Selah's Bed: A Novel [Paperback]

Jenoyne Adams (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 3, 2004

With this sensual, heartrending second novel, bestselling author Jenoyne Adams further establishes herself as a stunning talent. Probing and engaging, Selah's Bed explores how a woman can use sex to gain acceptance, escape her past, and even endanger her soul.

Selah Wells looks for salvation through sex and in her photography of nude black men. She feels most alive under the touch of new hands. But she's married to a minister, and, as the adage goes, secrets done in the dark will come to the light. Interweaving scenes from Selah's adult life, including the loss of her only child, and moments from her childhood -- spent in a lively housing project -- Adams deftly depicts Selah's journey. As her grandmother's health deteriorates and her husband immerses himself in the work of God, Selah's latest lover, Peter, tries to get her to confront her fear and anger. Unable to relinquish regrets that have fueled her behavior all these years, Selah resists. But when she is pushed to the emotional brink by an unexpected turn of events, she must finally face her past and begin to make peace with God, her husband, her lost child, and herself.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Selah Wells, a successful photographer, is an emotionally remote and sexually voracious woman. Though she loves her minister husband, Parker, she is also regularly unfaithful to him. Adams (Resurrecting Mingus) weaves the story of Selah's childhood with that of her troubled marriage. The girl grew up with a neglectful and promiscuous mother, an absent father and a grandmother who slowly became addicted to painkillers. Selah is raped by a friend's brother at 13, and her strong spirit and precocious sexuality are sharply reined in by this abrupt introduction to adulthood. As she grows up, Selah finds a refuge from the emotional chaos of her youth in photography. It gives her power over her male subjects and allows her to foil their expectations by refusing to sleep with them. Yet when she falls in love for the first time with one of her clients, the tensions in her marriage come to a head. Selah's relationships with Parker and the other men in her life are compelling, but the melodramatic events of her childhood are familiar abuse story staples, and Adams draws overly obvious connections between these traumas and her adult emotional life. Though Adams writes fluidly, with flashes of wit (she describes Selah as "taking the time not to put on underwear" when she gets ready to do a photo shoot), Selah remains little more than a collection of socially defined traits, never quite gelling into a vivid, original personality.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

In Adams's second novel (after Resurrecting Mingus), Selah Wells is still haunted by a past touched by sexual experimentation and the absence of her father. Although married, she can't seem to stay out of other men's beds.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Free Press (February 3, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671787845
• ISBN-13: 978-0671787844
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,859,737 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Sensual Read, June 18, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Selah's Bed: A Novel (Hardcover)

This was a very deep dynamic book. The writer allowed you to go into the inner soul of Selah. The way she intertwined the past with the present was an added touch.
A very moving story. Thumbs up to the author what a beautifully written book. This would make a great movie!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Poignant Read, August 22, 2003

By 

cyndi-lou-who (Boston, MA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Selah's Bed: A Novel (Hardcover)

I loved the author's "Resurrecting Mingus", but only LIKED "Selah's Bed" - the author has a talent for jumping to past to present and not losing you somewhere in between. There are many similarities between both books when it comes to the writing style, the underlying suspense of where the book will take you at the end.

It's hard to give details of the story without giving away the book - but Selah was born to a young mother who wasn't ready to be a mom herself. So she ended up being raised by her grandmother - this book will take you from her childhood up to a grown, married woman and how the actions of her past now affect her as an individual, spouse, and career woman.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Lovely and Moving, March 19, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Selah's Bed: A Novel (Hardcover)

Jenoyne Adams communicates an entire world using very few words and no extraneous scenes. The language was graceful and moving and, although I was not surprised in the end, I was quite emotional about it. The unanswered questions linger in your mind and the book stays with you. I was intrigued that the truly graphic descriptions were used in relation to Selah's care of Mama Gene rather than to describe her time with Peter. Parker never truly came alive for me in the way that Peter did. I would have preferred a better bridge between Selah and Parkers reunion at twenty and how they came to be married. A wonderful book!