Customer Reviews

What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day

5 star:		(237)
4 star:		(126)
3 star:		(35)
2 star:		(26)
1 star:		(17)

 

 

I like this one the best. I know the blurb doesn't sound like much ... An African-American woman diagnosed with HIV goes home to visit big sister. Boy, do I have to tell you ... ignore the blurb and just dive into the book. This is one of the best reads I've read this year. It's not depressing at all ... it's the fighting spirit book that just keeps you upbeat. I remember telling my husband about this book and now, he's interested in reading it someday (after my mom reads it!).

Ava Johnson comes home to Michigan after living in Atlanta for 10 years or so ~~ this was just going to be a short stop on the way to San Francisco where she is determined to find a new life. Only, that plan falls to the wayside. Ava's older sister, Joyce is a warm-hearted woman struggling to find ways to educate young African-American girls about birth control, fight against her church's narrow-minded pastor and his wife who are out to stop anything that is not "Christian-like". And along the way, they rescue a crack baby, Imani and Ava falls in love with Eddie, an old friend of Joyce and her husband.

This is such a rivetting read. One that I highly recommend to everyone. It is written with brutal truth and humor ... and you find yourself rooting for Ava and her family as they set out to conquer the small corner of their world. It's wonderfully written to keep your interest snared ... and I am looking forward to read more of this author's work. This is not your typical depressing Oprah pick ... it's one of the best, uplifting book I've read in a long time!!

2-11-02

This is probably the only book I can remember ever reading that impressed me so much. This book paces itself so well, you almost seem to find a steady rhythm to it.

The story itself is truly reviting, but the author's ability take the reader by the hand and just lead them one step at a time through the story is absolutely incredible. I've never had any author do that to me before. Usually, you're so wrapped up in the plot and charaters and who did what, you speed through the book and finish it before you can catch your breath. Not with this book.

You follow the life of the main character, Ava Johnson, and all those whose lives touch hers and you feel yourself wanting the best for all of them. Yet you never feel the need to peek into the next chapter or "accidentally" glance at the last page of the book.

Pearl Cleage has moved to the top of my favorite author list and will be praised to anyone who will listen. I can't recomment this book enough!

I absolutely loved this book. Started it last night and finished this evening. Ava Johnson, HIV positive, comes home on a pit stop and becomes involved in her sister's life of helping young black women -- most teenage mothers. Uplifting, hopeful. Anyone who suggests this book is a waste of time or predictable is wrong! Yes, there are hints here and there of what is to come but the author's style and perspective makes you want to continue until the very end. Fortunately, the HIV positive diagnosis does not overwhelm the story. Rather, it makes you feel more alive and aware that we cannot waste our time on this earth. The characters, Ava and Eddie, give testimony to the fact that people can grow, learn and change through difficult situations -- HIV, Viet Nam. Joyce's character shows that there can be life after losing a wonderful partner. Absolutely worth every minute of my time.

As a 24-year old upper-middle class white girl, I wasn't sure I would enjoy and/or relate to this story of a 30-something black woman with HIV returning home to her increasingly troubled mostly-black hometown.

Boy, was I wrong.

This story was funny, touching, uplifting and downright inspiring. The author's main character, Ava Johnson, is a lot like me - she's discovering real love, struggling to find answers about her purpose, searching for spirituality, reconnecting with her family and hometown, and forging a new path in life.

Right up there with "The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing" this book is a must-read for a woman, regardless of where she is on her path to self-discovery.

I loved this book from the moment I started reading it. The story is about Ava, an African American woman who moves from Atlanta back to her hometown of Idlewild, Michigan after finding out that she is HIV positive. Her visit to Idlewild is supposed to be just a stopover on her trip to San Francisco, where she expects to find a female lover (for the first time) and acceptance of her HIV status. Instead, she finds comfort in the warm, snuggly love of her big sister Joyce. She finds hope and purpose in the work that Joyce is doing to save the youth in Idlewild from the spiraling existence of drugs, pregnancy, welfare, and violence. But best of all, she finds true love.

Pearl Cleage writes in a very efficient, yet effective style, conveying in a few words what lesser writers struggle to convey in whole paragraphs. Her ability to create an atmosphere of comfort, lush sensuality, or stark horror is remarkable. She writes with wit and honesty, even when describing the pain so often found in life. She perfectly captures the essence of her characters and the roller-coaster of emotion that they experience in the story. I truly cared about these people, so that in the end I cried tears of sadness, outrage, and happiness, all in the space of an hour! I can't wait to tell my friends about this gift of a book.

I was captivated by this story from the very first page! Pearl Cleage's characterization of Ava Johnson as a world weary, sharp-as-a tack, woman of the 90's had me cheering her evolution into self-discovery. I delighted in the way in which Cleage gave power to her characters through her mastery of language and thought. I remember thinking that if I were ever to write a novel (which I never will) I would have created a character as vivid and vivacious as Ava. I wholeheartedly recommend reading this book, which, despite its depiction of incredibly dark issues of abuse on many levels, is a powerful, life-affirming tale of redeption!

Ava Johnson has been diagnosed with HIV and she wants to move to the more open-minded San Francisco. Before heading to San Francisco, she makes a stop-over in her childhood town, where her widowed big sister lives and works as a social-worker. Ava wants to hang out with her sister and relax, but she soon discovers that the big city problems have moved to the small towns as well. She becomes involved in her sister's social work with teenage mothers, crack addicts etc. The story is written like a sort of diary, and we follow Ava during a few summer months where all sorts of things happen. The subjects being brought up in this book are not happy, and it is hard to imagine that this can be a happy book, but it is. It is also funny, well written, moving, dramatic, touching and very good. The characters are easy to love or hate and you feel like you want to know more about the persons when the books ends.

This book was simply excellent. Pearl Cleage is an excellent writer who knows how to take hold of a reader's attention, and involve them in the story so much so to make them feel apart of the lives of the characters. You can not help but to fall in love w/ this book and the characters in it. It was just wonderful and I recommend that if you are contemplating reading this and you happen upon this comment - I advise you to order right away. You won't regret it.

I picked up this book in a used bookstore for the sole reason that it was an Oprah's Book Club Book. I already had an arm load of books and thought that if Oprah liked it - it couldn't be that bad. I chose to read it several months later when I was in need of a short book to read quickly.

And, quickly indeed I read it.

I was happily surprised by how much I immediately fell in love with the characters and by how quickly I was enthralled in the story. I'd never read a book that was so honest in the ways of the African American woman and I was overjoyed by Cleage's writing style and how she really made the reader "know" the main character and her struggles.

I found this book eye opening and wonderful. It is touching, funny, heart wrenching - it is simply, an increadible read.

Pearl Cleage did a more than well job with her first novel, What Looks Like Crazy On An Ordinary Day; and I cannot wait to read her next book. Ava Johnson, the main character of this book, is so REAL. She's a wonderfully courageous woman who takes life one day at a time, despite her fears, and looks at life with a lot of humor and honesty. Her sister, Joyce, is a real gem, as she is warm, caring, and intelligent. Eddie, whom becomes an important part of both of these women's lives, has real soul to him. He's lived a hard, sometimes shady life, and came out of it as a better man.

Ava, dealing with a change of life and a deadly disease such as AIDS, has her real fears of ever finding someone to love, ever having a career again, and how strong will she be once she gets really sick. She deals with these issues in a courageous and positive way, even when she sometimes stumbles . . . she still manages to find her way.

A story of triumph and victory, of loving and being loved, of facing your fears and trying to move through them anyway . . . this is one book that is difficult to put down.

As I've said, I can't wait for Pearl Cleage's next one.