Baby Brother's Blues: A Novel

✍ Scribed by Cleage, Pearl

• Book ID: 108935612
• Publisher: One World
• Year: 2006
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 296 KB
• Category: Fiction
• ISBN-13: 9780345497048

✦ Synopsis

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 façade 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.

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.
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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