Something Real [Hardcover]

J. J. Murray (Author), J.J. Murray (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 2002

Thanks to her black mother and her Irish father, Ruth "Penny" Borum is the color of a new penny. Big-boned and notoriously sassy, Ruth is nonetheless the organist and a member in good standing of Antioch, Virginia's most prominent black church--or at least she was until she dragged the popular Reverend Jonas Borum into an ugly divorce.

Having lost everything in the divorce, Ruth scrapes by on what she can make as a hairdresser at Diana's, a tiny two-seat salon. Alone at night, in her basement apartment, she indulges in ice cream and argues with the Almighty. Did He have to take everything away? And when is He going to give something back? The Good Lord must have a sense of humor. That's the only conclusion Ruth can reach when He makes her fall head over heels in love...with a white man. Her friends are appalled, and Antioch, her spiritual home since birth, is ready to throw her out on her ear. Still, with the help of jump rope rhymes, a homeless man who hears God's voice in a mason jar, and two children who want a Mama as much as she wants them, Ruth's determined to prove anything is possible--even love between two people who couldn't be more mismatched...

--This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 337 pages
• Publisher: Kensington Books (July 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1575668653
• ISBN-13: 978-1575668659
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (52 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,698,537 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Born on October 16, 1963, in Abington, PA, J. J. has lived in New York (Huntington), New Jersey (Plainfield), Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh), Missouri (St. Louis), Indiana (West Lafayette and College Corners), and Ohio (Marietta).

He graduated magna cum laude from Marietta College (OH) with a BA in English before settling in the Roanoke Valley of Virginia, just up the road from Virginia Tech.

The son, grandson, and great-grandson of preachers and teachers, J. J. taught public high school English for twenty years to students who sometimes actually spoke it. J. J. is currently lead teacher in a wilderness residential school for at-risk young men.

J. J. met his wife, Amy Renee, at a high school football game at Victory Stadium in Roanoke in the fall of 1989, and their four-year courtship forms the basis of J.J.'s first novel, Renee and Jay.

J. J., Amy, and their two sons, Joshua Malik and Jontae Emmanuel, reside in Roanoke, Virginia, the setting for Renee and Jay, Something Real, I'm Your Girl, Can't Get Enough of Your Love, Too Much of a Good Thing, and much of his poetry.

Visit J. J.'s website at JohnJeffreyMurray.com and join "Q&A (and brownies) with J. J. Murray" at Goodreads.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Funny and Touching, September 26, 2002

By 

J.C. Wallington "jnettefrommi" (Detroit, MI) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Something Real (Hardcover)

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

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Something Real, May 18, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Something Real (Hardcover)

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.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Genuine Article, July 30, 2002

By 

The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers (RAWSISTAZ.com and BlackBookReviews.net) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Something Real (Hardcover)

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