Customer Reviews

Something Real

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

J.J. Murray is back with his sophomore novel Something Real. He takes the reader on a humorous journey with Ruth Borum, newly divorced from the unfaithful Rev.
"Bor-em." Thought she is divorced from the good Reverend, she does not lose her seat at Antioch Baptist Church where she has been the organist for years. Her presence at the church makes for some interesting gossip in the small town in which they reside and uncomfortable for the good Reverend and the Deacon Board, especially when she becomes surrogate mother to two bi-racial children. She provides more fuel for the gossip mill by falling in love with their father, a big, burly white man named Dewey Baxter. She finds some of her friends will leave her by the wayside and others stick with her, but she also finds some people she has passed by on Vine Street can have her best interest at heart.

Besides Ruth, there are some interesting characters in this book. Fred or "Jar-Man" can hear God talking to him from a Mason jar. His words of wisdom encourage Ruth to follow her heart. Tee and Dee are two little children who will steal your heart as they did Ruth's when you find out about the hardships they had to endure. Tonya and Naomi are friends who Ruth can depend on sometimes. Her reluctant ally is Meg, Dewey's mother and another supporter is the school secretary Mrs. Holland.

I found this book interesting, especially that a non-African American man could tell the story in an African American woman's voice. Though some of the generalizations were a little over the top, I found this story funny enough for laughing out loud moments and touching enough so that I wanted to wrap my arms around the characters as I felt their pain, confusion and anger. I would recommend putting this one on your To Read list.

Jeanette
APOOO BookClub

I'm not accustomed to relaying my thoughts about a book in a review but, I just have to about this one. I must agree with those who only gave this book (1) star and in my opinion that was (1) star too many. It really disappointed me. Not only do you have to read through 20+ chapters before Ruth and Dewey get together, as a female reader, you never find a reason to be attracted to him. Reason being because the author never gives him a voice as the object of Ruth's obsession. The book's cover (which I now know you can't trust) gives you the impression that the characters will have equal input regarding their relationship. He has no presence, she does all the talking and all the thinking. You are denied the opportunity to travel with him as he learns or discovers his feelings for her and makes them known to her. Ruth tells him how he feels about her and what he's going to do about it. She was just annoying. All you get about him is that he is a big, white, country boy who has two interracial children (with dumb names) and works loading and unloading steel and obviously has no friends. There was no reason to be supportive of them as a couple, let alone interested in them and I'll be very leary to read anything else by this author. I'm getting my money back for this one and would advise you not to waste your money purchasig it.

Ruth "Penny" Borum has just been to hell and back. For fifteen miserable years she was the wife of Jonas "Bore-em" Borum, the pastor of Antioch Church. Antioch has been Ruth's church home since she was a child, and now that she has divorced the pastor she is considered an outcast. Though the church members go out of their way to make her feel uncomfortable, Ruth stays on in her capacity as the church organist just to make life difficult for the pastor and the congregation.

The end of her marriage has forced Ruth to take a long, hard look at herself. She is angry, struggling financially and is feeling lost and alone. Ruth has also begun to face the reality that she is severely overweight and is extremely unhappy with herself.

One Sunday during church, Ruth spots the unlikely man of her dreams, Dewey Baxter. Dewey Baxter is a big, homegrown farm boy, who is a father struggling to raise his two children. The children are Tee and Dee. Tee is an energetic and headstrong little girl who always speaks her mind; Dee is a quiet, reserved little boy who seems to have some deep rooted emotional issues. Ruth and Dewey are as different as night and day, and have some cultural differences. Ruth is black and Dewey is white and the small town community that they live in can often be narrow- minded. Ruth is half white and wants to explore the other side of her heritage.

Ruth is a strong woman, but the mere thought of Dewey and his children makes her weak in the knees because she is so overwhelmed with love for them. Author J.J. Murray has outdone himself with his latest work, Something Real. He has written a realistic story that could happen to anyone. Divorce, betrayal, strength and pain are things that occur on a daily basis and he made you feel everything that the character was feeling or thinking. I highly recommend that you get a dose of reality and read Something Real.

Reviewed by Simone A. Hawks

In his second book author JJ Murray is creating his own style. The characters are very well developed and interesting. He shows the various trials and tribulations that black women encounter when dealing with an interracial relationship, especially if they had a previous relationship with a black man. Ruth, the main female character is very strong and knows who and what she wants. Dewey the main male character is a little bit slow and reserve, but as the story progresses he steps up to the plate.

If you are looking for a story that dares to be different with a a positive twist, then this is the book for you.

Ruth Childress Borum, the ex-wife of Anitoch Church pastor, Jonas Borum, continues to keep her faith and uses the gift that God gave her: to play the organ.

Dewey Baxter is a single,working father struggling to raise his 2 biracial children with the help of his mother.

Ruth and Dewey meet one day when his children, Tee and Dee, come in for a haircut unaccompanied. The attraction Ruth feels for the children and Dewey are instant and she makes up her mind that she will be apart of their family. Despite the disapproval of her many people of Anitoch Church b/c of their interracial relationship and other things, she stops @ nothing to get the love she's been denied for so long. She finds out who her friends really are and learns to have more faith in herself with the help of her friends Tonya and the Jarman aka Fred.

You'll love the interaction of Dewey with Tee and Dee as well as the children with Ruth. This novel by Murray is incredibly funny,charming,endearing, and a great read. Even though this book is written by a man, he does a wonderful job as telling the story through an African-American woman's eyes. As a reader, I could tell that he knew what he was talking about b/c he himself is in an interracial marriage with an African-American woman.

I recommend this to anyone. You'll laugh from the comedy and cry from the pain and joy Ruth feels.

Okay I read it, and there is only one word: it's a four-letter word that starts with 'd'. I was moved by Ruth's pain, and surprised at the depth of the other characters. I came to know them, love them, like them, and despise them. One of the most moving passages in the book was when 'Ruth' flipped out and told the corner store owner off about what they just couldn't have; the other was Sam's preaching about not enough ink, white-out, etc... It surprises me how well JJ Murray was able to not just get into the characters, but how well he was able to portray both the ugly and the beautiful in Life. I would like to thank Mr. Murray for another great book, but I am awaiting his retirement or major cash windfall so that I can read his book about teachers. I for one am glad to have read not one, but two books from Mr. Murray that showcase a Black woman being so thoroughly loved, instead of showcasing her as a downtrodden victim. Love is the one thing that everyone should be able to understand. The reality is that Life is full of characters that are far from perfect...that includes preachers and their wives; congregations and communities. To any of his would-be critics: I recommend that he tell them off like 'Ruth' told off 'Dee's' teacher. I have already rubbed-in the fact to my he-thinks-that-he-is-the-better-half about Mr. Murray writing a book merely make his wife laugh; I am definitely going to have to rub in the fact that 'Dewey' built an entire church for his woman (dramatic sigh...wait for husband to inquire what is wrong...another sigh...state that nothing is wrong...wait for him to go out of his way to please me). I'm thinking that if a man would build an entire church for his woman, at the very least I should be able to get a Ferrari...or a dog. And to Mr. Murray's beautiful wife... I chant her name because not only has her husband written her a book, I have a feeling that he would have also built her a church if that is what it would have taken. I wish all women of all races could be loved like that. And here I am, still Ferrari-less.

I was okay with the story in the beginning, but towards the end, I was irritated with the female character in this book. I mean true, everyone has their moments, but it seemed like she actually had a meltdown that was uncalled for. It seems that in each of the author's books, the woman is "overly" dramatic, and the male is always very passive and it just irritating for me. I totally disagree with the author and how he seems to make the women in his stories all overly sterotypical.

This is touching story of two souls dealing with life's little stumbling blocks but finding love and companionship along the way. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, getting to know the characters and seeing inside their worlds. Can't wait to get the next Murray book.

I was in the bookstore, and was supposed to be finding a book for chemistry, when my eyes flickered over this one (I bought it instead :) ). The cover drew me to it--bright yellow, it is, and the people on the cover are really cute, cartoon-like. By the way, I agree with a previous reviewer in that the people in the book were eons away from the images on the front, but that happens sometimes, I guess.

From page one, I was hooked by the main character's frank honesty--Ruth pulls no punches. She does have quite the potty mouth though, and there's a farting incident in the beginning that is not really all that cute, as I think it was meant to be. I think her decision to lose weight was made rather quickly--almost immeadiately in fact, kind of like she looked in the mirror and said, hey, maybe I should lose a thousand pounds tommorow. I also think that the book, from a racial viewpoint, is very presumptuous of what it's like to be a black woman, and I didn't think it was really all that believable, but the important thing to know is that it wasn't offensive, and didn't stop me from being engrossed.

Dewey's character was very hard to relate to, and very hard to come to care for. He was short with Ruth, bordering on rudeness (until the very very very end), and she had to persue him mercilessly, and relentlessly. She followed him, watched his apartment, took a volunteer position where his children went to school (in his son's class, no less), forced them to come in for haircuttings, confronted his mother.... I won't go on because I'm giving away the whole darn story, but you get the point. If it wasn't so cute, she would have been picked up for stalking.

Ruth was extremely abrasive at times, and CAN wear on the nerves. It is tempered by the fact that she has a good heart, although I was disappointed at the turn the story took near the end. She worked SO hard to get the man, and then when he finally wants to be with her, she'd turn him away because of what a bunch of busibodies in her church say? I'm just thinking that if I found the right man like she said she did, I wouldn't let something so silly put our relationship asunder, but whatever.

I was also disturbed by the whole church scene at the end, when her husband was trying to get her thrown out. I don't know about your church, but in mine we don't just stand and have a free for all argument-- VERY surreal right around this point. The book could have been ended a chapter ago. And it really disturbed me why she even wanted to have her special occasion held in the church who had done nothing but talk about her since the day she divorced the reverend

The most fascinating part of the story for me was the presence of Jar Man, a homeless vagrant who everyone but Ruth treated like he was crazy. He always carried around this Mason Jar, which he put to his ear and made predictions afterward. He said he had the ear of Jesus, and you know what? He just might've. It gave me chills to think of all the people who turned him away and rebuffed his good advice.

ANYWAY, back on track, I think the book was a good one, very unrealistic and annoying at times, but good for all of that. This is my first interracial romance, and I enjoyed it. If you're looking for picture perfect characters this is definitely NOT the book, for Dewey and Ruth are indeed something real.

i read the reviews for the author's first book and was somewhat hesitant to purchase 'Something Real'...but i am so glad i did!

i loved this book...Ruth's character made me laugh out loud! i could almost see myself sitting across the street from her tiny apartment and watching her story unfold right before my eyes.

although Dewey's character seems reserved at first, i could tell there was a fire within him. but did he always have a penchant for the 'sistas'? first Tiffany, then Ruth? but Mr. Murray does a good job of showing that when you love someone, race becomes irrevelant when you have other things such as a family, career, and just plain living to keep you occupied!

Ruth's borderline 'trashy' mouth might have offended some, but i know i have had some of the same thoughts about some folks i know! she's a good person, who loves those around her, and once she starts to turn that same love inward...there's no stopping her.

we all have some type of prejudice within us...whether it's toward a person, a place you visited or heard about. it's the fear of the unknown that makes us shy away...read this book and then look at yourself FOR REAL...you might see that it's time to put away a lot of what you've been holding onto(that might be holding you back)

thanks for a sweet love story and i know i got the message...hopefully everyone else will too