Character we can all root for
A new brand of vivid Terry McMillan protagonist, struggling with family and finances.
Who
Asked You?
By Terry McMillan
Viking. 400 pp. $27.95
Who Asked You?
Reviewed by Karen E.
Quinones Miller
Betty Jean is not young
and beautiful. She's not highly educated. She doesn't have a glamorous career.
And she's not married to a fabulously handsome and wealthy man.
In short, she hardly
resembles any of the protagonists in Terry McMillan's blockbuster novels - Waiting
to Exhale, Disappearing Acts, How Stella Got Her Groove Back.
But she does share one thing with them: Betty Jean is so real that everyone who
reads about her knows someone just like her. And though you may not want to be
her, you want to see her succeed.
Not many authors can
create characters so vivid that readers can't help but sympathize with them.
Even fewer can actually create a character with whom readers can empathize.
Fortunately for us, McMillan is one of those few.
There's not a lot of
drama or glamour in Who Asked You?, and the book starts off a little
slowly. Then again, so does life. McMillan has done an outstanding job of
creating characters to whom everyone can relate, dealing with issues with which
everyone is familiar. Because of that, Who Asked You? is a book that
makes you feel you are witnessing a friend's life and wishing for her the best
outcome.
Betty Jean Butler is a
middle-age hotel worker struggling to pay her bills while also dealing with a
husband suffering from dementia and dying from cancer. Though she's the mother
of three grown children, she gets more grief than support from them.
Her daughter, Trinetta,
has three children by three different men and is strung-out on crack. Even
after losing custody of her little girl due to negligence, she's still an
irresponsible mom.
Betty Jean's youngest
son, Dexter, is in prison for a crime he swears he didn't commit. He's eligible
for parole and is constantly writing his mother begging for money and telling
her about his extravagant plans for his life once he's released - all of which
Betty Jean knows are totally unattainable.
Her oldest son, Quentin,
is a successful chiropractor and serial husband, currently working on his fifth
wife. Though he claims to love his mother, he doesn't bother to spend any time
with her - or spend any money on her - to prove that love. In fact, he doesn't
want anyone who reminds him of his African American heritage.
But if she doesn't get
support from her children, she certainly gets it from her two sisters, though
not the kind she needs.
Her younger sister, Venetia, is a
Bible-quoting fanatic. She firmly believes that all of Betty Jean's problems
would be resolved if she would just attend church every Sunday. Married to a
wealthy but absent husband, Venetia strives to be compassionate, but can't really understand
other people's problems because she's too busy denying her own.
Her older sister, Arlene,
on the other hand, doesn't give a hoot about compassion. She's bossy,
controlling, overly critical, and always has something to say. In her opinion -
and her opinion is the only one that counts - if Betty Jean would just let her
run her life, everything would be straightened out quickly. But while Arlene
swears she knows what's best for everyone else, she's blind to the fact that
her overbearing ways are suffocating her own adult son.
When Trinetta drops off
her children for a few hours, then skips town with a boyfriend, Betty Jean is
faced with trying to take care of two needy little boys while working full
time.
Arlene weighs in quickly:
Betty Jean should put the kids in foster care, put her husband in a nursing
home, and move on with her life.
Venetia believes that this is Betty Jean's chance for a do-over.
Since Trinetta, Dexter, and Quentin all turned out to be disappointments, she
feels God is giving Betty Jean an opportunity to prove she really can be a good
mother.
Then life finally rips
off Venetia's and Arlene's blindfolds, forcing them to deal with the
problems in their own households. Will the sisters learn that by leaning on
each other, they can all grow strong enough to stand alone?
This is not a fairy tale
- there's no Prince Charming, no Fairy Godmother, and no pot of gold at the end
of the rainbow.
Instead, there is a
loving husband who was once a rock, but is now a burden; sisters and friends
who say they are trying to help, but give more grief than support; and a
seemingly never-ending struggle to make ends meet. But, in writing this book,
Terry McMillan reminds us that no matter what, there's always the possibility
of a Happily Ever After.
Karen E. Quinones-Miller is a former Inquirer staff writer whose
novels include "Satin Doll," "Passin'," and "An
Angry-Ass Black Woman."
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