Breathing Room
-
- $18.99
-
- $18.99
Publisher Description
In her dazzling debut novel, award-winning author Patricia Elam takes us into the lives of two completely different women whose friendship has helped them weather just about everything. But now they're at a crossroads where understanding may not be enough -- a place where they must risk it all to rediscover what they cherish most.
Photographer Norma Simmons-Greer has a loving husband, a lively young son, and an upper-middle-class lifestyle. Probation officer Moxie Dilliard is as dedicated to her ideals as she is to her talented teenage daughter, Zadi. Best friends after meeting in college, Norma and Moxie are each other's reality check and reassurance.
But suddenly the bond between them begins to unravel in unexpected ways. Anguished over the loss of her second child and her husband's recent withdrawal, Norma takes refuge in a complex love affair that puts her at odds with Moxie -- and with herself. Haunted by her beloved mother's inspiring yet disturbing emotional legacy, Moxie struggles to understand her friend, while her own refusal to compromise threatens to shatter her relationship with Zadi. And a devastating crisis will challenge both women to face the hardest of truths.
With insight, humor, and heartbreaking immediacy, Patricia Elam presents a beautifully written portrait of two unforgettable women, and the teenager they both cherish, as they negotiate the ever-shifting terrain of friendship and identity. A wise, tender novel of what love can and cannot survive, Breathing Room is also an exploration of how the past can at once inspire and limit us, and of the pain -- and promise -- that accompany us on the journey we all share.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The evolving relationship between two African-American women forms the centerpiece of this spirited, fluidly written debut novel set in contemporary Washington, D.C. Norma Simmons-Greer and Moxie Dillard have been friends since student days at Howard University. When the stress of being a good mother is exacerbated by the emotional withdrawal of her husband, Lawrence, Norma seeks comfort in her photography studio, where she meets and begins an affair with a white professor. Divorced Moxie, meanwhile, is raising her teenage daughter, Zadi, with the same zeal she puts into her work as a probation officer for adolescents. She is firm on discipline, and vocally supports black issues at the predominantly white private school where Zadi's father sends the girl. When Moxie learns of Norma's interracial affair, she is deeply offended and the women become estranged. The Moxie/Norma story line, while absorbing, is eclipsed by Zadi's endearingly straight-up diary entries. Obsessed by her maturing body, auditioning for the Dance Theatre of Harlem and trying not to be the last of her girlfriends left on the "V" (virgin) train, Zadi steals the show as a teen straddling the privileged world of her white schoolmates and the wanna-be thug lifestyle of her secret boyfriend, Octavius, who is one of Moxie's clients. (Elam thanks several young adults from a high school writing program for contributing to Zadi's voice.) The sensitive handling of volatile topics (interracial affairs, teen drug use and dealing, and the loss of virginity) add immediacy to what is an affecting story of sisterhood.