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Baby Brother's Blues: A Novel, by Pearl Cleage
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When Regina Burns married Blue Hamilton, she knew he was no ordinary man. A charismatic R&B singer who gave up his career to assume responsibility for the safety of Atlanta’s West End community, Blue had created an African American urban oasis where crime and violence were virtually nonexistent. In the beginning, Regina enjoyed a circle of engaging friends and her own work as a freelance communications consultant. Most of all, she relished the company of her husband, who never ceased to be a source of passion and delight.
Then everything changed. More and more frightened women were showing up in West End, seeking Blue’s protection from lovers who had suddenly become violent. When the worst offenders begin to disappear without a trace, the signs–all of them grim–seem to point toward Blue and his longtime associate, Joseph “General” Richardson. Now that Regina is pregnant, her fear for Blue’s safety has become an obsession that threatens the very heart of their relationship.
At the same time, Regina’s friend Aretha Hargrove is desperately trying to redefine her own marriage. Aretha’s husband, Kwame, is lobbying for them to leave West End and move to midtown. Aretha resists at first, but finally agrees in an effort to rekindle the flame that first brought them together.
Regina and Aretha have no way of knowing that what they regard as their private struggles will soon become very public. When Baby Brother, a charming con man, insinuates himself into the community, it becomes clear that there is more to his handsome fa�ade than meets the eye. He carries the seeds of change that will affect both women in profound and startling ways.
Returning to the vividly rendered Atlanta district of her last two novels, New York Times bestselling author Pearl Cleage brilliantly weaves the threads of her characters’ intersecting lives into a story of family, friendship and, of course, love. Baby Brother’s Blues is full of wit and warmth, illumination the core of every woman’s hopes and dreams.
From the Hardcover edition.
- Sales Rank: #146392 in Books
- Published on: 2007-02-27
- Released on: 2007-02-27
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 7.98" h x .78" w x 5.18" l,
- Binding: Paperback
- 368 pages
From Publishers Weekly
At the start of this scorching morality tale from Cleage (Babylon Sisters), Wesley "Baby Brother" Jamerson, a soldier reluctantly serving in Iraq, is on a five-day emergency leave in Washington, D.C., because his mother has died. But Wes, who "had made an art form of avoiding responsibility," has no plans to attend his mother's funeral. Nor does he intend to return to his unit in Iraq. A failed attempt to visit his older sister, Cassie, to whom he's shown little gratitude despite all her efforts to help him, leads to a lecture from his judge brother-in-law: "You youngbloods think the world owes you a living, and for what? You're mad at your mamas, mad at your daddies, mad at the women foolish enough to have your children. Always crying the blues." It's downhill for the self-destructive Wes from there. Cleage manages to end on a note of uplift, but an overly complex plot and a surfeit of underdeveloped supporting characters diminish the impact of this novel of infidelity and greed.
Copyright � Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Wesley "Baby Brother" Jamerson always ends up in unfortunate situations. His false bravado and lack of skills have led him to join the marines. When he returns to Washington, D.C., on a five-day pass to bury his mother, he sets in motion a chain of events that ultimately destroys him. He goes AWOL, refusing to return to fight in Iraq, and meets Zora. Baby Brother follows her to Atlanta only to learn that she cannot help him professionally because he went AWOL. Yet, she feels obligated and contacts the owner of the building she lives in, Blue Hamilton. Before Blue will help Baby Brother, he must agree to follow Blue's rules. Kwame Hargrove is the son of local politician, Precious Hargrove. He is a talented architect with a secret that makes it easy for Baby Brother to blackmail him. When Baby Brother's double-dealings come back to haunt him, everybody has to pay penance, and the reader is engrossed to the end. Lillian Lewis
Copyright � American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
Praise for Pearl Cleage and Babylon Sisters
“Pearl Cleage’s wonderful new novel, Babylon Sisters, shows a writer at the top of her game, managing to weave together the eternal dance of mothers and daughters, a timeless love story, rich friendships, and international politics into a fast-paced Atlanta saga with an unforgettable villain and a thrilling climax that leaves us cheering. Cleage has once again given us a book filled with folks who are so real we think we know them, or wish we did.”
–E. Lynn Harris, author of A Love of My Own
“Babylon Sisters’ funny, feminine, fabulous voice sings a story of history, family, love and redemption. Cleage’s ability to make the personal political and the political personal triumphs once again! Nestled in this beautifully written ode to love–of child, friends, men, and self–is a call to political activism and empowerment.”
–Jill Nelson, author of Sexual Healing
“Cleage writes with amazing grace and [a] killer instinct.”
–The New York Times
“A perfect blend of love and activism . . . [Cleage’s] characters struggle with issues of conscience and consequence, and readers are always richer in the end.”
–The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
From the Hardcover edition.
Most helpful customer reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful.
Trouble Comes to Paradise...
By Mocha Girl
Pearl Cleage returns to the West End of Atlanta, the crime-free utopia where ex-crooner Blue Hamilton and trusty sidekick, General Richardson, keep the peace ala "Godfather" vigilante style. Fans were first introduced to Blue, his wife, Regina, and other West End residents in Some Things I Never Thought I'd Do and Babylon Sisters.
In Baby Brother's Blues, we meet Wes Jamerson aka Baby Brother, an Army deserter who breezes into the West End in a stolen car in search of Zora, an anti-war coed he met a few days earlier. Trouble rides in his wake and it does not take long for Baby Brother to land a job with Blue Hamilton despite General's urging otherwise.
Cleage continues to dabble in the supernatural by mentioning a bit more of Blue's mysterious past lives and continues Aunt Abbie's prophetic visions. This time, she delves even deeper into the spiritual realm with the suggestion of the reincarnation of General's deceased lover in the unlikely form of an uncouth exotic dancer named Brandi (with an "i" because it sounds classier) who is nearly half his age. The plot thickens when unbeknownst to General, Baby Brother and Brandi connect at a primal level and things turn downright deadly when Baby Brother's hustle for extra income allows him to stumble across a marriage and career ending secret for a close member of Blue's family. The blues invades the Hamilton household when Blue's late night excursions to "handle business" begin to take its toll on his pregnant wife, and the blues take root when one solitary impulsive act upsets a lifelong bond between key characters.
As in her other novels, the author's ardent trademark themes of pro-family, pro-community, friendship, loyalty, and sisterhood ring with resounding clarity and instant recognition. Cleage weaves an intricate multi-layered plot that folds current events into the story (increased domestic violence among war veterans and a sprinkling of political and police corruption). Strong, familiar, and beloved characters (Blue, Aunt Abbie, Regina) return but their storylines come across merely as afterthoughts amid the crux of the story that focuses more on the antics of several new yet forgettable and underdeveloped characters (Lee, Teddy, Zora, Brandi, Bob, Kwame, Wes) and their ill effects on the West End community. The pacing was slow and deliberate from the beginning through about two-thirds of the novel but rushed and somewhat abrupt near the end. The "action" was too little and came too late in the story and the tidy summarized subplot conclusions left a lot to the imagination.
Despite my misgivings, I still consider myself a fan of the author - I love her work - her novels typically contain positive, uplifting messages and heartfelt lessons. Baby Brother's Blues is a well-written and well constructed novel that will no doubt provide much fodder for in depth discussions among reading groups and book clubs because there are some enlightening, thought-provoking elements and a few memorable quotes within the pages. However, it still basically rounds out as just a notch above an average offering for me, hence the 3.5-star rating.
Reviewed by Phyllis
APOOO BookClub
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful.
Pearl Cleage Is a Fine Writer Who Keeps Getting Better
By Tayari Jones
I just finished Baby Brother's Blues, Pearl Cleage's new novel, which will be released at the end of next month. The copy I have is an early copy from the publisher-no images on the cover, not a hint of what to expect. The blurb on the back said that it was a continuation of the story of Regina and Blue, the lovers from Some Things I Never Thought I'd Do. However, this is not a sequel. While Pearl's earlier novels can be loosely classified as "contemporary romances"-though I call them "Trojan Horse Romances", owing to the political messages she slips in- Baby Brother's Blues is more of a noir thriller. Maybe she has made a new genre, "Trojan Horse Thriller."
You don't have to read many pages to know that you are reading something very different than what Pearl usually writes. For one thing, it is in the third-person point of view, and the opening character is a man: Baby Brother, the title character. But I wouldn't say that he is the main character. As crazy as this may sound, this is a book that doesn't really have a main character. Instead, this is a novel about a community. General wisdom says that the protagonist is the character to whom the story happens. Well, the events in this powerful and serious novel don't happen to any one person. The community, the city, the neighborhood, Atlanta's West End-this is the main character.
The novel's cast includes Blue Hamilton, the self-appointed Emperor of the West End, his right-hand man General, and General's lover Brandi (who works as a stripper at Montre's). Precious Hargrove, the righteous sister-politician is back, along with her son Kwame who has a terrible secret. Baby Brother, a Iraq War deserter with a rap sheet and bad attitude, is our guide through an underground world of down-low brothers and other parts of Atlanta that most people don't talk about. While most of the characters live in the West End which has been made safe by Blue Hamilton's rule, this book is extremely gritty. There are crooked cops and strange bedfellows, betrayal and revenge, murder and suicide. The violence is not for the faint-hearted, but it is though Pearl is saying, "It hurts you to read about it, but there are people LIVING this life!"
Usually, when I get one of Pearl's books in the mail, I make some tea, grab some animal crackers and gobble it up in a single sitting. But this is a book that makes you slow down and take your time. You have to ponder it, read every word, because it's not a story that goes where you think it's going. The characters are many, but fully drawn and haunting. The choices they make aren't easy and the consequences are not always pretty.
But even through the ugliness and corruption, Pearl Cleage's optimism still shines through. As always, she writes with a big heart and gives the reader hope that self-love, black-on-black love is what we need if we are going to make it through these terrible times. Regina and Blue are expecting a baby and you feel like their love that has endured lifetimes will be here for a few more. And of course, we have our own Pearl, who tells it like it is, unflinching but tender with a compassion and honesty that always reminds us that the power is ours.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful.
A great story!
By Ratmammy
BABY BROTHER'S BLUES by Pearl Cleage
March 5, 2006
Amazon Rating: 4/5 stars
Where two worlds collide in an Atlanta neighborhood, a man named Blue Hamilton "imposes" his rules to keep the peace among his people, but outer forces seem to be tearing the neighborhood apart. This is one of the themes in BABY BROTHER'S BLUES, the latest by Pearl Cleage, known best for her Oprah pick WHAT LOOKS CRAZY ON AN ORDINARY DAY. In this latest venture, Blue and his family and friends are part of the focus of the story, but when Baby Brother enters the picture, some lives are disrupted and tragedy is one of the results.
With a number of charismatic characters that fill these pages, I enjoyed the story that followed Blue, his wife and unborn child. Baby Brother, the negative element, is on leave from Iraq and has no intention of going back, and his presence in Blue's neighborhood, The West End (in Atlanta) causes tragedy among a number of people that are part of Blue's life. Namely, General Richardson, Blue's right hand man, finds himself inadvertently caught up in the world of one woman, Brandi, who he thinks is a sign from his deceased lover, Juanita, who also happened to be Blue's mother. And, Kwame Hargrove, the son of a prominent Atlanta politician, has a secret that could ruin his mother's career and his own.
BABY BROTHER'S BLUES is an intricate weaving of stories that are entwined together and end up back to Blue Hamilton. With a full cast of characters, not everyone has a happy ending, but that is what I liked about this book. This is not a Hollywood-happy ending type of book. It felt real and that is what kept me reading. I am definitely a fan of Pearl Cleage now, and look forward to reading the read more by her.
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