Reviews for Till You Hear from Me

The average rating for Till You Hear from Me based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2010-04-27 00:00:00 Noel Ch Okay, hands down, Pearl Cleage is my favorite author of the last few years. I have yet to read anything of hers that wasn't topnotch. She weaves a story like no one else. I first came to love her writing with What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day and have read and loved every novel she has written since then. Till You Hear from Me is no different. The protagonist, Ida B., is a strong-willed daddy's girl that has had a falling out with her Civil Rights legend father, the fictitious Reverend Horace A. Dunbar, due to his lack of support for Barack Obama. Cleage does an outstanding job of creating a story around the monumental 2008 election and some of the lesser known opinions and fears of older African American leaders and the community as a whole. She gives us a peek into discussions that continue to go on at several Black barber shops, kitchen tables and churches around the country. Will there be a passing of the torch or will the torch be extinguished due to lack of trust, misunderstanding and hurt feelings? As with her previous novels, the characters are so real that you feel like know them. By using supporting characters and the community from her earlier works, Cleage gives credibility to the new characters and issues they face. She does such a good job of describing the community of West End, that it is almost a character in and of itself. While the community doesn't serve as a focal point of this novel, the ideologies and way of life are very much on display. Who wouldn't want to live in West End? The people are very caring and look out for one another. Because of its history of activism, racial success and opportunity, Atlanta, and more specifically, the fictitious West End, is a fantastic setting for this story about the post- Obama 'freedom high' and the subsequent prospects, confusion and challenges that lie ahead. Pearl Cleage continues to challenge social mores and bring attention to important issues through her writing. While this book allows you to feel socially conscious, it also highlights relationships. The love between a father and child, a leader and those that are led and the love of country, are all explored in this novel. Everything is intertwined to deliver a thought provoking read. will leave you feeling uplifted, refreshed and that anything is possible.

Review # 2 was written on 2010-04-23 00:00:00 Shaun Nettle My co-workers have heard ad nauseum about how excited I was to read this book. It starts out in D.C. (where I grew up) then moves to the West End neighborhood of Atlanta (where I live now) and even has a minor character named Toni (who is nothing like me, but makes me happy anyway). Thanks, Pearl! After her estranged father, civil rights pioneer Rev. Horace Dunbar, makes some confusing, disparaging comments about the newly elected president, Ida Dunbar is called home by a family friend to help get to the bottom of things. She's hesitant to leave D.C. for a trip home to Atlanta, because she is waiting to hear about a job with the same administration that her father is condemning. This is a very timely novel that draws upon the little talked about divide between the old school leaders of the Black community and the new school devotees of "Hope and Change". Although I felt that it wrapped up a little too neatly and quickly, I really enjoyed it.