Nothing but the Rent

Gayle, Monique, Cynthia, and Roxanne--the only African-American women on campus--had formed a tight friendship in college, and even though they had drifted apart after graduation, they renew their bond again one fateful weekend. A first novel. 25,000 first printing. Tour.

Psychologist and first-time author Mitchell offers a highly entertaining and unusually illuminating study of female bonding The focus here is on the time-tested but undeniably complex friendships among four African-American women who first met in college. The long-suffering Gayle has wanted for years to return to school for an advanced degree, but instead she toils away at an unfulfilling desk job in order to remain at home in Cleveland and care for her ailing mother, alcoholic father, and withdrawn brother. The glamorous Monique is flawless on the outside, a mess within; a successful attorney, she hides her emotional, warmhearted side from the world with a tough-girl, ultraconfident veneer. Cynthia is insecure and lonely and will do almost anything to meet Mr. Right; unfortunately, several Mr. Wrongs will cause her to make some decisions that have drastic consequences. And, finally, there's Roxanne, highly educated, attractive, and good-natured to a fault, but she can barely make ends meet with her job as an inner-city teacher and the hours she devotes to volunteer work. In Minnesota, where the girls met at a small liberal arts school populated almost exclusively by white kids, friendship seemed easy but romance was hard to come by. Now that they've been out in the world for almost eight years, however, both friendship and men are trouble. It'll take a reunion at Cynthia's condo in Tampa, and an unexpected crisis, to get these four very different but equally loving and worthy women to realize that for all these years they've been looking in all the wrong places. Nothing groundbreaking here, just another ``girltalk'' novel, but this one has heart and, even rarer, soul. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

In this first novel, four single, former coeds, who met when they were the only African American women at their Minnesota college, reunite at a friend's wedding and forge a lasting bond before returning to their separate lives.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Another sister-girl story, about four African American women. Gayle, Roxanne, Cynthia, and Monique attended a Minnesota college campus where they were among a small group of black students. Eight years later, after participating in a college classmate's wedding, they rekindle their friendship at a time in each of their lives when friendship and sister love are needed. With help from each other, a series of problems are overcome: Cynthia learns to cope practically with being overweight and to realize that a man should be attracted to her for who she is and not how she looks; Gayle reciprocates a coworker's advances by inviting him out to eat; Roxanne dismisses a man who misreads her feelings as friendship and not romance; and Monique vows to contact her life-long friend, confidant, and ex-fianceto repair past hurts and disappointments. These women, with their collective disappointments and successes, may not be in control of all the things that happen in their lives, but they can rely on some constants: friendship--and the rent. Lillian Lewis