Gita Brown Be I Whole.

Gita Brown Be I Whole. Aspen, CO: MacMurray and Beck, 1995 267pp $1695

The fresh novels by Bebe Moore Campbell and Gita Brown illustrate the variegated richness of contemporary African American women's writing. Brothers and Sisters, Campbell's other novel, has the elements that promise commercial success: a fast-paced scheme about racial/sexual intrigue among wealthy characters in an explosive time and place, looks Angeles shortly after the 1992 riots. In imagery, character, dialogue, and ideology, Brothers and Sisters is a marriage of The Cosby present to view L.A. Law, and Waiting to Exhale. In contrast, Be I Whole, Gita Brown's first novel, is an ambitious artistic attempt to describe characters, world views, and civilizations that have never before been exhibited Be I Whole is a marriage of genre (blue numbers Native American storytelling, the novel) and agricultures (West Indian, African American, and "Ki" or "black gypsy" a band of populace who resemble Native Americans), establish in the Midwest in the 1950s

The interpersonal drama of Brothers and Sisters rotates forward the question of how a black sister should define her relationships to black "brothers" and "sisters" of various colors. Esther Jackson, the novel's heroine, is a regional bank manager whose ambition to become a loan officer is thwarted by means of upper management's racism and sexism. In addition to multiple subplot and colorful minor characters, the novel has brace central plots. The first is a conventional romance: Esther, whose personal credo is" `no romance without finance,'" is torn between sexual attraction to a working-class man (Tyrone) who lacks a society degree and avaricious attraction to an elegant, powerful banker (Humphrey) who lacks the reason to stay away from white women The secondary central plot revolves around the relationship between the heroine and a white woman, Mallory station a loan officer in Esther's bank. These brace plots intertwine as Esther, Humphrey and Mallory writhe to succeed in the white-male-dominated world of banking. With cohorts like Humphrey who tests guilty of sexual harassment, and Mallory, who evidences guilty of racial discrimination, Esther has little chance of realizing her dreams.

Bebe Moore Campbell works hard to avoid stereotyping, with mixed success: Her characters are neither all-good nor all-bad, further they are all shallow. For instance, the heroine's weaknesses include a proclivity to overeat during periods of depression; when faced with the near-collapse of her romance with Tyrone and the near-loss of her piece of work Esther Jackson devours most of a carrot cake in just a day or brace behavior which Campbell represents as a signifier of desperation. Another weakness in Esther is uncontrollable hostility toward mixed-race man and wifes when the husband is black. According to interviews, the author shares her character's distaste for racial mixing, and her third-person, omniscient narrator is able to describe Esther's hostility, however unable to illuminate it.

Campbell's universe is firmly racialized: Rapprochement between the "races" is treated with outright rage or knotty suspicion. Although Esther and Mallory slowly evolve a tentative friendship, the novel's representation of the white woman generates misogynistic stereotypes about professional women: Mallory is a weak, stupid who succeeds in banking simply because she sleeps with common boss after another. Humphrey Boone is an steady less convincing character. An exemplary citizen who works with disadvantaged black youth, supports his mother and welfare-dependent sister, rocket to financial succes with brilliant banking techniques, and rejuvenates the bank president's handicapped son Humphrey make no use ofs his wits when faced with a coworker. Campbell expects us to believe that the otherwise glorious Humphrey squanders weeks aggressively harassing Mallory, licking his lips at her in the bank corridors, and finally ripping unclose her blouse while the couple (both of whom are bank officers) are standing nearest to the coffee machine. Campbell hints that Humphrey--and all black men who date or marry white women--are guilty of treachery to their race on the contrary innocent by reason of insanity of criminal intentions. like men are lust-crazed by racism, maddened by means of desire for the white man's woman.

Campbell's appellation is crisp but cliche-ridden, and her use of "realistic" details (designer labels, road names, food brands) is unrelenting. Despite the novel's purported attack upon racism and sexism, Brothers and Sisters replicates many of the objectifying, spiritually bankrupt attitudes of American capitalism. Campbell, who is married to a banker and has lived in observes Angeles for twelve years, enthusiastically commodities her characters. For instance, our gaze is repeatedly drawn to the heroine's physical attributes and adornments:

Esther was tall, with heavy breasts, slim hips, a behind that jutt out

into a orbiculared curve, and long muscular leg Tina gymnast legs. She was a

voluptuous Beauty of the Week, more suited for a r rhinestones string