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Summary: A book filled with some serious life lessons!
Review: This is the second book I've had the pleasure to read by J. California Cooper this year. Written in that simple down-home style, Ms. Cooper presents four compelling short stories about women of various ages and status. Even though each of the stories are different in plot, setting, and situation, one theme that seems to connect each of them together is LOVE.In the first story, "A Shooting Star," Maisha, the narrator, talks about the well-known affairs of her classmate and friend, Lorene Shaky. Some would view Maisha's telling of Lorene's life as nothing but the words of a jealous woman. But in spite of Lorene's glamour and beauty, Maisha knows that her friend never understood that being in love went way beyond just having sex. Therefore, she feels deep grief for a friend who never knew what it meant to be cherished and truly loved. In "A Filet of Soul," Luella has been told all her life by her mother, Sedalia, that she is ugly. She is told this in hopes that it will discourage her from seeking love, which would result in her having a broken heart. What her mother always worried about comes true when Luella falls for the first fast-talking rascal she meets. Luckily, she did not let that unfortunate experience keep her from taking the risk again on finding an everlasting love. Vinnie, the single mother, in "The Eagle Flies" almost misses out on finding love and happiness when she allows her devotion to her selfish grown children to consume every aspect of her life. In the final story of this collection, "The Lost and the Found," Irene faces up to the fact that her lover, Mr. Cool, whom she has waited for seven years, has no intentions of marrying her. Just when she realizes how much of her life has been lost waiting for Cool, she marvels at how she has found love again . . . this time from a man who has waited patiently for her all those years. THE FUTURE HAS A PAST is a remarkable collection filled with humor, wisdom, and emotion. There are some serious life lessons in this book and I appreciate how Ms. Cooper weaves her tale in such a way that allows the reader to reflect and take from those lessons a sincere truth, which adds meaning and relevance to one's life experiences. This is an excellent collection of short stories!
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Summary: My first California Cooper book to read and I am smitten!
Review: This was my first reading of CC. I loved this book. It is a woman's book but men would learn a lot about how women think and feel if they read this book. The stories are sometimes sad, very very real--like what life is really like... I think Ms. Cooper is going to end up being one of my all-time favorite authors. I am a white woman who enjoys black writers, especially female writers. They can explain real life better than anyone else I have read.
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Summary: ON TAKING CHANCES, MAKING CHOICES
Review: Truly, first impressions are lasting; from lust to disgust, they trigger a reaction, a judgement, a bias. But, if life teaches you anything sensible, it's that that first blush evaluation is more often skin deep, rather than the heart of the story. My first encounter with J. California Cooper's writing--a title recommended by an acquaintance several years ago--was like a blind date with someone you swear's not your type. It was over practically at the beginning. All I recall of the book is that it didn't grab or impress me in those first ten pages, so I closed and dismissed it, and any thought of ever taking up this author again, from my mind. So I try to be more expansive--go out of my way a little, be more patient, perceptive--as I grow older. THE FUTURE HAS A PAST was a selection of my local library's book club for adults. I balked at reading it--the reflex of a lasting impression!--at first, but then, because I wanted to be in on the discussion, decided, Why not? Why not give it a chance? The worst thing you could say about the four longish-to-lengthy short stories here is that they come from an "old-fashioned" sensibility. Neither in tone, vision or perspective are any of these stories hinting at pragmatic, expedient or "moral relativist" values. No, sir and no, ma'am, Ms. Cooper offers no other than timeworn, tried-and-true life learned lessons. The narrative tone she takes on is the front porch storyteller: a grandmotherly sort, or a real or "pretend" great-aunt, the kind who of an evening, gently rocking in a porch swing, might chitchat, or, better yet, regale you (if you were "grown" enough to appreciate it) with stories that edged on gossip, but were actually instructive, moral tales about how people, neighbors and friends even, handled their chances and choices. "Home truths" and downhome homilies gussied up as mini-biographies. The literary landscape of these stories lies in the shadow of Zora Neale Hurston--the archetypal questions of how workingclass women empower or disable themselves, and just what do they settle or strive for--in territory between Alice Walker and Toni Morrison, between Toni Cade Bambara and Terry McMillan. By and about women, but not necessarily restricted to being for women. There's the woman compelled to count her blessings when she compares her conventional life to the fettered and unfettered lives of her childhood friends. The young woman, enriched yet emotionally isolated by her mother, told she's ugly and unlovable so long and hard she believes it, who craves the opportunity to live and love. The hardworking single mother approaching middle age who's got to decide where her grown children's needs end and her own begin. The longsuffering comeuppance the young, single mother gives her "player" boyfriend, the would-be father of her children. These are earnest, plainspoken stories--not without humor, and a tear or two of hard-earned pathos--that usually take a bit to get started, but are then mostly straightforward. In a sense, this book provided conversation that engaged me. It also offered this man some sound advice about the real stuff of love and marriage, making a relationship right and workable. Stuff to think about, live by. It was worth that second look.
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