What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day
by Pearl Cleage
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After a decade of elegant pleasures and luxe living with the Atlanta brothers and sisters with the best clothes and biggest dreams, Ava Johnson has temporarily returned home to Idlewild-her fabulous career and power plans smashed to bits by cold reality. But what she imagines to be the end is, instead, a beginning. Because, in the ten-plus years since Ava left, all the problems of the big city have come to roost in the sleepy North Michigan community whose ordinariness once drove her away; show more and she cannot turn her back on friends and family who sorely need her in the face of impending trouble and tragedy. Besides which, that one unthinkable, unmistakable thing is now happening to her: Ava Johnson is falling in love. Acclaimed playwright, essayist, New York Times bestselling author, and columnist Pearl Cleage has created a world rich in character, human drama, and deep, compassionate understanding, in a remarkable novel that sizzles with sensuality, hums with gritty truth, and sings and crackles with life-affirming energy. show lessTags
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This book was 100% on my radar because of its inclusion on a couple of lists on listchallenges.com. Then when I saw it at a library sale on our ASTC trip to Tampa (for ridiculously cheap), I had to buy it. I had no idea (or had forgotten) going in that it takes place almost entirely in Idlewild, Michigan -- a small town not so very far from where I had lived before that we have driven through a dozen times. This unexpected connection endeared it to me.
Though I think I would have loved this book anyway. This book is so full of compassion, yet unflinching about the challenges of small town life. Characters are dealing with major health problems, grief, criminal pasts, and yet are so gentle with each other in providing space for all to show more grow.
Not that everyone in this book is gentle and compassionate. There are some real heels here. But in the end, we're given chances to understand them all, and why they've made the choices they've made -- even if we strongly condemn those choices.
I really loved this, and was grateful for the odd path that put it in my way. show less
Though I think I would have loved this book anyway. This book is so full of compassion, yet unflinching about the challenges of small town life. Characters are dealing with major health problems, grief, criminal pasts, and yet are so gentle with each other in providing space for all to show more grow.
Not that everyone in this book is gentle and compassionate. There are some real heels here. But in the end, we're given chances to understand them all, and why they've made the choices they've made -- even if we strongly condemn those choices.
I really loved this, and was grateful for the odd path that put it in my way. show less
Told in the first person, main character Ava Johnson returns to her hometown of Idlewild, Michigan. Ava up until recently lived in Atlanta, GA. However, after finding out that she is HIV positive, she ends up having to shut down her business after losing customers when her status is found out.
Ava is blunt, funny, and at times sad when she reminisces about growing up/being raised by her older sister and brother in law. Ava has plans to stay with her sister for just the summer before heading to San Francisco to live. She feels like her HIV status there won't be a problem and she can start anew.
However, returning home brings its own trials and tribulations.
Besides Ava, we have her big sister Joyce, their long-time friend Eddie, and a show more whole cast of younger women that live in Idlewild trying to do what they can to get by raising their young children. I liked the character of Joyce, who even though her own life had been hit with non-stop tragedy, was still doing what she could to make things better for those around her.You have Joyce doing her best to bring a sense of order to Idlewild by heading up her group that talks to young mothers about safe sex and how to protect themselves from assault.
I come from a small town that reminds me of Idlewild. No it, not solely black. However, the town is dying. It physically hurts me when I go home these days, because the houses that used to be full of parents and kids are now all boarded up. We have a large amount of crime and drug use is through the roof. It used to be that I could walk anywhere I wanted and I would know everyone and everyone would know me. Now there are strangers in every house that I pass, and most of them would not think twice about trying to rob me if they think I have anything expensive on me. It makes you sad to think of a place that was so alive starting to fall into disrepair. Idlewild is very much a town like this and to see all of the characters trying to do their best to keep the place alive feels frustrating since you know that they are not going to be able to do much to stem the tide.
I thought that Ms. Cleage's writing style was effortless. Everything flowed together so nicely that I found myself reading and reading and reading without taking breaks. In one sentence you would have something heart breaking said by Ava or another character, and in the next I would find something so funny that I would laugh out loud.
The setting of Idlewild comes alive to you and you can picture every house, the lake, the people in your head as you read. I thought that the ending was perfect and I was surprised to see that there was a sequel to this book, I Wish I Had a Red Dress (Idlewild #2). When I get some more free reading time, I will definitely read this sequel to see what happens to Ava, Joyce, Eddie, and everyone else in Idlewild, I Wish I Had a Red Dress (Idlewild #2).
Ava is blunt, funny, and at times sad when she reminisces about growing up/being raised by her older sister and brother in law. Ava has plans to stay with her sister for just the summer before heading to San Francisco to live. She feels like her HIV status there won't be a problem and she can start anew.
However, returning home brings its own trials and tribulations.
Besides Ava, we have her big sister Joyce, their long-time friend Eddie, and a show more whole cast of younger women that live in Idlewild trying to do what they can to get by raising their young children. I liked the character of Joyce, who even though her own life had been hit with non-stop tragedy, was still doing what she could to make things better for those around her.You have Joyce doing her best to bring a sense of order to Idlewild by heading up her group that talks to young mothers about safe sex and how to protect themselves from assault.
I come from a small town that reminds me of Idlewild. No it, not solely black. However, the town is dying. It physically hurts me when I go home these days, because the houses that used to be full of parents and kids are now all boarded up. We have a large amount of crime and drug use is through the roof. It used to be that I could walk anywhere I wanted and I would know everyone and everyone would know me. Now there are strangers in every house that I pass, and most of them would not think twice about trying to rob me if they think I have anything expensive on me. It makes you sad to think of a place that was so alive starting to fall into disrepair. Idlewild is very much a town like this and to see all of the characters trying to do their best to keep the place alive feels frustrating since you know that they are not going to be able to do much to stem the tide.
I thought that Ms. Cleage's writing style was effortless. Everything flowed together so nicely that I found myself reading and reading and reading without taking breaks. In one sentence you would have something heart breaking said by Ava or another character, and in the next I would find something so funny that I would laugh out loud.
The setting of Idlewild comes alive to you and you can picture every house, the lake, the people in your head as you read. I thought that the ending was perfect and I was surprised to see that there was a sequel to this book, I Wish I Had a Red Dress (Idlewild #2). When I get some more free reading time, I will definitely read this sequel to see what happens to Ava, Joyce, Eddie, and everyone else in Idlewild, I Wish I Had a Red Dress (Idlewild #2).
“What looks like crazy on an ordinary day looks looks a lot like love if you catch it in the moonlight.”show less
A touching and humorous book, this is one of those novels that reminds you to look at even the most serious situations with a bit of humor and optimism. The book's characters are believable and perfectly written, and Cleage's writing is graceful and smart. So much is covered in this fast read, and it is covered beautifully. My one criticism is that it ends too quickly, and perhaps a bit too easily, but the read is wonderful and well worth the while regardless. Absolutely recommended.
I really enjoyed this book, about a woman who discovers she's infected with the HIV virus. In spite of the fact that the characters go through some very heavy stuff, the writing - and the main character - is fresh, and funny, making this book a pleasure all the way through. I loved it, and felt like I learned something, too, or came away with my ability to empathize with others somehow expanded.
Engrossing entertaining this book is a smart novel that will have readers laughing in recognition of the foibles of human nature as it lays bare its characters' and our own assumptions about class, sexuality, and love in unexpected and thoroughly grarifing ways.
Wondeful tale about the fears of AIDS/the black community and love in odd places. I was really touched by this story and felt the heartbreak of each character, especially the narrator, Ava.
A short, fun read, with genuine characters, and some insight into what it is like to be a young successful female entrepreneur who's tested positive for HIV, and has the opportunity to re-examine her priorities.
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- Canonical title
- What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day
- Original publication date
- 1997-12-01
- People/Characters
- Ava Johnson; Joyce Johnson; Eddie Jefferson
- Important places
- Atlanta, Georgia, USA; Idlewild, Michigan, USA; San Francisco, California, USA
- Epigraph
- I will bring you a whole person
and you will bring me a whole person
and we will have us twice as much
of love and everything . . .
"Celebration," Mari Evans - Dedication
- For Bill Bagwell,
21st-century love warrior - First words
- i'm sitting at the bar in the airport, minding my own business, trying to get psyched up for my flight, and I made the mistake of listening to one of those TV talk shows.
- Quotations
- … we danced too wild, and we sang too long, and we laughed too hard, and we kissed too sweet, and threw back our heads and howled just as loud as we wanted to howl, because by now we were all old enough to know that what lo... (show all)oks like crazy on an ordinary day looks a lot like love if you catch it in the moonlight.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)And we danced too wild,and we sang too long,and we hugged too hard, and kissed too sweet,and threw back our heads and howled just as loud as we wanted to howl, because by now we were all old enough to know that what looks like crazy on an ordinary day looks a lot like love if you catch it in the moonlight.
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