THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 25, 1996 TAG: 9602270479
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J3 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Book Review
SOURCE: BY JACKIE R. BOOKER
LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines
AIN'T GONNA BE THE SAME FOOL TWICE
APRIL SINCLAIR
Hyperion. 324 pp. $19.95.
Slightly more than a year after her first successful novel, Coffee Will Make You Black, April Sinclair continues the story of her protagonist, Jean Stevenson, nicknamed ``Stevie,'' in her exciting second novel, Ain't Gonna Be the Same Fool Twice.
Coffee left readers with Stevie as a shy high school girl beginning to question her sexuality. Her crush on the school nurse hinted at experiences to come.
In Ain't Gonna Be the Same Fool Twice, Sinclair rushes Stevie through four years of college during which the Chicago-born character experiences racism, but equally important, further explores her sexuality. Although Stevie has a roommate who is seemingly open to a homosexual relationship, she dates and has sex with a few men, perhaps as a way to hide her real desires and to befriend other black women who are heterosexual. A vacation and subsequent extended stay in San Francisco permit her a more open sexual expression.
Away from family and friends, Stevie moves into an apartment with Traci, an openly gay black woman. As her first lover, Traci teaches Stevie that although a man may make love with a woman, only a woman can truly love another woman. Unfortunately for Stevie, however, Traci is promiscuous and invites an ex-girlfriend to move into their home.
In an effort to free herself of guilt, Stevie reveals her sexuality to her mother, whose response just depresses her: ``There's no way that you're a homosexual. That doesn't run in our family. You just haven't met the right man yet, that's all.''
Stevie thus learns that women - like men - can be unfaithful, and with the exception of her grandmother, her family remains in denial. Despondent, Stevie finds another roommate, this time an openly gay black man.
With Sterling as her roommate, Stevie resumes her quest for a satisfactory, monogamous relationship with another woman. Landing a job at a women's awareness center draws Stevie into a friendship and romance with Cynthia, an openly gay white woman. Together Stevie and Cynthia overcome issues associated with both race and sexual orientation. Cynthia's bisexuality worries Stevie, but she remains in the relationship. Sinclair hints at a third novel with Stevie, who recognizes her own journey: ``I'm still on the road.''
April Sinclair has done perhaps more than any other contemporary black female author in exploring an almost tabooo subject in the African-American community: homosexuality, male or female. Her fast-reading and interesting novel allows readers to follow the insecure Stevie through college and into the gay world of San Francisco. Along the way, Stevie encounters women who are passive and aggressive, open and closeted. Through these experiences, she attempts to find her place in the gay community.
One quibble: Sinclair does little to develop Stevie's relationships with men while she is in college. Did Stevie, for instance, find her boyfriends sexually unsatisfactory? Did she date to hide her gay feelings? Or, did these shallow relationships convince Stevie that she could find more in women? Readers are left wondering what happened during her college years in the mid-1970s. Moreover, the author's hints at Stevie's bisexuality confuse. Is Stevie bisexual, homosexual, or is her journey an experimentation?
Sinclair has clearly staked out her place among the best young novelists, and her topic of black female sexuality, too often ignored or discussed in private, is a welcome one for the reading public. MEMO: Jackie R. Booker, formerly a professor at Norfolk State University, is a
history professor at Western Connecticut State University. He is working
on a book about African-American family reunions.
by CNB