GOOD HAIR : A NOVEL

Rating:
Summary: Good social reading!
Review: "Good Hair" was an entertaining read. The author tells a good story about those who live the good life... or do they? This novel is full of laughs that will make your toes curl and your hair (good or bad:-) stand!

"Good Hair" is an easy, enjoyable read.

Rating:
Summary: Superficial, yet entertaining and easy to read.
Review: Although I enjoyed reading this book, I was very disappointed with the message the auther seems to be conveying--Money buys happiness. Alice, the main character, finally decides to marry her cheating fiance, Jack, only after he buys her a luxurious home in a well-to-do neighborhood. Also, the story line and characters are somewhat superficial. With comments like, "I let him get a whiff of my Annick Goutal" and "I threw my Coach duffle in the back seat" strewn throughout the entire book, the author seems to be perpetuating the elitist behavior and attitudes her main character supposedly despises. After the first couple chapters, those little comments become annoying. All in all, the book was enjoyable--not at all thought-provoking or enlightening--but definitely fun to read.

Rating:
Summary: Good Hair = Great Read
Review: Beautifully written. The storyline flows. The situations couldn't be more real. You travel through her life dealing with love, regret, ambition, family, incest/rape, perception, reality. The characters could have been a little bit more developed, but her obvious writing talent more than makes up for that. This is one of my *favorite* books. The Itch, (the 'sequel') was nice too.

Rating:
Summary: A Breath of Fresh Hair!
Review: Good Hair gives a new prospective that I think a lot of people will be able to relate to. I could relate to Alice's background and how she grew up, the way people looked at her and who they expected her to be. Good Hair was like a breath of fresh air for me because I have and am going through the same things. I understand what it's like to be so completely caught up in what people expect and want you to be that you totally forget who you are and sometimes question if you ever knew. I like the fact that it came from a middle and upper-middle class background. I feel like that characteristic sets it apart from a lot of other novels. Believe it or not, their are black people like these characters in America, even though we don't read about them too often. I thought it was a great read and I recommend it to EVERYBODY!!!

Rating:
Summary: I love this book! I love this book! I love this book!
Review: I just finished this book in 2 days. It is a wonderful read. This author has a knack of talent writing, by which I mean she doesn't drag a story along, it moves at a fast and feverish pace. The characters are all new and exciting, her opinions of others are opinions that some people do have in this society. I loved all the characters and laughed my butt off. Some of the conversations the main charactere had were so real that I felt I was in the room. I could visualize every scene. I loved when Jack sat down at the table with Alice and Miles at the resturant like nothing was wrong and for once, Miles had absolutley nothing to say. I was gripped up on my couch reading to the bitter end and didn't want it to end. I cheered as I finished the book and wanted to see what she has coming next. Cheers to this author. She has talent and beyond.

Marlena Martin author of Poems For Surviving: Breakup, Abuse & Divorce

Rating:
Summary: Alice Andrews
Review: I really enjoyed the book. I liked how it was a romance between two people who came from two different worlds. I really loved the main character Alice Andrews, because I could relate to the issues she went through in the story, and these are issues that us black women really go through. Issues in the story such as sexual abuse, low self-esteem, insecurity, and being hurt by men. And what I really liked is that even though Jack came from a well-off family and he cheating on Alice, he seemed like a man who really loved her regardless and he understood her, and he was letting her know that he wasn't going nowhere.

Rating:
Summary: Alice Andrews
Review: I was bored with this book. The end was terrible, and the relationships never really evolved. The plot took place to late in the book, with nothing happening in the end. I don't recommend this book. If I would have paid more than $6.99 for this, I would have been mad.

Rating:
Summary: Very Boring
Review: Ms. Little delves into the little talked about world of Upper-Class Black life in this her first novel.
I liked Good Hair, although it was not as good as her second release "The Itch". The internal racism issues come up in the protagonist's relationship with a man from an "Old" family.
If you are really interested in the Black Upper Class, may I suggest you read, "Our Kind of People" by Lawrence Otis Graham.

Rating:
Summary: Negro Geography
Review: On a cold, dreary winter day and anticipating nothing better than curling up with a good book I decided to give Benilde Little's debut novel Good Hair a chance. Mind you this book had been sitting on my bookshelf for almost a year and I wasn't overly enthused or anxious about reading it but there was just enough information on the book jacket to entice me regarding what I hoped would be a light, quick and entertaining read. Good Hair lived up to the challenge! I really enjoyed this book...and was pleasantly surprised. The story is told in first person from Alice, the protagonist, point of view. It's the story of a most unlikely romance between Alice a hard working, first generation college educated sista who falls for Jack the by-product of an upper middle class, privileged AA family and a third generation doctor. Along the way we really get to know Alifce and the story seems almost autobiographical in nature as we journey with Alice from her childhood through the present as she struggles with day-to-day encounters and tries to find herself in the midst of it all. The storyline was spiced with pointed insight regarding contemporary issues such as spousal abuse, incest/sexual abuse, suicide, homosexuality, betrayal, self-esteem as well as caste issues among AAs. Good Hair was grammatically well written and the storyline flowed, however, at times, it also felt like a casually plotted storyline with sketchy characters,sometimes stilted dialogue, and a multitude of loose end situations. I believe that the storyline had the potential to be even better if (1) greater character development was displayed beyond Alice's character; I especially would have liked to hear Jack's point of view vs. being told about him from primarily Alice's perspective; (2) stronger ending...I was really disappointed in the ending which seemed trite and predictable. Then again the ending did leave room for a sequel. Overall Good Hair was a good read and it held my interest so much so that I was able to finish the book in one setting. Ms. Little's writing style piqued my interest and I will also give The Itch-her sophomore novel- a chance.

Rating:
Summary: GOOD HAIR
Review: The privileged world of Manhattans Black Bourgeoisie is the lifelong goal of Reporter Alice Andrews in the riveting novel by author Benilde Little in "Good Hair". This savvy, humorous, wildly entertaining tale, highlights a successful woman's need to become a member of an elite inner circle of Black Professionals while trying to disregard a past which in these circles would be deemed undesirable. Alice tries desperately to meet Mr. "socially acceptable" Right at all costs with little regard for details like love, trust, and self-respect. When Jack Russworm appears and seemingly fits the profile of Mr. Perfect, Alice is forced to confront all of those issues, many of which are wrapped up among painful secrets from her childhood.

"Good Hair" has all the necessary tools any novel needs to keep readers captivated with real life subjects while taking a different approach in its delivery. I found Benilde Little's style refreshing as she used scenarios involving her main character to illustrate the mood and tension in the scene rather than always communicating her thoughts through narration. Alice's need to belong to these cliques was shown with her acceptance of comments, which she clearly found offensive and this gave the novel a very funny edge because her thoughts were not restrained with the same civility and control.

I believe that this book will be understood and even enjoyed more readily by women, in particular those women who have shared similar experiences as Alice while in society, the workplace, and in relationships. I do urge the brothas out there not to sleep on this book because there are definitely situations that men find themselves in that are not any less real because they are viewed through the eyes of a female character. I highly recommend this book to all readers especially those professionals trying to climb that all important, socioeconomic ladder and taking those sometimes comical hits on the way up.