Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
This third novel for Miller
(Satin Doll) revisits the Harlem projects, where Reggie Bynum, a former
poker player and boxer who now works for the New York City Department of
Sanitation, is raising two daughters alone. His wife abandoned the family
when the girls-now 12 and 18-were very young, and Reggie, haunted by the
memory of his own deadbeat father, dotes on his daughters, sometimes to a
fault. His sister, Charlene (Aunt Charley), drinks Johnny Walker Red and
hangs around his apartment, supposedly to "help out," but really to stave
off her own loneliness. Reggie's younger daughter, Jo-Jo, is a tomboy and
talented basketball player, while his older one, the shallow and
self-absorbed Tiara, is obsessed with finding a rich guy to rescue her from
the projects. She meets Lionel, noticing his black Porsche, his Versace
loafers-and nothing else about him. Both she and her father are dazzled by
his money and his claim that he is a business major at NYU. At the same
time, Tiara meets Rashad, a cab driver who volunteers at the local community
center. His apparent nonchalance drives Tiara crazy, but his depth and
kindness draw her to him. Tiara's sudden transformation at the end is hard
to swallow, supporting characters are even less developed and the plot is
predictable. But Miller's prose has a kinetic energy and she includes enough
saucy dialogue to make this a decently entertaining read.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Book Description
In Using What You Got, Karen E.
Quinones Miller returns to her beloved Harlem to spin a dynamic tale that
sparkles with the blush of first love and the hard-won lessons that endure.
Eighteen-year-old college student Tiara Bynum
is as pretty as a princess and just as spoiled. Her castle is the Harlem
housing project where she lives with her younger sister, Jo-Jo, and her
doting father, Reggie. Her fiefdom is the legion of men at her beck and call
every time she snaps her perfectly manicured fingers. She has no qualms
about flaunting her charms to get what she wants because she's "got it like
that."
Reggie -- a former professional gambler who was
abandoned by his wife -- would do anything for his daughters, even if it
means jeopardizing the family finances in favor of his girls' material
happiness. Though Reggie's sister, Charlene -- a woman embittered by a
disfiguring car accident -- pleads for restraint, her Thursday "family
nights" pale in comparison to Reggie's Knicks tickets and shopping sprees.
Blissfully unaware of the recklessness of her
father's splurges, Tiara believes she's the toast of the world. Her greatest
goal is to find a rich, handsome man who will spoil her just as much as he
does -- or maybe even more. Go for the glitter, she urges herself.
Who cares if it's gold? When two suitors arrive on the scene, Tiara
prepares to be smitten. But when the one she secretly adores doesn't like
her attitude, Tiara's trademark confidence frays into embarrassment, shame,
and confusion.
Blindly determined to strike out on her own at
any cost, Tiara lashes out against those who love her most. Yet the choices
she makes, based on the way she's been raised, threaten to destroy not only
Tiara, but her entire family.
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