Filed under: Hot Picks, Reviews, Fiction
The cold revelation that her husband has been visiting porn sites like a religious experience triggers a 50-something-year-old to file for divorce. Well, there were other reasons, too.
Another well-heeled sister discovers that marital vows are inviolate when she learns that she married a polygamist.
Shopping becomes a substitute relationship for another woman whose only dream is to walk down the aisle in diaphanous wedding gown.
And another sister discovers that happiness should never be taken for granted.
No, these are not characters from a delicious Sunday afternoon movie on Lifetime Movie Network; they are members of the fabulous four from 'Waiting to Exhale,' albeit 15 years later. Savannah, Gloria, Bernadine and Robin are older, wiser and clearly have reached intersections in their lives. And their stories are just as juicy as the first time we met them.
In 'Getting to Happy,' the sequel to the best-selling novel, 'Waiting to Exhale,' Terry McMillan emits the same humor and verve that won the hearts and minds of readers of her groundbreaking masterpiece. She leans heavily on snappy dialogue, strong character development and colorful settings in Phoenix, Ariz.
But the four-some don't feel so invincible anymore.
The door is permanently closed on 40 and they are entrenched in their 50s as they set about rediscovering themselves as black women with grandchildren, mortgages, failed marriages and collapsed business ventures.
Savannah, who had not married at 40 in 'Waiting to Exhale,' is married in the sequel to Isaac, a carpenter, who builds decks, gazebos, fences and pergolas. He also loves pornography so much so that she files for divorce. Besides, he is Republican. "I felt like I was married to a Nazi or something.''
If that's not bad enough, Bernadine, who had just gotten divorced and met an amazing man, is now a failed business owner. But all that glitters isn't gold. She learns in a phone call from another woman that her husband is married to another woman -- the caller herself. Now, she spends her days in a haze of prescription drug self-medication, trying to forget what was and hoping for what will be.
"He's the scam artist, honey, not me,'' McMillan writes. "I just accidentally found his other wallet under the front seat of the car when I took it to the car wash, and there was the name James Wheeler and all kinds of credit cards. So, I realized this son-of-a-bitch has been playing me, too. How much has he hit you up for and how long have y'all been married?''
And bad girl, Robin, who was about to become a single mom after suffering through a string of failed relationships when readers last checked in on her, is still chasing her dream of getting married. She discovers online dating and is typing her way to love. "There," McMillan writes. "I slide away from the computer and try to figure out what I can do to fill up the rest of the night or to make the time pass until I hear the computer letting me know I've got mail. I decide on laundry. I do three loads, including drying them and folding them...''
Gloria, who had given up all hope of falling in love, hit the jackpot. Now, she manages her own beauty salon and learns that happiness is much like empty calories; you have to monitor it.
One afternoon, she spends time at a casino without making any bets and says to a fellow gambler: "I just didn't feel like betting on anything when the odds aren't in my favor.''
Though she writes in the prologue that she never intended to write a sequel, McMillan became excited thinking about what could have happened to these women.
"And that's when I realized I had the perfect candidates for this story,'' she writes. " 'Getting to Happy' is the result. In this novel, these women learn how to heal past hurts, how to start doing things that stop them from feeling 'navy blue' instead of 'lemon yellow.' We all know that happiness isn't a permanent place you arrive at, but these women learn it's the choices you make along the way that contribute to how often you feel it.''
In her winning sequel, the Detroit area native (also responsible for 'Disappearing Acts' and 'How Stella Got Her Groove Backj,' weaves a captivating yarn about four women who captivated a generation of women and writers.