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16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Baby, Do You Believe in Us?, February 28, 2005
Poignant, compelling, luminous, this novel told in epistle form is a moving account of a young couple in love and their struggle to maintain a relationship while the young man, seventeen years old, is incarcerated for a horrendous crime. The first words Antonio writes to Natasha is "Baby, do you believe I killed my daddy?" Thus begins a correspondence that spans almost ten years.
In their letters beginning in January 1990, Natasha and Antonio look back at their courtship against the landscape of their beloved Harlem. Their escapades on the subway, their favorite playing fields, and their indifference to their school assignments are now precious memories. Both of them, products of working-class families, have had less than favorable living conditions, Natasha is frustrated as she witnesses her mother's diminishing self-image caused by her live-in boyfriend. There was a time before the death of Natasha's father that they were a nuclear family and had happy times. Antonio has a depressed father who hid his pain with alcohol, lashing out at his family. Natasha is part fly girl but with one foot in church as she struggles with the values of her religious grandmother.
Over the next several months, the couple's love is tested time after time compounded by Antonio's trial, loneliness for the both of them and tragic family situations. Antonio fights to maintain his sanity as he is befriended by two hard-core cons that protect and school him in how to sustain prison life. Natasha, now more focused on school, is rewarded with opportunities that expand her view of a world beyond Harlem. Antonio is no longer ashamed of his thirst for knowledge and book learning, devouring every text he can get his hands on. As the months grow into years the questions remains, can love conquer all? How well does Natasha know the boy to whom she has pledged her heart?
This book moved this reviewer on so many levels as this novel, little more than 200 pages, addressed issues of social, economic, inequities of the judicial system and matters of the heart. It was a pleasure to meet the author, Kalisha Buchanon, at her book signing in Oakland. A gracious young woman, she is to be commended for bringing dignity and integrity to urban fiction at a time when so much of this genre is thrown at us with sensationalism and caricature like images. The language is beautifully crafted, realistic and the voices distinct. Though it is only February, this book will easily make my list of top ten favorites for 2005.
Dera R. Williams
APOOO BookClub
Marcus Book Club (Oakland)
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Elevating the status........................................, February 26, 2005
"Sometimes in this life some things are bigger and more important than your one life could ever be."
As I looked through pages of books I don't have on Amazon it was this beautiful cover of a white butterfly on red with the word Upstate in lowercase purple letters that kept me continuously coming back to this book. The simplicity spoke to my heart.
Okay so I opened this book on 2/24/05 as soon as I picked it up from Borders, and I was surprised at how it was written, but hey we know me, I love a challenge.
It's Harlem, New York 1990. Antonio and Natasha are "in love" You know how it is when your heart beats so hard the very first time and you can't imagine ever being apart from that person. Well imagine that this book is written in the form of letters between these two love birds, Antonio and Natasha whose lives are being altered drastically.
Over the course of nine years you experience the couple as they are trying to survive. Survive loneliness, death, love, and fear. (I dream about you every night every day...I'm so in love with you!) On the brink of escaping the possibility of a longer sentence Antonio accepts a plea for a dime for a crime that we are uncertain at times he committed. Although Antonio is in jail you go through the motions as he and Natasha hold on to their memories as they write one another daily leaning on the other. Natasha has imprisoned herself from living in order to be a stand by her guy chick.
I mean really ten years isn't that long when you're only 16, is it?
Well when weeks seem like years the light finally shines and now it's time that our young couple face facts... Although it maybe love the truth of the matter is that the separation is too hard!
Life gets tight for Antonio. He struggles to deal with all of the hard times. You have to remember Antonio is after all still a child! Being locked on the inside in some aspects has been helpful, but it's also been a hard road. It's only now that Antonio is aware of all that he's taken for granted.
As Natasha grows you see how she sets her sights on a higher education. This self proclaimed "Harlem Chick for life" travels from Paris, to Chicago (my kind of town) allowing herself a prosperous future.
Although it's a major heart ache at times, it can be argued that it was in many ways a benefit. Time after time.
Kalisha this was a very creative gem.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
the best book of the year!!!, February 24, 2005
I was so pleased with this book. Even though this book was fictional, the author made you think that the characters were so real and that this is a true story. You were embraced by the chacters. The book is different because its a bunch of letters two teens are writing back and forth to each other or a spand of 10 years but it is very good and well put togehter.this is a must have and i hope the author get her recognition and either make a sequel to the book or start writing her second book. cant wait for another great one!!!!
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