I Wish I Had a Red Dress: A Novel [Large Print] [Hardcover]

Pearl Cleage (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 2001

Bestselling author Pearl Cleage returns to the site of her Oprah pick novel, What Looks Like Crazy On an Ordinary Day, to affirm life's precious wonder once again.

Since Joyce Mitchell was widowed five years ago, she's kept herself mercifully busy by running The Sewing Circus, an all-female group she founded to provide badly needed services to single mothers and other young women at risk. But some nights, home alone, she knows something is missing. And if the state legislature cuts off funding, she'll soon not even have The Sewing Circus to fill up her life. Then one night, at dinner at the home of her best friend, Sister, Joyce finds a perfect meal and a perfect man: tall, dark Nate Anderson, whose unexpected presence touches a chord in Joyce's heart that she thought it had forgotten how to play.

Suddenly, Joyce feels ready to grab a sexy red dress and the life that goes with it...if she can somehow keep her girls safe from the dark forces aligning against them.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

How do you follow up a debut that's a New York Times bestseller, an Oprah Book Club Selection that's still in the Amazon top 100 two years after publication? If you're canny like Cleage, author of What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day, you write a sequel, of course. Returning to Idlewild, Mich., the setting of her first book, Cleage takes up the story of Joyce, big sister to Ava, who was the focus of the original and who is absent from this one, traveling the country with her husband, Eddie. Fortysomething Joyce, a dedicated social worker, has always tended to be an optimist, despite her overwhelmingly tragic life. Her mother committed suicide on her wedding night, her two children died young and her beloved husband drowned five years ago. She's since taken to wearing black, but now she feels ready to wear red again, hence the title. The opportunity to do so comes in the form of Nate Anderson, a new student counselor in town who sees in Joyce the romantic woman who's still beneath the surface. Meanwhile, there's a lot going on at the Sewing Circus, the space Joyce uses for social work. Inspirational, idealistic and spiritual, the book is also sometimes judgmental, and a decidedly "women good, men bad" tone occasionally creeps in; some readers may find this unappealing. The bulk of the book is more about .problem solving specifically, Joyce's efforts at helping young African-American women become "free women" than it is about romance. (July) Forecast: As with many of the follow-ups penned by the Oprah-anointed, this effort will disappoint more than please the acolytes who made the first novel such a huge success, perhaps affecting Cleage's sales down the road. Major ad/promo; 7-city author tour; audio from Harper Audio.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

In her first novel, the New York Times best seller and Oprah's Book Club selection What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day, Cleage treated her audience to the life-affirming story of Ava, an African American woman diagnosed with AIDS and still finding new beginnings. In this work, she shifts her focus to Ava's widowed sister, Joyce, a social worker who counsels young black women in a community center affectionately dubbed "The Circus." When the story begins, Joyce has just lost any hope of government funding for the Circus and is looking forward to a comforting dinner with her friends, Bill and Sister. Sister, however, in typical matchmaking mode, has invited another man. An unsuspecting high school counselor, Nate proves to be the tallest, sexiest man Joyce has ever met. He also happens to be sensitive and supportive and he values her autonomy. With humor and sparkling dialog, Cleage balances the dark, abusive relationships of Joyce's clients with the delightfully healthy love between Joyce and Nate and the strength of women's friendships. These three plot lines are successfully carried to a satisfying conclusion. Recommended for public libraries.
- Jennifer Baker, Seattle P.L.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 340 pages
• Publisher: Wheeler Publishing (July 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1587240629
• ISBN-13: 978-1587240621
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (97 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,798,594 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Engaging and Enlightening...but I missed Ava!, July 14, 2001

By 

Yasmin Coleman (PENNSYLVANIA, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: I Wish I Had a Red Dress (Hardcover)

I Wish I Had A Red Dress is Pearl Cleage's sequel to her best-selling debut novel What Looks Like Crazy On An Ordinary Day. Looks Like Crazy was Ava & Eddie's story but in Red Dress, Cleage's focuses on Ava's widowed sister, Joyce Mitchell. Cleage's takes readers back to Idlewild, Michigan which was once a popular resort community for affluent African Americans but is now decaying, however, the ordinary folks who live there are still working to overcome dysfunction and reclaim their lives.

Joyce, continues to work at the center she founded The Sewing Circus and Community Truth Center(which has been affectionately dubbed "The Circus") as a social worker counseling young black women, many of whom are the product of single parent homes and many of whom are single mothers. Although Joyce has her work, her family, her friends and her town...who does she have to take care of her intimately and passionately as only a lover can do? Five years after Mitch's tragic accident, time is still standing still in the romance department for Joyce. While she has her memories, daydreams and self-pleasures none of those can take the place of a muscular, hard, dark and handsome African American male. Joyce knows that something is missing and that sometimes you really need the real thang...but sometimes Joyce is just afraid. Afterall, her father passed when she was sixteen, her mother committed suicide on her wedding night a year later, her son got hit by a car walking home from school when he was six and her daughter didn't make it to her first birthday. After all the other tragedies, Mitch was always the one constant in her life and now he was gone. Opening her heart and chancing love was an endeavor that Joyce wasn't sure she was ready or willing to undertake at 40something.

As the story opens, Joyce has to put thoughts about relationships, love, desires and her personal needs on hold, because first, she must meet with state legislatures to secure their votes to fund the proposal she worked on the last three months regarding "The Circus" program. While Joyce is busy focusing on the girls and funding, her friends, Bill and Sister are busy playing matchmaker. Over dinner, Sister introduces Joyce to Nate Anderson who has just moved to the area to work at the local high school as a guidance counselor. Nate is a sensitive, understanding and supportive gentlemen and he touches emotions in Joyce that have long been suppressed but as fate would have it... there's much drama with the babydaddy of one of Joyce's girls that keeps Joyce from focusing on self and backing away from Nate. Will Nate be there to weather the emotional/mental storm with her and help her to realize that decent and loving African American males still exist and that if she lets her guards down and opens her heart she might just have a recent to purchase and wear that daring little red dress?

Pearl Cleage has once again created a storyline with remarkable and memorable characters, however, readers looking for Ava might feel a little slighted as I Wish I Had a Red Dress is truly Joyce's story. In fact, I was a little disappointed that Ava wasn't given more presence in Red Dress and was only mentioned in passing. I like Joyce...she's the responsible, stable, older sista who's on a mission to help the less fortunate...all good qualities...but I missed the feistiness and wit of Ava. On an up note, as with "Crazy", Cleage's writing once again inspires and enlightens as she shows us that life is about taking chances, taking risks, embracing the past but letting go, moving forward and embracing life. Fans of What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day will enjoy this sequel from Pearl Cleage as she takes us back to Idlewild once again.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Powerful,Gratifying, Lively and a richly woven story, August 21, 2001

By 

Tolonda Westbrook - See all my reviews

This review is from: I Wish I Had a Red Dress (Hardcover)

I just finished reading Pearl Cleage's, I Wish I Had a Red Dress, which happens to be a continuation of What looks like Crazy on an ordinary day. What a powerful, surprisingly shocking and beauitfully woven story centered around Idlewild, Michigan. This book shines a spotlight on Joyce Mitchell the older sister of Ava and introduces us to people like Nate, Nikki, Tomika, Shelia, Sister and Bill, The Smitherman twins and the infamous Lattimore family. I was delighted that Pearl dedicated a book to Joyce and allowed her to share more of herself with us. It was a gratifying and wonderful book to read and well worth sharing with others. Joyce is a strong and remarkable woman, with so much to give and offer others and she does just that. The story is even laced with some comedy so, it's not too deep and heavy for you. While reading it I found myself rethinking various key moments in my own lifetime. Or as Oprah says, those light blub moments. This book has a liitle something, something for everyone and it's sure to be a book you won't soon forget. Happy reading and thanks Pearl for another delightful, life-changing and powerful read.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful surprise!, December 22, 2001

By 

Cathy Goodwin (Silver City, NM) - See all my reviews

This review is from: I Wish I Had a Red Dress (Hardcover)

I picked up this book in the library, not familiar with the
author, and wow! Pearl Cleage can write! She not only tells
a good story, but she honors her craft. I loved lines like this:
"She was watching Nik get into her car and drive off toward the
danger just like they always do in the horror movies; gripping the wheel, gritting her teeth and swearing she doesn't believe in ghosts." Cleage is a WRITER.
Cleage's heroine, a teacher-turned-social worker, combines sex with sensibility. The book is less about plot than about character; the heroine can get a little preachy about feminism but that's who she is, and it's not the same old story.
The use of film as a learning tool is very real -- made me
want to rent some of those videos myself.
Reminded me of May Sarton, with a lot more bite, deeper characterization and much, much better writing.
"Red dress" reaches way beyond an African-American audience
and deserves to become another best-seller for the author.