Somethin' Extra

From Patty Rice comes Somethin' Extra, the story of sassy, cynical Genie Gatlin. A slew of bad relationships causes twenty-something Genie to believe men are good for only two things: their bank accounts and their bedroom skill. Her no-strings attitude leads her to date married men. And it's the perfect setup - or so she seems to think.
David Lewis is the man who enters Genie Gatlin's life and forces her to second-guess her theory. David appears to have it all - money, looks, prestige. But beneath the surface are a mid-life crisis and a failing marriage that make Genie's youth and charm irresistible to him.
Through much introspection, both Genie and David learn about love, themselves and letting go of the past.

At the outset of this debut novel, Rice comes on like a cynical Terry McMillan who's determined to make her contribution to the all-men-are-dogs school of literature. Genie Gatlin, 25, having determined that men are only good for two things (money and sex), dates exclusively married guys to avoid the hassles of love and commitment. She pedantically and, as it turns out, only partially explains the not-so-subtle psychological underpinnings of her heart's exile: her father fooled around on her mother, who died of heartbreak. Meanwhile, David Lewis, a 52-year-old former Atlanta newspaper editor, has been transplanted to Maryland because his wife, Monica, has landed a new high-powered job in Washington, D.C., and he's feeling lonely and neglected. When he starts teaching at a Maryland university and meets the English department's new secretary, Genie, the May-November affair blossoms. Genie is terrified of loving the professor, realizing that "David is much more to me than an open wallet and zipper," and while David says heartwarming things to her like, "I idolize you, babe," he still loves his wife. Genie's journey beyond shallowness takes her to a painful reckoning with the terrible secret of her childhood. Rice clearly delineates her protagonist's struggle, but readers may not be sympathetic. Genie is whiny and self-obsessed, her nonstop flippant diatribes registering petty complaints about small penises, lying men and most tiresomely, "that love shit." When Genie becomes so unbearable that even her friends despair, and no one, not even she, can justify her behavior, the reader may suspect that her tale is a cautionary one, but this knowledge comes too late. Readers will be exasperated before David gets his priorities straight and Genie finally decides to take charge of her life.(Jan.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Genie Gatlin is young, black, and savvy. Having seen her mother destroy herself because of her cheating husband, Genie knows "it's better to lease a man than own one." A hot tamale of a cateress with a powerful libido, she strikes her amorous arrangements with married men, since they are less likely to become emotionally attached. Poet and first-time novelist Rice writes in an easy, straightforward style, making Genie sound like your best friend. However, she is not as deft at writing in the voice of Genie's lover, David Lewis, who is twice her age. The reader follows these two through the phases of courtship as their office romance hovers offshore like a sultry tropical storm, then blows in with joyous abandon until David's spurned wife, Monica, a particularly well-drawn character, gets wind of the goings-on. Recommended for large libraries and those with African American fiction collections.AMolly Gorman, San Marino, CA
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.