Tryin' to Sleep in the Bed You Made: A Novel - Softcover

DeBerry, Virginia; Grant, Donna

Softcover

ISBN 10: 031238372X ISBN 13: 9780312383725

Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin, 2008

Synopsis

Gayle Saunders and Patricia Reid were total opposites who chose each other as best friends when they were children. Through the years they were raised together, as close as sisters. Gayle, the beauty pampered by her working-class parents, believes a man will make her world complete. Pat, the brainy one, is the hand-me-down child whose mystery parentage haunts her. She's determined to finally make a home for herself: in the executive suite at the top of her career. And then there is Marcus Carter, linked to both women from the moment a childhood tragedy bonds them in secrecy. Tryin' to Sleep in the Bed You Made is more than a novel--it's the reading experience that swept the country. You will be drawn into the lives of these honest and believable characters from the first page--and they won't let you go until the last.

About this title

About the Author

Virginia DeBerry and Donna Grant are the bestselling authors of Better Than I Know Myself and Far from the Tree. Tryin' to Sleep in the Bed You Made won the Merit Award for fiction from the black caucus of the American Library Association, the Book of the Year award from Blackboard, and the New Author of the Year Award from the Go On Girl Book Club. Virginia and Donna first met while working as models, and what should have been a rivalry ended up as a decades-long friendship. Virginia lives in New Jersey, and Donna lives in Brooklyn, New York.

From School Library Journal

YA. This novel about the friendship of three African Americans from their childhood meeting through their present-day lives is filled with fast-paced events that pull readers into the story. Gayle Saunders, growing up in a home with caring, loving parents, seems to have it all?beauty, charisma, and eventually a rich, handsome husband and a beautiful daughter; she loses almost everything and ends up in a homeless shelter. Patricia Reid is a tossed-away child who struggles for acceptance by becoming an academic and, later, a corporate success; she strives for perfection before revealing her true identity to her wealthy father; she becomes emotionally empty and another victim of downsizing. Marcus Carter becomes the baseball hero he's never wanted to be and almost kills himself in the process. He seems on a self-destructive course until he faces the truth about his brother's death. As adolescents, the lives of the three are forever intertwined when they witness the gun accident that kills Marcus's brother. The choices they make throughout their lives lead to undesirable consequences but result in each person becoming a worthwhile and compassionate adult. In the satisfying ending, Gayle, Pat, and Marcus emerge from their desolation and all is right with their world. The story is filled with lessons about life, including the church as a social haven and the value and necessity for true friends and family. YAs will identify with these strong personalities as they struggle to overcome real problems in a contemporary world.?Dottie Kraft, formerly at Fairfax County Public Schools, VA
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 031238372X
• ISBN 13: 9780312383725
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 416