Redemption Song

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY JAN 3, 2000

Comedian and inspirational speaker Berry (Sckraight from the Ghetto) makes a tear-tugging fiction debut with this slim romantic fable about connections across generations. Neighbors Josephine "Fina" Chambers and Ross Buchanan meet serendipitously when they reach simultaneously for the only known copy of a slave woman's journal at a celebrated bookstore devoted to works by black authors. Proprietor Cosina Brown, Miss Cozy to her friends, refuses to sell the valuable book to either customer, but she suspects each has a legitimate reason for wanting it, and convinces the two of them to read it aloud to each other at her shop. The story may hold keys to issues in each of their lives: Fina has buried herself in work since her father's death two years earlier, and is unable to sustain a relationship. Ross, an anthropologist specializing in urban myths, wants to prove the narrative is more than a legend and come to terms with his troubled past by unearthing a tale of enduring love. As Fina and Ross read the diary, with Miss Cozy hovering nearby, the saga of slaves Iona and Joe, separated by circumstances, unites the trio. Written by Iona, who was granted the gift of spontaneous literacy, the diary tells of familiar indignities and injustices of slavery. It concludes with the account of a tragedy, but Miss Cozy's psychic insight leads her to believe that the end of the diary is not the end of the story. Her powers of perception bring the trio to a spiritual affirmation of love and what Miss Cozy calls a Recipe for Life. Berry's premise is interesting, but the rapid intimacy between Fina and Ross strains credulity, as do the frequent coincidences that advance the plot. Readers of inspirational fiction may enjoy this combination of sentimental love story and black history, however.