- Hardcover: 304 pages
- Publisher: One World/Ballantine (Mar 4 2003)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0345455339
- ISBN-13: 978-0345455338
- Product Dimensions: 22 x 14.7 x 2.6 cm
- Shipping Weight: 449 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,708,224 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Nunez's latest (after Discretion) is a perceptive and moving tale of an African-American middle-class marriage struggling to right itself amid tremors of self-discovery. Both Justin Peters, a professor of literature at a college in Brooklyn, and his wife, Sally, a primary school teacher, have sacrificed a great deal in making their way in white America. Justin, a Trinidadian Harvard graduate, adheres fiercely to the "Dead White Men" of the classical canon, despite his college's party line of Afrocentricity. Sally, whose father was murdered by the Ku Klux Klan, abandoned her ambitions to be a poet after the violent death of her former lover. Yet their comfortable life with their four-year-old daughter, Giselle, is not enough for Sally, who informs Justin that she needs "space" and moves in with her best friend. Bewildered by and critical of what he sees as Sally's feminist platitudes, Justin suspects lesbianism, seeing a parallel with his own troubled student, Mark, who discovers that his girlfriend is sleeping with her white female professor. Sally's inability to articulate what she lacks feeds Justin's feelings of helplessness, underscored by a colleague's accusations of Uncle Tomism. In exquisitely tuned prose, Nunez depicts a man's lonely attempt to save his marriage while honoring his roots. Adopting Justin's sage, reasoned point of view tempered by the Great Books he teaches, Nunez allows the narrative to unfold with understated elegance. Although Sally's existential struggle often seems unfocused and simplistic, Justin must learn to reacquaint himself with the woman he loves. As in most of life, there is no shattering epiphany here but, rather, a subtly shaded landscape, at once familiar and pitted with hidden challenges.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Trinidad-born Justin Peters seemingly has it all: a beautiful, accomplished wife named Sally; a precocious four-year-old daughter; a fabulous brownstone in the hip Fort Greene section of Brooklyn; and a professorship at a public university. Everything is picture perfect until his mate blindsides him by confessing that she is unhappy and planning to move out, taking their child with her. While this story has been told before, Nunez, winner of the 2001 American Book Award for Bruised Hibiscus, captures the essence of relational ambivalence and poignantly weaves the everyday cadence of work and child-rearing into the struggle for self-actualization; one gets a good sense of how difficult it is for wounded people to trust and love each other fully. Although Justin is more complicated and multidimensional than Sally-which is regrettable-Nunez has nonetheless written a deeply felt and compassionate novel. Wise and resonant, it will strike a chord with readers interested in the interplay of race, class, and gender within relationships. Highly recommended for all libraries.
Eleanor J. Bader, Brooklyn, NY
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Eleanor J. Bader, Brooklyn, NY
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Sensitive and memorable,
By A Customer
This review is from: Grace (Hardcover)
The ending was predictable but I enjoyed the book. The characterizations made me care about the people.I'm originally from NYC so it was nice to read a Brooklyn story. I also liked that Justin was a Ph.D. It took me into the world of academia - and academic politics. Lastly, I'm 40 (like Sally) and books about midlife crises seem to be finding me! One of my few criticisms is that the lesbian was portrayed in a negative light. I would love to see more of an examination of Sally and Anna's friendship in another book, perhaps going back to their teenage years when they first meet each other. I loved the repartee between Anna and Justin. It was definitely a source of entertainment! The book began and ended within a few months of 9/11. It would have been interesting to have read about how 9/11 affected this family, being that they are from Brooklyn. That's how close I felt to this family while reading the book.
4.0 out of 5 stars
EXTRAORDINARY!!,
By BKNYavidreader (BlackBooks, USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Grace (Hardcover)
Ms. Nunez paints a vivid picture of a married couple travelling in two different directions. The angst, confusion, doubt, stress and other complex emotions relative to the modern couple, are all resonated PERFECTLY in this piece of work.The language is smart and sophisticated... the problems? ordinary and all too relatable. Married individuals will enjoy this one... especially if you cherish your spouse enough to do ANYTHING to make it right when things go soooo wrong!
4.0 out of 5 stars
An observation of a marriage,
By kaymickey "the reader, the writer" (Stone Mountain, GA USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Grace (Hardcover)
What happens when you learn the "big T Truth" about your marriage and your spouse? What happens when a husband learns that the "more" a wife is looking for does not necessarily include him, that her search is not about him? Elizabeth Nunez, with all the deftness of the master storyteller that she is, has crafted a tale of a woman searching for her truth and her husband learning his. Sally wants more; Justin thinks she has enough. Sally is blinded by fear; Justin can only see her through his eyes. "Grace" is a commentary on the truth that a marriage is comprised of two individuals, that despite the oneness society places on a couple, the fact remains that the couple is made of two. Sally and Justin, like some couples, approached the point when one part of the couple begins the fight for her individuality. Some people never make the necessary waves in a marriage in order to grab a better hold onto one's individuality; Justin's mother didn't . Sally did. Justin's turning point came when he realized that his mother was surfing those same waves internally.In this quilt of Sally and Justin's marriage, Nunez also threaded in other patches that either blinded Justin to his big T Truth or opened his eyes to it. Maybe his wife has taken a lover, just not the man he envisioned. Maybe it is jealousy spurring him to say his wife isn't a poet. Maybe he holds back complimenting his student because of his own lack of success in his dream. Thank you, Elizabeth Nunzez, for doing it again: giving me a story of a man so focused on himself that he thinks those people in his life are just bit players in his Grecian Tragedy, people on the periphery of his drama.
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