Pride - Softcover

Cary, Lorene

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0385481314 ISBN 13: 9780385481311

Publisher: Nan A. Talese, 1998

Synopsis

Four women, lifelong friends, are turning 40--and what a year it is.
Roz, the perfectly controlled (and controlling) politician's wife, is trying to keep her family together as she recovers from breast cancer and her husband runs for the biggest election of his career. Though he has strayed from her in the past, she has always been there for him--but all that is in jeopardy now that she has learned he has been sleeping with one of her three best friends.
Tam has been avoiding commitment all her life, both in an academic career that shows no sign of becoming permanent, and in her sexually combustive affairs with men. But she's ready to make some radical departures--including trying to return the interest of a sexy hunk who has more than just looks.
Ever since her husband's early death, Arneatha has immersed herself in her work as an Episcopal priest who runs a school and several community programs. But something is turning cold and brittle inside her, and for the first time in her life she questions her faith. Her last shreds of certainty are stripped from her when she is unexpectedly thrust into the role of mother--and finds herself falling in passionate, school-girlish love with a handsome African man.
Finally there is Audrey, whose climb back from the depths of alcoholism nearly costs her her life, but brings renewal to the friends' commitment to each other.
Vibrant, funny, heartwrenching, and real, Pride is an unforgettable novel.

About this title

Review:

Pride weaves together the intriguing lives of four middle-class black women in their 30s, best friends and soul mates since high school. Throughout the dramas of life--illnesses, divorce, death, and infidelities--the women struggle to keep the essence of their friendship alive. Although the plot is not revolutionary, author Lorene Cary creates remarkably believable and intricate characterizations. Roz is the respectable politician's wife, struggling with breast cancer, only to be betrayed by her husband and girlfriend. Tam lacks commitment in her life, flunking in her career and involving herself with a string of men; she must change her ways or lose her friends. Arneatha is the nucleus of the group, the peacemaker who is confronted with a romance which could ruin the stability of the group. Finally, Audrey is the most tragic of the four, an alcoholic who relies on her friends to save her. Like the dramatic scenarios that quickly accumulate in the novel, the book's language is fast-paced and energetic. Pride has a theatrical quality to it: each woman narrates her own scenes, offering a fresh new way of looking at events. The plot does not dull for a moment, and readers looking for a fast, entertaining read and characters of real depth won't be disappointed.

From the Back Cover:

Pride introduces us to four accomplished, passionate, and thoroughly down-to-earth African-American women whose lifelong friendship is about to take some unexpected turns. There's Roz, the sharp-tongued politician's wife, who's trying to keep her family together as she recovers from breast cancer and her husband runs for the biggest election of his career. But she's hardly prepared for the bombshell that explodes when she discovers one of her three best friends has been sleeping with him. There's the fiery and fiercely independent Tam, avoiding commitment both in her career and in her sexually combustive affairs with men. She's ready to make some radical changes, though, including allowing herself to feel vulnerable with a sexy hunk who may have more than just looks. There's Arneatha, an Episcopal priest, to whom the friends look for moral guidance, but who has felt hollow since the early death of her husband. When fate throws her a couple of curves, in the forms of an abandoned child and an intriguing stranger, her life is completely overturned - and she needs all her faith, and all her friends, to get through. And there's Audrey, talented, caring, but nearly ruined by drinking, who has to be the bravest of them all to battle back from the clutches of addiction. Her struggle almost costs her her life but brings renewal to the friends' devotion to each other.

About this edition

• Publisher: Nan A. Talese
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0385481314
• ISBN 13: 9780385481311
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 336