THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 21, 1994 TAG: 9408230628
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J2 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Book Review
LENGTH: Medium: 93 lines
SISTERS AND LOVERS
CONNIE BRISCOE
HarperCollins. 339 pp. $22.
When you get three attractive sisters together, you expect there to be sibling rivalry. In Connie Briscoe's Sisters and Lovers, a novel about dating and mating among middle-class black men and women, a rivalry exists, but it is based more on the women's preconceived notions of each other's romantic success.
Connie Briscoe, a hearing-impaired writer and editor for the American Annals of the Deaf, has captured with perfection the rhythmic patterns of three sisters who live and work in Washington, D.C. Briscoe translates the dreams of each sister with all her expectations and disappointments.
Beverly, 29, an environmental-magazine editor, is looking for a ``perfect man.'' Her standards are high and inflexible. She suspects her boyfriend, Vernon, is cheating on her. When a white man asks her for a date, she feels there still might be a chance. But will he be able to meet her standards?
Charmaine, 35, a secretary, is on her second marriage. She works hard but her husband, Clarence, is a habitual liar and casual drug user. Charmaine is more willing to compromise her standards. Doubt creeps in when Clarence snorts cocaine in front of her son. Discovering that she is pregnant further clouds her perspective. Is he really worth it?
Evelyn, 37, a psychologist, has Kevin, a responsible husband and successful lawyer, two children, a nice house and a new Mercedes Benz. Her picture-perfect life is threatened, however, by Kevin's desire to open his own firm and by a female investor whom Kevin won't discuss. She looks at her husband's desire for independence as a death knell for her own dreams.
Sisters and Lovers, reminiscent of Terry McMillan's wildly successful Waiting to Exhale, calls for a reality check. Can sisters live separate lives and still be comfortable sharing intimate secrets? And why aren't there enough good black men to go around?
- YOLANDA ROBINSON COLES
THE APPROACHING STORM
U-Boats Off the Virginia Coast During World War II
ALPHEUS J. CHEWNING
Brandylane Publishers. 171 pp. $18.95.
The Battle of the Atlantic has been recognized by historians as one of the most crucial battles of World War II. If German submarines had been successful in cutting off the flow of U.S. war materials and food supplies to Great Britain and the Soviet Union, neither of those countries could have continued its fight against Germany; and the United States would have found crossing the Atlantic to fight the Germans very costly.
Shortly after the United States entered the war, German submarines attacked U.S. ships off the coast of Virginia, exacting a heavy toll. The sinkings and their cost in lives brought the war very close to the people of Norfolk and coastal Virginia.
In his book, The Approaching Storm, Alpheus J. Chewning, a Virginia Beach firefighter, compiles a record of this critical phase of the battle, fought in the first six months of the war. He shows the face of battle as experienced by the Germans in their submarines, the crews in the U.S. merchant ships that were targets of the submarine attacks, and the U.S. Navy in retaliation. His description of the sinkings and the efforts of the meager U.S. naval forces to counter the submarines, and the many pictures accompanying his account, is a vivid reminder to us all that this was a battle that could have been lost.
- WENDELL N. VEST
``The Approaching Storm'' may be ordered directly from the publisher at 1-800-553-6922.
HALF HIDDEN BY TWILIGHT
D.S. LLITERAS
Hampton Roads Publishing. 170 pp. $9.95 paper.
With Half Hidden by Twilight, D.S. Lliteras completes the trilogy he began with In the Heart of Things and continued with Into the Ashes.
Protagonist Llewellen, a Vietnam veteran who in the previous books suffered the loss of loved ones at home, here makes a gently triumphant discovery of his own capabilities and strengths. Up from the loneliness of dreary cold winter streets, he encounters death, hunger and loss, only to find wisdom and eventually real love.
Lliteras, a combat veteran himself, has been deeply touched by Zen and unashamedly allows haikulike forms to rise as poignant codas at the end of chapters. With just six words, he pens profundity:
between space and time . . .
infinity arises.
- ROBERT STANLEY NEED by CNB