“Gracie C. McKeever (c) 2008
This book started off slow, so much so, I almost gave up on it on page 20. I'm so glad I stuck with it and don't know why I ever considered putting it down before the inspiring end. It turned out to be a real treat, like reading 3 books in one as Peter Underhill, the first person narrator and novelist writes his memoirs a la The Wonder Years--only his Winnie is a beautiful and forbidden African American princess named Ebony Mills--and an interracial novel for his black female pen name Desiree Holland, one under which he has written 2 other minorly successful novels several years previous.
Finally divorced from a bitter and greedy socialite, Peter begins a search on the internet for his first, original love. The fun begins when he receives an e-mail response to his queries about Ebony from someone named Destiny who claims to know Peter's Ebony.
The rest of the story follows Peter as he tries to write A Paler Shade of White for his editor and publishing company, Olympus, and the book of his heart, Promises to Keep, for Ebony. Through his emotional odyssey and nostalgic trips down memory lane reliving his childhood and first meeting with Ebony, Peter is finally reunited with the love of his life and discovers some other family secrets along the way that change his life for the good and forever. He comes full circle to Huntington LI where he grew up and where his life began.
Peter and Ebony are perfect together, their boundless love surviving more than 2 decades apart and Peter's intolerant, bigoted father and some other difficulties along the way. Their love, however, and this story is a humorous, quirky, refreshing, inspiring and entertaining trip that I am so glad I took.
This was an excellent read and won't be the last book by Murray that I read! ”
Gracie wrote this review Friday, May 16 2008.
(
reply |
permalink )