Gingersnaps

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY SEP 28, 1998

Less a novel than six character sketches in search of a focus, this breezy, featherweight debut chronicles the loves and ambitions of several fantastically successful black women. Aletha Brown, a 37-year-old Oprah-like talk-show hostess, spends most of her time moping and envying the bliss of her older sister, Desiree, whose existence includes a successful New York psychiatric practice, a Connecticut home and marriage to a bestselling Jewish novelist. By contrast, Aletha has just shot her boyfriend, reporter and aspiring novelist Reggie Pinkney, after finding him in bed with a literary agent. Although the wound wasn't fatal, Aletha is in such a snit over the breakup that she fires Veronica, her producer, for having had a child out of wedlock. Rounding out the histrionic cast are Debra, a PR flak who masks her lesbian leanings with a strong desire to marry the right black man, and Janeen, whose 20-year friendship and hoped-for marriage to Desiree and Aletha's brother Marshall is doomed when he declares his undying love for Veronica's cousin Eric. Finally, there is Louise, who bears no direct relationship to any of the other characters except that she is promoting her how-to-snare-a-black-man self-help book on the Aletha Brown Show. Readers who get through this preposterous soap opera will forget the characters as soon as they put down the book. FYI: A sample chapter of Gingersnaps has been distributed to African American beauty parlors across the country.