Dark and Light: A Love Story Book

A pinched, older white divorcee in New York with no friends and no hobbies works late every day and comes home to his computer at night. It is only after he reaches out to a young, homeless black woman who is trying to rid herself of her addictions that things start to change for him. Dark & Light is an unconventional love story-a glimpse into the hearts of two unlikely people whose paths cross. For reasons neither can explain, he offers to give her shelter and she reluctantly accepts.

Both are emotionally impoverished and suspicious of each other and of themselves. Their connection is always on the verge of coming apart. Yet, as it continues, both find they can nourish and enlighten one another in unexpected and unpredictable ways while navigating racial, cultural, economic, and male/female/sexual prejudices-the stuff that constitutes some of the central concerns of today's America.

Publishers Weekly

Grim, joyless and mostly friendless, Edmund Naughton is a white divorce who buries himself in his work as a computer programmer and lives a solitary life on New York's Upper West Side. He impulsively offers shelter to Careese, a recovering black alcoholic, who is homeless, has little education and is shakily attempting to stand on her own. It's an edgy arrangement: Careese has a relationship with the building's super and can't keep her pusher brother Camron from hanging out in the apartment; Edmund, with the pretext of rendering Careese productive in the workplace, buys her sensible clothes and grooms her for a secretarial job, but is already growing emotionally attached. Despite a surface aversion to each other, they share a bond as wounded parents: Careese's 10-year-old daughter has been taken away from her because of a careless, drunken burning incident; Edmund `s college-age daughter hates him for failing to save her from her abusive stepfather. Laser (Old Friend Old Pal) overplays their nagging black-white assumptions about each other (and about secondary characters like Careese's ex-DeVaughn). Though moments in their relationship ring true, the whole has a schematic feel. (Sept.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.