Review by Booklist Review
/*STARRED REVIEW*/ Campbell's last novel, Your Blues Ain't Like Mine (1992), set the critics raving, and her second will do the same, especially since it examines the deep roots of the rage that ignited the L.A. riots and the high-octane, long-lasting emotions that continue to surge in their aftermath. Campbell has shrewdly chosen a bank as her stage, a downtown bank in the grip of a power struggle emerging under the banner of political correctness. Amid this turmoil, two ambitious women executives struggle to cross the great racial divide and become friends. Esther is black, determined, and cued to the realities of the marketplace. Mallory is white, uncertain, and appallingly naive. But she is also kind, lonely, and loving, while Esther can be cold and judgmental. As Campbell dramatizes the daunting paradoxes Esther and Mallory face in their careers and love lives, she illuminates a host of issues connected to race, culture, romance, and finance. She also brilliantly interprets all the shades of meaning inherent in the concept of "brothers and sisters." For African Americans, it's an expression of racial solidarity, but it can lead to questionable obligations and subtle forms of coercion. Brothers and sisters can also imply blind loyalty to one's gender, butultimately, the terms suggest that, at heart, we are all family, however dysfunctional. Campbell is a keen and candid social critic, and a masterful storyteller. (Reviewed June 1994)039913929XDonna Seaman
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Further demonstrating the authoritative grasp of racial issues and the candid picture of African American life she brought to her first novel, Your Blues Ain't Like Mine , Campbell sets this story in Los Angeles during the aftermath of the Rodney King beating, the acquittal of the charged policemen and the subsequent riots. Her heroine, Esther Jackson--seemingly self-confident but quiveringly intense--has a good position as regional operations manager of a bank. Raised on Chicago's South Side, Esther has glass-ceilinged her way to a two-bedroom house in an L.A. suburb. But along with her success, Esther carries the contradictory burdens of compromise, determination and humiliation required of women of color who move up the corporate ladder. Campbell develops Esther's character by depicting her relationship with Tyrone, a man educationally, socially and economically ``beneath'' her; her growing friendship with white loan officer Mallory Post; the accusations surrounding her African American boss Humphrey's attempted rape of Mallory; the suspicions that her hiree, La Keesha, is stealing from inactive accounts at the bank. Esther learns about watching her own back while responding to the needs and realities of her friends' lives. Campbell's intriguing (if not always three-dimensional) cast of characters reveal the fears and hopes of people caught in a web of shrinking opportunities and institutionalized stereotypes of race, class and gender. Adroitly using the great racial divide of Los Angeles, this absorbing novel explores the intricacies of experience, knowledge and bias which perpetuate inequalities and segregated lives. 100,000 first printing; $150,000 ad/promo; first serial to Essence; audio rights to Audio Renaissance; BOMC and QPB main selections; author tour. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Set in Los Angeles after the Rodney King riots, this excellent novel explores both racial and sexual tensions. Campbell draws a realistic and evenhanded portrait of the conflicts experienced by characters of varied backgrounds. (LJ 8/94) (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by School Library Journal Review
YABrothers and sisters mostly refer to those of African American heritage, although this book will appeal to a wide audience. Focused around corporate banking in L.A., the story is about company relationships and people of color wanting to advance to positions they believe they have earned. Attractive, well-educated Esther Jackson, a manager, has a great deal of resentment toward privileged white men and women who she feels have an easier climb up the ladder of success. Still, she becomes close to her coworker, Mallory, who is white. Esther is also looking for Mr. Right, who must possess plenty of cash and credit cards, thus eliminating mail deliverer Tyrone, who adores her. Things get complicated when a new black employee appears to be Mr. Rightuntil he is more attracted to Mallory. False accusations of sexual harassment and theft are a large part of the story. Readers won't want to put this book down until the injustices are resolved. This novel is contemporary, with allusions to the atmosphere following the Rodney King incident and the L.A. riots.Ginny Ryder, Lee High School, Springfield, VA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
With this daring and insightful novel Campbell requites the unfulfilled promise of her first book, Your Blues Ain't Like Mine (1992). The setting is Los Angeles in the weeks and months following the Rodney King verdict and the ensuing riots. Esther, operations manager of Angel City National Bank, is a token black in middle management at an institution blind to its own racism. Mallory is a white woman in a lending position that Esther aspires to. When the bank president hires a black supervisor, Humphrey Boone, the atmosphere changes: Some whites get demoted, some minorities have a chance to rise. In this newly open atmosphere, Esther and Mallory become friends. Their relationship begins with a shared experience of sexual harassment and almost ends when Mallory is coerced into bringing about Humphrey's downfall. Both women have growing to do. Mallory has not ``done her work'' (confronted her racism), but Esther educates her. Esther's motto is ``no romance without finance'' (she won't date anyone who doesn't make twice what she does), but blue-collar Tyrone manages to overcome her classism. Campbell's LA is an oppressive jungle in which life-threatening violence can erupt anytime, anywhere, from cops or gangbangers. In this world any tender moment is precious, whether it's a laugh shared with a co-worker, an exchange of ethnic food at lunchtime, or dancing all night with the man you love...even if his English isn't perfect. Campbell's in-depth treatment of two women's friendship across the color bar is both guide and challenge. What might have been a slick set of taps on America's guilt buttons turns instead into a well-knit collection of morality tales for the 21st century. (First printing of 100,000; first serial to Essence; Book-of-the-Month Club main selection; Quality Paperback Book Club alternate selection; $150,000 ad/promo; author tour)
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
