Some Things I Never Thought I'd Do
- Book Review,
by Pearl Cleage
From Publishers Weekly
Past is prologue-literally-for a young African-American woman making a fresh start in Cleage's (What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day...) highly readable third novel. Just out of rehab and nearly bankrupt, 34-year-old Regina Burns receives a much-needed job offer from motivational speaker Beth Davis, a former employer. At 24, Regina went to work for Beth as a speechwriter and special assistant, helping Beth bring her message of empowerment to a growing national audience. The two women were accompanied by Beth's 20-something only child, known to all as Son. Regina fell in love with Son, but agreed to hide the romance from disapproving Beth. When they were discovered, Son broke up with Regina rather than upset his mother, driving Regina back home to D.C. and into a cocaine habit. Just as she is on the verge of losing everything, word of Son's death in New York on September 11 shocks Regina into rehab. When Beth decides to donate Son's papers to his alma mater, Morehouse College, she hires Regina to coordinate the project. Upon arriving in Atlanta, Regina runs into charismatic Blue Hamilton, an ex-singer who becomes her landlord. Blue wields an odd power over a peaceful city enclave bordered by threatening neighborhoods-and over Regina as well. As she works quickly to organize Son's papers, Regina must decide what to do with growing evidence of a secret life he kept hidden from Beth. At the same time Regina fears for Blue's safety when neighborhood tensions begin to escalate. The novel takes a creative path to a predictable ending, neatly resolving several plot lines. Regina is a delightful narrator: frank, self-aware and keenly observant. Cleage stumbles with the story's brief detour into the supernatural, but this distracting misstep only slightly diminishes the story's appeal.Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From AudioFile
Regina Burns, recovering crack addict, is turning her life around. Out of rehab, she takes a job in Atlanta to rescue her family's home from foreclosure. She finds an apartment in West End, a neighborhood where everyone looks out for everyone else and where there is no crime. She is blessed with an aunt who makes psychic predictions, the attentions of a blue-eyed brother who believes in reincarnation, and a liberal dash of black feminism. Narrator Angela Forrest has a smooth, cultivated voice with a flexible range. Her reading of Regina is multidimensional; however, she offers little differentiation between minor characters, and nuance is lost to stereotype. It doesn't take a spiritualist to predict the outcome--still, an engaging romance deserves a happy ending. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine
From Booklist
Regina Burns, recovering from cocaine addiction and on the verge of losing her family home, reluctantly takes a temporary assignment in Atlanta. Her job: to oversee a memorial to Son Davis, the man she would have married if she could have wrested him from the grip of an overprotective mother, Regina's former and now current employer. Can she put herself back in the powerful orbit of Beth Davis? Can she help deify the image of her former fiance, even knowing his frailties? Her aunt Abbie, bolstered by a vision she's had, assures Regina that she will more than succeed in her assignment. In fact, according to Aunt Abbie, Regina will meet her soulmate (a black man with blue eyes, whom she loved in a previous life), rescue a damsel in distress, and slay a dragon. With that tall order, Regina sets off for Atlanta and meets a blue-eyed former singer who has managed to create a utopia in a troubled urban neighborhood, a place with no crime, strong men, creative women, and blooming gardens. Cleage combines her usual strong social consciousness, delicious character development, and evocative portrayal of black neighborhoods in a novel about love across the ages and foibles of public figures. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
“Cleage writes with amazing grace and killer instinct.”
“A playful, joy-filled novel, shot with…humor and engaging, life-loving characters.”
–Los Angeles Times
“Pearl Cleage deftly balanc[es] complex social issues with a warm narrative voice…SOME THINGS I NEVER THOUGHT I’D DO won’t disappoint.”
”[SOME THINGS I NEVER THOUGHT I’D DO] demonstrates [Cleage’s] gift for engaging storytelling, identifiable characters, and sister-to-sister dialogue.”
“Biting and truthful, forceful and intelligent....With her signature aplomb, Pearl Cleage has crafted another novel with captivating dialogue, a straightforward read-to-the-end tale of sisterhood and romance.”
–Dallas Morning News
“Cleage croons a tale of politics-for-hire, community action, and strong men coming on with a voice as smooth and mellow as a jazz standard.”
–Bebe Moore Campbell
“Readers…will be charmed by this tale in which second chances are golden, love triumphs, and good wins over evil.”
–Philadelphia Inquirer
“An engrossing story with a deep understanding of the human spirit.”
–Ebony
“[SOME THINGS…] sets the standard for fiction that not only entertains but raises important issues relevant in the real world.”
–Black Issues Book Review
Review
?Pearl Cleage croons a tale of politics-for-hire, community action, and strong men coming on with a voice as smooth and mellow as a jazz standard.?
?BEBE MOORE CAMPBELL
Author of Your Blues Ain?t Like Mine and Sometimes My Mommy Gets Angry
?Pearl Cleage is one of America?s finest young writers. We fall in love with her characters?but maybe ?friends? is a better description?all over again. We laugh and cry [and do] all the things we do when you realize that these may be characters on a page or . . . they could be you. Another triumph for the true black Pearl.?
?NIKKI GIOVANNI
?Some Things I Never Thought I?d Do is not only smart, sexy, magical, romantic, funny, nuanced, otherworldly, surprising, scary, and right on time, it?s also political. And did I say a fabulous read? Pearl Cleage is historian, archaeologist, realist, lover, and a magnificent storyteller. Instead of offering escape from life, Cleage?s words summon the possibility of life?s wonders. You will know the women and men who populate her novel?or want to.?
?JILL NELSON
?Pearl Cleage is a modern-day Scheherazade. In this novel she weaves gorgeous fantasies of what our lives could be if we all were to provide equal measures of faith and commitment Some Things I Never Thought I?d Do is a tale stitched with magic and embroidered with hope.?
?TAYARI JONES
Author of Leaving Atlanta
?Nobody writes human drama better than Pearl Cleage. Witty, engaging, tender, and bittersweet, Ms. Cleage writes tales that illuminate the generosity and power of women?s souls. In this glorious novel, a good woman rescues herself, rekindles her passion for life and love, and heals a family torn apart by betrayal and secrets. There?s no better ?praise song? to love, living, and the wondrous imperfection of humanity than Some Things I Never Thought I?d Do. Laugh, cry, nod your head in recognition, for Ms. Cleage has captured life on the page.?
?JEWELL PARKER RHODES
?With the publication of Some Things I Never Thought I?d Do, Pearl Cleage further solidifies her position as one of America?s most engaging and accessible writers. Cleage?s work has always been about life, truth-telling, and that spiritual bedrock we call love. Here, as she has done elsewhere, these elements are present, as is Cleage?s gift for creating female characters who are complex, whole beings in search of the power within themselves.?
?KEVIN POWELL
Author of Who?s Gonna Take the Weight:
Manhood, Race, and Power in America
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