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A Taste of Reality : A
Novel
by Kimberla Lawson Roby
As usual, Ms. Roby tells a riveting story I
hated to put down and was anxious to get back to, with one big difference .
. . this story was much better written than her previous works. No jolting
point of view changes and word overuse that plagued her earlier novels.
Granted, she still has an urge to explain character's motivation after their
dialogue, passing up opportunity after opportunity to show this to the
reader by describing their body language. But it's a tremendous improvement.
Maybe she has a more attentive editor; her previous books had the feel of a
rough draft.
This is a nicely constructed look at racism in
contemporary society, those little covert incidents as well as the ones that
are in our faces, cleverly incorporating the protagonist's private life in a
largely corporate story, including her romantic relationships, her
friendships, and little incidents of everyday life.
I didn't find the plot overstated, as some other
readers have said. But no book has ever struck me as without flaws. There
were some things that got to me. She overused the phrase "I couldn't
believe," especially in the early part of the book where Anise was talking
to her husband. I wanted to say to her, "Believe it, baby!" I also felt that
the best friend was too pushy with her personal beliefs on divorce and
interracial dating, especially when she had been divorced herself. But I
loved Anise's close relationship with her mother, which seemed especially
poignant in light that the book is dedicated to the author's own recently
deceased mother. It's a valentine to mother-daughter relationships.
The major point I didn't like was the handling
of the romantic relationship. It moved too fast and therefore never rang
true for me, you know, that too-good-to-be-true plot line. Because of that I
kept waiting for a bomb to go off. I wasn't disappointed here, but I could
have accepted the bomb more readily if the author hadn't rushed things but
instead allowed a strong friendship to develop before dropping it. (I don't
mean to sound cryptic, I just don't want to spoil the plot for those who
haven't read it yet).
I do recommend this book. And I look forward to
Ms. Roby's continued growth as a writer.
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Bravo!, February 1, 2003