Milk In My Coffee [Hardcover]

Eric Jerome Dickey (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 1998

Tennessee native Jordan Greene is living the good life as a single, successful young professional in New York City. He has a great job and a best friend who's closer than a brother, but his rollercoaster relationship with J'nette is on a first-class trip to nowhere. Then he meets Kimberly, a fiery, talented artist with gorgeous long red hair and Irish cream skin. What starts as a shared cab ride turns into a long night of talking and laughing from the heart-- and that's a problem for a man with a picture of Malcolm X on his office wall. As romance blooms, Jordan reluctantly crosses the color barrier in search of true love, and finds himself confronting long-hidden issues in himself while dealing with friends and family who are none-too-keen on his new girlfriend. Once again, Eric Jerome Dickey explores a serious subject with his signature light touch, and taps a range of emotions from fragile heartbreak to powerful laughter in this deeply affecting tale of love...with a twist.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Dickey's third novel takes on the personal politics associated with interracial romance, as a chance encounter in a Manhattan taxi brings together Jordan Greene, a young black urban professional, and Kimberly Chavers, a white painter. Dickey gets far beyond the stereotypes, infusing all his characters with complex emotional lives, and while Jordan dominates the story, the multiple first-person narration shows just how deep Dickey's willing to get inside "all" his characters' heads. Milk in My Coffee is a story about two people coming to terms with the attitudes that shape their identities, where hearts and minds learn painful lessons about getting beyond what the eye can see. --Ron Hogan

From Publishers Weekly

When a black man meets a white woman and they fall in love, sometimes there are more pressing matters that concern them than the predictable fuss over an interracial relationship. The latest novel from the popular Dickey (Friends and Lovers) is as much about relationships as it is about race. Both Jordan Greene, a 30ish engineer, and Kimberly Chavers, a 28-year-old artist, have thorny connections with friends, former lovers and relatives that they must unravel before they can even begin to think about a life together. For Jordan, there is his on-again, off-again relationship with fiery J'nette, who says she is carrying his baby. There is his friendship with his confidant Solomon, who is engaged to J'nette's best friend but may be less trustworthy than he seems. Then there is Jordan's family. When he flies from New York to his native small town of Brownsville, Tenn., to attend the funeral of his ex-stepfather, Jordan is caught in the thick of family woes. His half-brother, Reggie, has finally checked into a drug rehabilitation program but only after casting their older brother, Darrell, into bankruptcy. In the rural South, where racial tensions are more frightening and immediate than Jordan remembers, he must not only suffer his older brother's harangues against dating white women but also do so while loaning him money. Kimberly, meanwhile, is trying to rid herself of an obnoxious, white ex-boyfriend and come to grips with a secret past that she fears will make Jordan doubt her love for him. By the time she shows Jordan her skeletons, makes up with a troubled family of her own and faces down violence on the streets of New York, Dickey has demonstrated once again his easy mastery of dialogue and voice (both romantic leads share narrator's honors with an omniscient third-person) and his cheerful, wittily acerbic eye for the troubles that plague lovers in the 1990s. (Sept.) FYI: Signet will issue Friends and Lovers in paperback in September.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Dutton Adult (September 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0525943854
• ISBN-13: 978-0525943853
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (502 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #978,798 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Eric Jerome Dickey is the author of twelve novels, including the bestsellers Genevieve, Drive Me Crazy, Naughty or Nice, The Other Woman, and Thieves' Paradise. Dickey writes full time and is developing a six-issue mini-series of comic books for Marvel Enterprises featuring Storm (X-Men) and the Black Panther.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars JUST AWFUL (why are there no (-)negatives for the ratings?), January 1, 2003

By 

Wendy (the T.dot) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Milk in My Coffee (Paperback)

For lack of a better word, this book was WHACK! The writing was so terrible that if it weren't for a book club reading, I would have returned the book to it's owner (glad I didn't buy it). Eric's use of analogies was so infantile that I am in disbelief that he attended UCLA's writing program. Here are a few examples of these CHEAP analogies:
"..my stride to the subway entrance[was]slower than molasses in Alaska."
"I hated being played like a game show."
"I hated the hypocritical feeling I was feeling. It was as thick as cold oatmeal"
"My breathing was as thick as Aunt Jemina Syrup."
Need I show more? WHACK!!!!!
Every time I read the word "SmooVe" I cringed. It was not cute, it was annoying. And what was up with Kimberley calling her mother "mom-mom"???
Eric juxtaposed being a white woman vs. being a black woman. On one side I read how black women are ghetto, crazy and loose. Kimberley (the 'white' woman) was also loose, but she had class, adventure and sanity. At one point in the book when Kimberley does get upset with Peter, she says "Sorry. I guess my black side is coming out". Eric, how dare you!
This book did not teach anything new or interesting about interracial dating, it only brought forth black and white (and especially black) stereotypes. The book was boring, the twists were predictable so the only things that jumped out at me was the terrible writing style.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Another great book by Eric Jerome Dickey, April 6, 2004

By 

Ratmammy "The Ratmammy" (Ratmammy's Town, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Milk in My Coffee (Paperback)

MILK IN MY COFFEE by Eric Jerome Dickey

This is the second book by Eric Jerome Dickey that I've read, and so far I am really enjoying his books. MILK IN MY COFFEE is about a successful African American man living in New York that becomes involved romantically with a woman that is white. And it is not something he broadcasts to the world. It's not that he's ashamed of being involved with a woman that is not black, but he knows it is something that his friends and family will not approve of.

Told in a very lighthearted yet down-to-earth way, MILK IN MY COFFEE addresses the age-old issue of interracial relationships. Jordan Greene is casually involved with one woman, who is black, but unintentionally gets involved with another woman that happens to be white, an artist named Kimberly Chavers. They find they are soul mates, and every thing is perfect except for the issue of race. It's a complicated scenario, more so because of the interracial stigma that is still pretty much inherent everywhere. They feel the sexual tension between them almost from the start, but keep their relationship purely platonic, at least for as long as they can. But as they begin to get to really know each other, both of them wonder where this is heading and whether they have a future together. Kimberly's friends seem to be a little more understanding, but Jordan's friends go ballistic when they think that HE thinks black isn't good enough for him.

The book gets complicated when Jordan's brother Reggie goes missing, and Kimberly has a secret past that comes back to haunt her. Not to be revealed here so as not to reveal any spoilers, this reader was very surprised with this turn of events. The ending was worth getting to, and there will be more books by Eric Jerome Dickey read in this house. Anyone wanting to be introduced to the books of Eric Jerome Dickey should start with this one. Highly recommended!

16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Surprisingly Better Than I'd Imagined, March 17, 2000

By 

Cydney Rax "rmn1994" (Houston, TX United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Milk in My Coffee (Paperback)

I'll admit that I initially did not want to read "Milk In My Coffee" because I didn't think I'd enjoy the storyline. I've read interracial storylines before, but had reservations when it came to reading one written by a man. However, once I began to read, I was more impressed by the writer's skills, creativity, and hard work and didn't focus so much on the storyline. MIMC is full of what I call classic EJDisms (all the techniques for which he's known): metaphors, side-splitting 'run-to-the-bathroom' humor, strong characterization, plot twists, great attention to detail, and tension). The characters Kim, Jordan, J'Nette and Solomon were fleshed out very well. You could close your eyes and envision them. MIMC also had plenty of surprises and the writer PUT you THERE in the scene. He does have a great way of showing and doesn't merely tell. Those are the good things. The only distraction is probably the part where a trip is taken to Memphis. I found myself wanting to skip over that particular section because I was more into what would happen between Jordan and Kimberly. Overall, this story is well written and worth reading and adding to your EJD collection. Looking forward to reading the Mothers & Sons Anthology and Liar's Game.