Friends for over 40 years, Odette, Clarice and Barbara Jean have seen each other through everything.From forbidden love to a cheating husband, the Supremes have been there for each other. And if one of them got out of hand, the other two were there to steer her back on course.
Unlike THE Supremes, Odette, Clarice and Barbara Jean aren’t singers. They’re just friends that happen to reside in the same small Indiana town. But Big Earl, owner of Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat diner, gave them the front window spot while they were in high school and, from there, they’ve watched over and gossiped about the comings and goings of Plainview, Indiana residents for decades.
The plainest and rowdiest of the group, Odette is a no nonsense kind of woman and always has been. If anyone knew that she had conversations with her dead mother, they’d think she was losing a few screws. If they knew that her mother’s ghost hangs out with Eleanor Roosevelt’s, they’d lock her away for sure.
As teens, Clarice’s cheating boyfriend Richmond, now her cheating husband, had a hard time finding someone to double date with because Clarice’s mother insisted she bring Odette along. But, as the saying goes, there’s a pot for every lid and James fit Odette to a tee. Clarice never would have imagined that her homely friend would wind up in a more successful marriage. She never imagined she’d be married at all.
Growing up poor, and with the skankiest mother in town, Barbara Jean vows that she’s going to have a much better life. Rescued from a future that was starting to resemble her mother’s, by the Supremes and Lester, her much older husband, Barbara Jean has been on a slippery slope for the longest. Clarice and Odette see it for what it is, but are too polite to say anything.
These were the tender considerations that came with being a member of the Supremes.We overlooked each other’s flaws and treated each other well, even when we didn’t deserve it.
When one of the Supremes becomes ill, not only is she forced to confront some truths, the others are as well. While the results may not be pretty, you can guarantee that the path they take to get there is pretty entertaining. As Sophia stated in The Color Purple, “things gone be different around here from now on.” Indeed, they are.
352pp
Published: March 2013 Disclaimer: Copy of book received from publisher, opinions are my own.
Theme: With a Little Help From My Friends by Ike & Tina Turner
I don't even know where to begin with this review. At the recommendation of two readers and writers that I greatly respect, I gave Jesus Boy a try. It's hilarious, they said. You'll love it, they said. Fine. I'll admit that there were funny bits and pieces, but honestly, the only reason I continued listening to it was my other requested audio books had not come in at the library.
Some books are better read than listened to and I think, in this instance, I would have been better off reading. For some reason, it was decided that there should be three narrators for the story. And that would have been great had those three narrators been assigned specific characters. Instead, the narrators were alternated throughout sections of the book, while still voicing the characters in first person, so it became difficult to figure out which character they were supposed to be until they said something or something was said to them that clued you in on which character was speaking.
When we first meet Elwyn Parker, he's an upright and judgmental musical prodigy. While other teens spend their time hanging out, flirting with members of the opposite sex and having a good time, Elwyn uses the teachings he's learned the Church of Our Blessed Redeemer Who Walked Upon the Waters to evangelize at school. Elwyn's crush since high school has been Peachie McGowan, but Peachie is in love with Barry, another church member.
As Elwyn's Bible thumping Grandmother tries to keep him on the straight and narrow, he gets caught in Sister Morrison's web. A widowed forty something, Sister Morrison is the late wife of Elwyn's benefactor. After all, Brother Morrison not only bought Elwyn's first piano, he also financed his college education through a special scholarship. In the meantime, Elwyn's grandmother hasn't always been the God fearing woman she claims to be, and her dealings with the Morrisons go back several years.
Preston L. Allen calls out every kind of hypocrite imaginable with Jesus Boy. Some of the twists and turns were unexpected, while some were slightly obvious. Overall, I enjoyed the story line, even with the narration confusion, but I didn't necessarily care for the ending. After dragging out the story line for so long, Allen seemed anxious to wrap it up quickly and skipped over detailed storytelling for several years, instead giving readers a summary of what had happened through conversations between characters. I would have preferred to see the story line more evenly distributed.
Having read another book by the author, I was looking forward to reading/listening to another work by her. I should have taken a pass on In Love With A Younger Man though. From the bizarre timeline to the less than well fleshed out characters, it was a hot mess.
If you're planning to read this book at any time, you should probably stop reading this review now because I'm about to tell you in detail about how ridiculous it is. If you're still here, I'll assume you have no plans to read it and want to hear why I think the pages of this book would be better off lining the bottom of a bird's cage. Actually I listened to this, so it would be more accurate to say the CDs could be used as coasters.
So what made it so ridiculous and why did I keep listening? I kept thinking it would get better. And, honestly, the first six hours weren't so bad. They focused on the character's college years, so her shallowness and naivete were characteristics that could easily be attributed to her age. Wait, let me back up and tell you what this book is about.
Oleana Day grew up overlooked by her classmates, boys and girls alike, with the exception of her high school boyfriend, Stan, in her hometown of Detroit. She believed that things would be different once she began college at Howard University in DC. Unfortunately, the girls there either ignore or dislike her, just like the ones in Detroit. The men do notice her now though and she hasn't even settled into college life well before she's caught up in an affair with an upperclassman. It turns out that the senior she's dating is already engaged to someone else and Oleana, the girl who started out as a promising student, ends up a college drop out after two years. You like how I summed that up in a paragraph? Yes? So why did it take the author six hours to get that across? Your guess is as good as mine.
Fast forward 25 years and Oleana is the top salesperson for her company. She's worked hard for years and saved almost every dime she's made, forgoing vacations and a personal life. As the realization that she has no real friends or a life hits her, Oleana decides to take a sabbatical. Now most people I know have a plan when they take a sabbatical. Whether it's building houses in a devastated area, working on their art, etc., there tends to be a plan. Oleana's only plan was to buy a Lexus. No, that's not a typo, that was her plan.
Somewhere along the line, she decides to move to Atlanta to see if she likes it and decides to buy the car there. The beginning of the new year finds her in Atlanta celebrating the new year with Jason, the 31 year old ex-football player she met on an airplane. Her relationship with Jason is put on hold when she meets Matthew, the 24 year old finance manager at the car dealership. Sparks fly and they become a couple...or bed buddies...friends with benefits? Okay, fine. She becomes his sugar mama.
I'm all for women getting their cougar on, but don't be stupid about it. By day two she was professing her love for him. Seriously, I had to rewind the CD to make sure I had the timeline correct. So you're 43, you're with a 24 year old, fine. But then you berate him every chance you get about the differences in your ages and sound like his mother instead of his girlfriend. Why are you with him again?
So what follows from that is almost six hours of a storyline where it's apparent that this woman is in lust, wouldn't know love if it smacked her in broad daylight, suffers from low self-esteem and isn't naive, just shallow and stupid. Mix in a two minute PSA about the plight of the homeless, a project Oleana considered taking on during her sabbatical that was briefly highlighted but never mentioned again, and Jason's prostate cancer that took up the last 30 minutes of the set and you have a hot pile of steaming mess.
Oh and if you haven't figured it out yet, the 24 year old she was dating turned out to be the son of the man that ditched her for his pregnant, pre-med fiancee back in college. I almost forgot, Oleana decided to become a writer at some point in her sabbatical and it turns out there was a writer's agent that lived in her building that read her book and loved it. Did I mention that the mortgage on the condo she purchased was $ 12,000 a month? Ma'am? A $ 4 million condo on a salesperson turned author's salary? The ridiculousness just never ends!
What did you like about this book?
Really?!?
What didn't you like about this book?
Oleana Day learned not one thing. She was the same silly girl as a grown woman that she was in high school and college. There were so many things that the author seemed to throw in for no apparent reason: the suicide of her high school boyfriend, color issues, etc.
What could the author do to improve this book?
Flesh out a better storyline, make the timeline more realistic, give readers at least one character to like and stop writing to meet deadline. It was obvious that this story wasn't thought out. And don't use songs in your book when you obviously haven't listened to the lyrics. During a fight with Matthew, Oleana keeps referencing a Lauryn Hill song "Nothing Even Matters," which would have been relevant if she was professing her love for him instead of spitting it out at him in anger and accusation. Do your homework people!
Listening time: 11 hours, 59 minutes
Published January 2009
Theme: Nothing Even Matters by Lauryn Hill and D'Angelo
Friends for over 40 years, Odette, Clarice and Barbara Jean have seen each other through everything. From forbidden love to a cheating husband, the Supremes have been there for each other. And if one of them got out of hand, the other two were there to steer her back on course.
