Customer Reviews

True Lies

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4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(4)
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A favorite among readers, author Margaret Johnson-Hodge gets better and better. Her latest, True Lies, is one of the tightest novels she's ever written. The story revolves around a sincere, goal-oriented, but problem-plagued man named Rick who has fathered a child with an unstable drama queen named Gina. Although they are no longer a couple, Rick dotes on their daughter, four-year-old Kanisha, and dealing with Gina emotionally sends him to places he never wanted to go. Through it all Rick tries to develop a romance with Dajah, a woman who sometimes gets frustrated with the drama, a woman that Rick hopes will make his life complete.

True Lies reads like a movie; it's very vivid, and the characters are so well drawn that when you read the dialogue, you can literally hear their voices. Margaret Johnson-Hodge shapes and sculpts her characters with amazing precision; she doesn't make all men look bad, or all baby mamas look trifling. She digs deep and helps the reader to understand the characters' motivations for the decisions they make.

The novel takes surprising turns that may cause one to talk out loud to the book, grow disgusted with some of the characters' decisions, and make you feel as if this story could be anybody's. True Lies is just that authentic. This is a commanding and appealing novel, and it's highly recommended.

The title True Lies is well represented in this novel about three people who have come to believe the lies they tell themselves. Rick is a corrections officer who is quickly becoming frustrated with his baby's mama's antics. Gina is trying to deal with the pressures of being a mother while wanting to hang in the streets with her friends. Dajah is a self assured accountant coming out of a disappointing relationship. When Rick and Dajah have a chance meeting, Rick starts to devise a plan that will allow the three of them to live happily ever after or will it.

As with all of MJH's book that I have read, she drew me into the story by making me feel for the characters. I was emotionally invested in Rick and Dajah. Even though I was determined to dislike Gina at the beginning of the book, I found myself pulling for her in the end. I was even interested in the outcome of the minor characters whose stories were just as compelling but not overpowering. In this book, there are no easy answers. The characters are forced to make some hard decisions that are believable to the reader.

While reading Butterscotch Blues and Some Sunday, I shed some tears. Even though this did not happen with True Lies, the emotions that it sparked were just as intense. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves to read a good book because this one had me guessing the outcome until the surprising realistic end.

Reviewed by Nicole
APOOO Book Club

When Corrections Officer Rick Trimmons and teenage drop out Gina Alexander meet, both think it is love. However, Rick never recovered from being dumped and remains in a rebound state of limbo while Gina desperately wants a baby. When Kanisha is born, Gina learns what an infant does to a lifestyle so in order to return to the streets, she begins dumping Kanisha on her grandmother, which angers Rick. Rick still fantasizes about a loving relationship between he, Gina, and their child, but he turns to showering all his love on his little girl.

Hardworking Dajah Moore takes no risks in life even with her heart. Currently she is lonely having ended her last relationship about a year ago. When Dajah and Rick meet, perhaps it is the traits they share in common, but they begin to fall in love. However, Kanisha remains first in Rick's life, which means Gina is still a player and at night by himself he knows in his way he loves all three women in his life. Will Rick choose the dream that Gina will change; or select a relationship with Dajah that will limit his time with Kanisha; or opt for the status quo of a foot in two homes?

TRUE LIES is a strong character study that shows the impact on people of life altering decisions to include the ripple effect on other individuals in a person's concentric world. The key cast seems authentic, as readers will recognize similar people especially when seemingly poor or selfish judgment is used. Fans of complex contemporary relationship dramas with strong characterizations will enjoy Margaret Johnson-Hodge's latest spotlight on life.

Harriet Klausner

Ever experienced the qualm of dating a person with kid(s)? Wrestled with weather or not you wanted to deal with that drama? If you haven't, you know someone who has. True Lies is an in depth voyage into the difficulty of getting involved with and loving a man who has a child, a permanent rope binding him to another woman. Margaret Johnson-Hodge opens that damn of water that often drowns the outside woman. She explores the terror of stepping into a ready-made family and the turmoil of sharing your man not just with his child, but also with his child's mother.

The True Lies cast of characters includes Rick, the naive, well meaning father; Gina, the young, belligerent mother; and Kanisha, the cute daughter. This cobbled together Tonka toy family is weakly built on dependence, and barely surviving on lopsided love. Enter Gina, a demure, sophisticated young woman with style and aplomb...and you've got a recipe for chronic chaos and willful war.

Johnson-Hodge's supple writing and colorful cadence buries us in the characters' explosive emotions and toxic relationships. She weaves a story of growth, trust, love, and disappointment. True Lies, like her other stories, is thought provoking, and mirrors the candid complications we experience in some of our own relationships.

I never forego a Margaret Johnson-Hodge book. I've come to expect the type of stories that make me examine my own values from her. She doesn't disappoint here. Rick, a decent man who has a child by Gina but whose relationship leaves a lot to be desired, meets Dajah. Dajah seems to be everything he needs in a woman. Rick is honest with Dajah from the beginning, telling her about his daughter, Kanisha, whom he calls his heart, and of the unfinished relationship with Gina. Dajah 'does not share' and tells him if he's ever 'free' to give her a call. From that point on the author illustrates how profoundly intentions can affect people's lives. Rick gets caught up in his own good intentions. Wanting a life of his own, but not wanting to hurt either Gina or Kanisha, he makes choices that leave him, Dajah, Gina and Kanisha tied together in a drama that will be played out to the end. But will his and Dajah's love survive?

I was caught up in these people's lives from the very beginning, and each time I opened the book to continue reading, I waited with breath held to find out what would happen next. The ending
was unexpected, but made perfect sense to me.

This story is about choices and how they affect our lives. It's also about the power to recreate ourselves. Ultimately, it's about reclaiming the dreams we had for ourselves, but thought were lost.

With True Lies, Margaret Johnson-Hodge has scored again with an extraordinary portrait of accepting situations that are not in our best interest, deceiving oneself, all the while hoping things will change. Johnson-Hodge has captured the true essence of disillusioned lovers who fight for their love.

Dajah Moore and Rick Trimmons inadvertently meet one evening; she on her way home, he on his way to work. Dajah is an accountant and Rick is a correctional officer, both from middle-class backgrounds. Dajah is unattached; Rick has a live-in girlfriend and a small child by the name of Kanisha. Gina, Rick's girlfriend, is not the best idea of a mother; she is manipulating, cunning and downright trifling. Somehow Rick has managed to keep his family together despite Gina's juvenile ways. Dajah informs Rick, "when you're free." Rick's motivation in life is his daughter and her happiness. Rick devises the "plan" as his way of being with the woman he wants and at the same time, being with his daughter.

True Lies takes you on a journey with Dajah and Rick as they try to define their feelings for each other and the people around them; as they try to make a better place for the people in their lives, all the while neglecting themselves. Demonstrated is the making of decisions in the best interest of someone and how those decisions affect other individuals. Decisions, as a reader you may question, but are somehow able to understand. I found myself talking to the characters, hoping, worrying and praying for them. Friends and other characters' lives are examined as well, allowing the reader to see the main characters in a realistic sense of everyday living and loving.

The language and imagery used to tell this story makes it thought provoking and I am sure, would lead to a lively discussion of what you "would have done" if placed in the characters' situation. True Lies is another excellent portrayal of the human psyche, because it elicits the reader's emotions and will go down as one of my favorites of 2002. Powerful!
Reviewed by Dawn R. Reeves, Apooo BookClub

MJH continues to intrigue with characters so real, so layered, it's hard to believe you're reading fiction. With True Lies she manages to take the story of three ordinary people in everyday drama and create a tale more engaging than a bestselling thriller. MJH has a total understanding of the role of author---enrapturing the reader---and carries out the task with dead on dialogue, swift wordplay, and a plot thick with tension and surprise. In the widening landscape of contemporary African-American fiction there are few with time enduring stories, and few that improve upon their craft with each book. MJH is the rare breed of novelist that scores on both points. I won't attempt to sum up this stunning book in a few paragraphs, but do implore lovers of a intricate and emotional tale to pick up MJH's latest triumph.

Sometimes we can believe our dreams so much that it is our quest to make them reality, no matter the absurdity. In True Lies, Margaret Johnson Hodges takes a subject that could have been made into drama and more drama and develops a story about the hard decisions that characters have to make. The decisions that may make or break a relationship.

In this love triangle, on the apex is Rick. A hard working man, trying to do the right thing, take care and support his young daughter, Kanisha. On one end of the triangle is Gina, his young, non-caring, neglectful baby mama. She would rather go party than stay at home and be a mom. On the other end is Dajah, a woman who on the surface seems to have it altogether. She meets Rick the same day she gets her heartbroken by a relationship gone badly. At this time, Rick is tiring of Gina but is concerned enough for his child to stay in a relationship that is unhealthy. When Gina messes up for the last time, he drops her off at her mother`s home and begins a serious relationship with Dajah. Then, the Baby Mama Drama starts and continues as each of the major players fights for what they want.

I appreciate how Johnson-Hodges takes this controversial subject and presents it without extreme craziness. Instead, she allows the reader in delve into the inner person and explores why they do the things they do. There are great secondary characters like Freida, Dajah's workaholic friend and Tarika, Gina's best friend who had the gumption to go after a better life. As always Margaret Johnson Hodges has given readers a well written, interesting and captivating novel that is highly recommended.

Motown Review Book Club

Thoroughly enjoyed this book, that deals with love from more a reality angle than a romantic one.

Dajah thinks she's found in Rick exactly what the doctor ordered; a handsome, hardworking brother with goals and dreams--and a child. Ordinarily, Dajah would not consider dating a man with a child but....she'll make an exception this time. Unfortunately, Rick is still living with Gina, his baby's mother; but Dajah is just the catalyst that Rick needs to move on and find what he thinks is real happiness.

But what real happiness constitutes for Rick is being ever-present in his daughter Kanisha's life. Rick wants the best of both worlds--Dajah as his steady girlfriend, and Kanisha. Gina, however, has plans of her own. She is not finished with Rick, and is determined to make his life as difficult as possible.
When a series of events make it perfectly clear to Dajah where she really stands in her man's life, Rick is forced to make a choice...a choice that is not nearly as easy as he thought it would be.

This is a book about real life, where things are not always as they seem and everything is not always in black and white...but often shades of gray.

i absolutely loved this book! thanks again MJH for another thought-provoking and excellent storyline.

rick(although his intentions were good)is on the verge of messing up a good thing he has w/dajah while trying to deal with his child's mother. he is to be applauded for stepping up to the plate and being more than just a check-writer to his child.

dajah's character displayed what it truly means to love yourself more than you love someone else. the story centers on whether rick and dajah can manage to make their relationship work despite all of gina's(his daughter's mother) tactics to keep them apart. to avoid giving away the ending, i'll just say READ THE BOOK!

in defense of ms. gina...i will say that she was really too young to have had a baby and rick should have known that before getting involved with her. gina's a good-time, live-for-the-moment-girl and it shows in ALL her actions. dajah is what rick and his daughter need in their lives, but when are we truly honest with ourselves?

because we all know that somewhere within the truth, there is always a lie....