Synopsis:

“I am not young, or thin, or white, or beautiful,” says the narrator of Sinclair’s worldly-wise and entertaining new novel. Gun-shy after several catastrophic relationships, Chicago deejay Daphne (Dee Dee) Dupree is an outwardly successful African-American woman aching for self-realization. Sassy from the safety of her broadcasting booth, the heavy-set forty-one-year-old jauntily offers her weight as the cause of a recent breakup (“The brotha didn’t ‘preciate my meat”).

In reality, Dee Dee struggles with the shame of being fat and bulimic. She yearns for mature love and the self-confidence she’s sure will accompany finding the right man. Meanwhile, relationships she’s relied on as stable fall into flux: the twenty-year marriage of her high school friends Sarita and Phil is falling apart; her best friend, Sharon, has come bursting out of the closet, an enthusiastic lesbian at forty; Jade, her belly-dancing instructor and fellow deejay, is on the cusp of ending an unhappy marriage. Dee Dee’s only constant is her cat, Langston.

The mixed blessing of a sexual harassment suit at work brings union mediator Skylar into her life. Attraction notwithstanding, their romance is tentative and obstructed; his (white) ex-wife is trying to reconcile with him and his eight-year-old daughter relentlessly blocks her father’s new interest. In the course of sorting all this out, Dee Dee takes stock and faces some long repressed childhood memories. Refreshingly upbeat and robustly spiritual, the novel steers clear of sentimental inspirational writing by means of its frank and funny dialogue.

Book Excerpt:

Chapter 1

I am not young, or thin, or white or beautiful. I'm a slightly thick sista, but I know how to fix myself up. And I'm on the radio. My name is Daphne Dupree, and I play the blues. I liked everything about speaking into a mike. I even enjoyed positioning my mouth in front of one. And I loved the way my voice sounded, so rich and full, when it came out. Maybe I just liked to hear myself talk. "We opened the set with the incomparable Etta 'Miss Peaches' James doing 'At Last'. That was by special request from Dianne, a blue-eyed soul sister who knows that when you make a potato salad, you don't leave out the mustard. "Speaking of food, we're gonna be broadcasting live from Taste of Chicago, in Grant Park next Saturday. I hope to see some of my listeners. You know I'm gon' sho' 'nuff be tastin', too. 'Cause, honey, there's no such thang as a black anorexic!" I laughed. "You heard it here first." I kept right on b.s.in', 'cause I was on a roll. And I was in control. "Y'all remember, last year, my boyfriend didn't hit me, but he up and quit me? Yeah, he said, 'Dee Dee you too big,' sho' did. The brotha didn't 'preciate my meat. He wasn't no natchel man. Finally had to tell 'im, I was built for comfort, not for speed!"

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Topics/Categories:

African-American Interest, Feminism, Racial Issues, Social Issues, Women's Interest

Type of Work:

Book

Publishers:

Hyperion

Purchase From:

Amazon

Original Publish Date:

2000-04-25

ISBNs:

0380732807