Here and Now
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
In this powerful classic by New York Times bestselling author Kimberla Lawson Roby, two sisters as different as night and day must find the light in each other amid their darkest times . . .
Brilliant and vibrant, Marcella Jones had the whole world in her hands, until she gave her heart to the wrong man. Tyrone was handsome and charismatic, but he left her destitute, raising two small children alone—and yearning for the kind of life her dead-end job will never provide. Marcella's elder sister, Racquel, lives in a fine home, has a fulfilling career and the love of Kevin, her handsome, successful, supportive husband. Yet her desperate longing for a child is driving her into a deep depression, and away from Kevin.
Marcella and Racquel are so hungry for what the other has, they are tearing their lives apart. Only with each other's help can they heal the hurt and celebrate the joy of everything that’s been given to them.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The soap operatic plot of Kimberla Lawson Roby's second novel (Behind Closed Doors) revolves around the lives of two African-American sisters, Marcella and Racquel. Teacher Racquel threatens the stability of her four-year marriage with her determination to conceive a child. She is both critical and jealous of Marcella, who married immediately after high school to legitimize her baby. Marcella's situation is hardly enviable, though, as she struggles on minimum wage and scant child support to raise two children in a suburban Chicago project. Racquel and her husband mortgage their house to pay for infertility treatments, while Marcella decides to go to college with hopes of becoming a CPA. Untidy human dilemmas (i.e., Marcella's discovery of her 13-year-old daughter's diary with its innocent revelations of her budding sexuality) backlight the sisters' larger struggles with marriage, money, sex and family bonds. Each chapter ends in a crescendo of melodrama, emphasized by a chorus of slamming telephones and doors, and a proliferation of unusual deaths. Though the novel provides a window on a distinctive segment of American society, its breezy, colloquial vocabulary and propensity for hype and stereotype satisfy as little as a couch-potato's snack. Doubleday Book Club featured alternate; author tour.
