying and obnoxious. I applaud the authors efforts for trying to expose people to the world of black intellect but it could have been done in a much better way. There were too many extraneous characters who did nothing to move along the plot and only served to confuse me more. The author tried to tackle every social issue (broken homes, biracial children, racism among light and dark blacks, etc.)that can be found in Black America. I would say this book is worth borrowing but not buying. I give it two stars because it gives a glimpse of a different black america but it was extremely boring.

What I loved about "A Love Noire" is that it examines the question most people in relationships have to answer for themselves sooner or later: Is love enough? Or, in the case of us children of the African Diaspora, "Is *Black* love enough?".

Innocent and Noire share race, superior academic credentials, and ambition. And love. That's about it. Despite the fact that Noire is a PhD candidate at NYU and Innocent is a Columbia MBA'd investment banker, they come from different classes -- Innocent's family is among the upper class elite while Noire's family is at best middle class; different ethnicities -- Noire's family hails from New York, the South, and islands off of the Southeastern coast while Innocent's family is from the Ivory Coast (but he and his siblings are, like many elites, "world citizens"); and different family compositions -- Innocent's parents have been married forever and his family composition nuclear, while Noire's parents never married each other and never made it clear to her that their failure to do so wasn't because of her. Added to the mix are the judgments and hangups of their equally well-credentialed friends of African descent as to whether Innocent and Noire's relationship can make it.

At first, Innocent and Noire's differences make their relationship interesting and edgy in a kind of Black "Sex in the City" Big-and-Carrie kind of way. Towards the end, those differences become the bases for their (and others') doubts as to whether the relationship can endure. For me, it raised the question I once had to resolve for myself: How different can you be from someone and still have a lasting relationship with them?

What I hope Innocent and Noire will come to know in the sequel (There will be a sequel, won't there?) is the answer I came to myself: If you share the same values, love can endure. What I enjoyed about this book is that it makes one think about what it takes to make love work, especially Black love.

In Love Noire, Ms. Turnipseed offers a refreshing story that features real three demenional people struggling with romance and career and the difficult choices that reality offers. Ms. Turnipseed suceeds in telling a love story as most people live it, with having to juggle differing backgrounds and present circumstnaces, families, budgets, and work that sometimes doesn't stop. She delivers a robust fullbodied story using fluid prose, energetic pacing and a cast of intringuing supporting characters.

I found A Love Noire to be an intriging alternative to the mltitude of formulaic novels that only manage rich beautiful, but wooden characters, with little more for plot than hemming and hawing about love and sex lived in a vacum. A Love Noire is an especially refreshing departure and beautifully written. The authentitcity of its settings provides a strong foundation to support the vivid story. The varied socioeconomic and multicultural characters will engage persons who live such lives and those for whom such variety is not commonplace. Bookclubs (and anyone) who venture to read this gem will have meaty topics to discuss. An excellent debut. Definitely looking forward to her next work.

Erica Simone Turnipseed's debut novel is one of the best books I have read this year...in fact, it is one of the best pieces of fiction that I have ever read.

Ms. Turnipseed's prose is simply beautiful, poetic, and captivating. She had me drawn into the world of Noire and Innocent immediately, and thanks to her careful character development, I gave a damn about them from Page One. Not too many authors today can do that so well.

It is an understatement to say that Noire and Innocent's love story was real and deep. It was totally believable -- full of the passion and pain that many of us experience. I felt their joys, their heartaches as they experienced them. Ms. Turnipseed's exquisitively vivid writing made that possible. The ending, like the rest of the book, is very real. It actually made me cry!

If you're looking for a real, contemporary African-American love story, then go and get a copy of "A Love Noire". I guarantee you won't be disappointed.

A Love Noire tells the story of the "love" Between Innocent and Noire, two completely different up and coming buppies. Noire is the bohemian one, Innocent, Noire's man is conservative. Both have some serious issues, which never seem to come completely clear, but the have a bond that is strong.

I liked the book since it was written in an intelligent way, but sometimes i would wonder where Ms. Turnipseed was going with her characters. I still do not understand where Noires' brief bi-sexual episode fits in the book (It's not like the Shug Avery/Celie bit in Color Purple--there was at least an explaination regarding that). I also was somewhat annoyed with Noire, since she seemed to have too many hangups. But all in all, I welcomed this book since it was more intelligent than some of the novels I think most writers seem to write these days. I look forward to reading more by Ms. Turnipseed.

I liked this book very much. I must admit that I hesitated for months on whether or not to buy this book. I would stare at it alot while I was at work (I work at a bookstore), and I finally broke down and bought it. I felt like I had a window into the lives of these characters. Not only were they complex, but very multi-dimensional. She touched on alot of issues within the Black and African communities. She painted an honest portrait into the issues of colorism and classism among the educated. She also touched on the issue of bi-curiosity for one brief moment between the lead character and a friend. It reminded alot of Alice Walker's characters Celie and Shug Avery. I thought maybe she could have developed that friendship a little more in this novel. This has been the only book in a while that I have allowed myself to talk back to the pages. That is how emotional I got when I read this book. What frustrated me most is that it kept me wondering if the two leads would ever get it together. Why did one reject the truth of love so much? Of course at the end, myself and other readers are probably wondering if the two will ever get it together. We were left hanging on our own thoughts of what could, should, or would happen. Ms. Turnipseed has done a great job with this novel, and I hope she plans to do something in the near future concerning her characters in A Love Noire. I feel like I need closure....

I was attracted to this book from page 1. For many and probably most readers, get us on page 1, we will finish in a day or so. This was me! I was so in tuned to both Noire and Innocent. Beyond that, I wanted to understand Arike, Jayna, Marcus and their backgrounds too. The book enlightens the reader of cultural differences, but also invites understanding into the similarities of the bourgois, regardless of continent. Erica Turnipseed has a unique and sophisticated flare for character development and art in writing - a quality that is so rare of modern authors. She was never in a hurry to say anything and yet, when it was all said, I was continuously moved. A Love Noire is a delightful first novel. This debut leaves readers excited and anxious about what Ms. Turnipseed will come up with next. It is also an excellent book club choice. Recommend it to your club!

What a spectacular debut for Ms. Turnipseed! From the moment I picked up this book, I just simply couldn't put it down. The plot and themes are so intriguing, that I felt I knew Noire and Innocent personally. Turnipseed's characters are so tangible and life-like, that their personalities and complexities come forth as though emanating from a silver screen. Spanning three continents and a host of historic and cultural references from the Edisto Island, South Carolina to the Caribbean and Central America, Turnipseed takes up on an exiciting journey of love, passion and in a not-so-bad way angst. Each page brings a new surprise as subplots unfold to reveal new and interesting tidbits about the cast of variegated characters who show us what it means to be young and in love with the world as a stage of infinite possibilites.

A Love Noire does try to critically look at issues of Black identity and for that I commend Ms. Turnipseed. Ms. Turnipseed does look at the complexity of relationships between different people of the African Diaspora and how there can be conflicts between the values of the different people of the diaspora. In addition her look at skin color in the African American community as well as the issue of class is very interesting to note. However, A Love Noire does try to look at too many issues and often places different issues in plots where they just don't belong. For instance, she tries to look at bisexuality. That would be fine if it somehow connected to the rest of the story but it doesn't. In addition, she introduces certain issues which are worth looking at more than she does. For example Jayna's interracial relationship with a fellow white dental student. This would have fit into the story so well but she spends like five pages (if even that) on this potentially meaty subplot. I think this novel is better than most of the trashy, nonstimulating novels that have become the norm for black literature today but it could've been better. Still, for a first effort it wasn't horrible and I'm sure Turnipseed will produce better in the future.