Till You Hear from Me: A Novel [Hardcover]

Pearl Cleage (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 20, 2010

From the acclaimed Pearl Cleage, author of What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day . . . and Seen It All and Done the Rest, comes an Obama-era romance featuring a cast of unforgettable characters.
 
Just when it appears that all her hard work on Barack Obama’s presidential campaign is about to pay off with a White House job, thirty-five-year-old Ida B. Wells Dunbar finds herself on Washington, D.C.’s post-election sidelines even as her twentysomething counterparts overrun the West Wing. Adding to her woes, her father, the Reverend Horace A. Dunbar, Atlanta civil rights icon and self-described “foot soldier for freedom,” is notoriously featured on an endlessly replayed YouTube clip in which his pronouncements don’t exactly jibe with the new era in American politics.

    The Rev’s stinging words and myopic views don’t sound anything like the man who raised Ida to make her mark in the world. When friends call to express their concern, Ida realizes it’s time to head home and see for herself what’s going on. Besides, with her job prospects growing dimmer, getting out of D.C. for a while might be the smartest move she could make.

    Back in her old West End neighborhood, Ida runs into childhood friend and smooth political operator Wes Harper, also in town to pay a visit to the Reverend Dunbar, his mentor. Ida doesn’t trust Wes or his mysterious connections for one second, but she can’t deny her growing attraction to him.
 
While Ida and the Rev try to find the balance between personal loyalties and political realities, they must do some serious soul searching in order to get things back on track before Wes permanently derails their best laid plans.
 

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

There's no mistaking the audience Cleage (Seen It All and Done the Rest) intends to reach with her grating new novel. After her work on the Obama campaign, 35-year-old Ida Dunbar expects a placement in the new administration, but it appears her hopes are dashed as a result of statements made by her outspoken father, civil rights legend Rev. Horace Dunbar. After his latest ill-considered remark, longtime family friend Miss Iona calls Ida and asks that she return home to Georgia to check on her father. Meanwhile, Wes Harper, the son of the Rev's closest confidante, returns, but for a different purpose: a Republican operative, he's been tasked with securing the Rev's voter database in order to purge the voting rolls. The author paints those associated with Ida and her father with a broad, loving, brush, while Wes and the Republicans are predictably and cartoonishly villainous. With the exception of remembrances of pivotal moments in the civil rights movement, the book is a tedious polemic, even for those inclined to agree with the narrative's political bent. (May)
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From Booklist

Along with Jesse Jackson and Jeremiah Wright, Cleage’s fictional Reverend Horace Dunbar is considered one of the old guard of the civil rights movement. His position in the post-Obama firmament seems secure until the Rev, as he is known, vents an unsuspected level of frustration to a reporter and the rant goes viral on YouTube. The PR fallout is damaging enough to bring his estranged daughter, Ida, home to Atlanta from Washington, where she anxiously awaits a job offer from the White House as a reward for her campaign work. Right behind her on the road to Atlanta, however, is Wes, the son of the Rev’s best friend, covertly sent by the RNC to steal the Rev’s extensive voter-registration list. While she and her father inch toward a rapprochement, Ida and a coterie of sharp, sassy women work to foil Wes’ plans. Within the timely, politically relevant milieu of the new administration, best-selling, incisive Cleage zestfully crafts an intuitive novel of trust and responsibility, kinship and conviction. --Carol Haggas

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: One World/Ballantine (April 20, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345506375
• ISBN-13: 978-0345506375
• Product Dimensions: 6.3 x 1.1 x 9.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #82,088 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I CAN WAIT!, April 20, 2010

By 

Angelia Menchan "acvermen.blogspot.com" (Florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Till You Hear from Me: A Novel (Hardcover)

It has been one month since the election of President Barack Obama and Ida B. Wells Dunbar is still waiting for a job offer. She was convinced that by now she would have heard something. Particularly, since she has devoted the past 18 months of her life to helping to get him elected. Ida B. has even gone so far as to tell her father, the Reverend Doctor Paul Dunbar, that she has a job and he has told all of West End Atlanta. To make matters worse it seems that Reverend Dunbar is losing his grip. He has said publicly things about the new administration and other races that has made all who know him squirm and question his sanity. So, when long time family friend, Miss Iona, calls Ida B. and tells her to return home she is not ready, partly because she and her father are not in agreement about the new president and because the whole city thinks she is part of the new administration. However, family is most important and Ida B. must return home at least temporarily. Till You Hear from Me by Pearl Cleage tells the story of what happens when the prodigal daughter returns home and nothing is quite what it seems.

I read Till You Hear from Me by Pearl Cleage in one sItting and enjoyed every word. Ms. Cleage takes us into the world of current politics and mixes it with the way the Old Guard considers the New Negro. There were so many laugh-out loud moments and many others that made this baby-boomer say, `Oh yes.' One interesting component was how the author wrote about what she coined,
The Post Racial Blacks', the group of well-educated African-Americans who feel removed from the civil rights struggle. It will give the reader much to consider. I recommend Till You Hear from Me to every reader who enjoys a well-told story with bits of politics, urban-renewal and old-school common sense.

This novel was provided by the publisher for review purposes.

Angelia Menchan
APOOO BookClub

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Till You Hear From Me, May 24, 2010

By 

Reader Girl - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Till You Hear from Me: A Novel (Hardcover)

I have read other works by the great author Pearl Cleage, Till You Hear From Me is now my favorite. I loved the presence of real people in the novel. I admired the knowledge of the elders,their gentle firmness. Would like to have a continuation, so I can see how Ida's job in Washington in the Obama adminstration works out. I loved this book!!!!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great!!, May 8, 2010

By 

LA Hottie - See all my reviews

This review is from: Till You Hear from Me: A Novel (Kindle Edition)

This book was timely, funny, and insightful. I would love a sequel to this one. Well done Ms. Cleage!!