Significant Others

An African American Brooklyn woman finds that her light complexion brings her trouble as she falls in love with a Black businessman fighting his own struggle against prejudice

A plethora of social issues smothers an interesting story about an African American counselor struggling with her racial identity who falls in love with a biracial student's father. Persecuted by other blacks for her red hair and light complexion, Patricia Gilbert hesitantly begins an affair with Morgan Baxter, a black man who seems impervious to her concerns. As the relationship develops, a host of problems that involve the sketchily drawn high school students shifts the focus of the story. Despite obligatory love scenes, the romance founders in a sea of societal ills thrown out for the reader's inspection. A fairy-tale ending fails to redeem a promising novel that loses momentum from the sheer drag of too many ideas and too little development.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.