BOOK REVIEW:
If you’re not careful you just might miss it. Buried in the pages of Pearl Cleage’s “Seen It All and Done the Rest,” beneath the heavy dose of drama and cheesiness, is a story about people.
At the center of Cleage’s novel is Josephine Evans, an ex-Atlantan in her mid-fifties with a successful career as a renowned theatre actress in Amsterdam. After being gone for nearly 30 years and as her acting career falls apart, Josephine returns to Atlanta to check on her granddaughter, Zora. Months earlier, Zora found herself in the middle of a messy murder-suicide. Zora spirals further into alcohol-induced oblivion and promiscuity each day her face appears in the local tabloids.
When Josephine decides to fix up her West End childhood home, technologically-savvy Zora broadcasts it over YouTube. A five million dollar commercial deal rides on forcing Josephine and the rest of the community members out of their neighborhood. What begins with a single house becomes the journey of an entire community and a world of web-followers.
Cleage, a local Atlanta writer, fills the pages with references to Spelman College, Paschal’s, Soul Vegetarian and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, creating a version of the real world where worldly struggle always ends with personal triumph. Her affable characters draw you in, doling out advice in their dialogue. “Sometimes you have to burn a few bridges to keep from crossing the same river twice,” declares Abbie, a friend Josephine reunites with in Atlanta after parting ways in Paris 20 years ago.
Josephine flies back to America to be with her granddaughter as she staggers precariously close to drinking herself to death, an example set by her father (Josephine’s son). The big reveal of the tragedy glooming over Zora is a bit of a let down. It’s not until over 100 pages later that Josephine makes the decision to repair her house, long abandoned by the property management company in hopes that Josephine will settle for a few thousand dollars and clear the way for the commercial deal.
Without the presence of a suspenseful plot, at times the novel feels like it is dragging. Fortunately, it is in these between pages– after you’ve stopped speed-reading, driven by the curiosity of wanting an explanation for Zora’s behavior, but before you tangle with the storyline surrounding the house– that we meet most of Cleage’s characters. Like the slightly-clairvoyant Abbie, who leaves behind the smell of patchouli everywhere she goes, and Victor, the squatter with a cause.
Masterful in her descriptions, Cleage packs paragraphs with so much imagery and detail that characters come alive in front of you like new-age holograms. “She was a small woman,” writes Cleage, “but she had a big presence, and the intensity of her dark eyes made it seem even bigger. Her dark blue coat, small flowered hat, and sensible, low-heeled pumps completed a picture of churchgoing-black-womanhood that was as familiar to me as a my own face in the mirror.” You begin seeing the character in front of you, hearing their voices, and chuckling at their idiosyncrasies.
The give and take in the dialogue and the scenes Cleage paints for her reader make “Seen It All and Done the Rest” easy to fall into. As the story line culminates in an over-the-top finale, it only seems fitting for a women like Josephine, a seasoned thespian who dons flashy red Kimonos and stars in her own YouTube reality show. By the time Cleage sneaks in her surprise twist, strategically placed at the bottom of the page, you’re so wrapped up in the novel you’ll probably flip back and reread the sentence in disbelief.
At the end of “Seen It All and Done the Rest,” the devoted, idealistic characters have grown on you. More importantly, they serve as a reminder for all those touchy-feely words we should strive to attain, like justice and goodness. As Cleage writes, “you can only be a good citizen one step at a time.”
Seen It All and Done the Rest
Pearle Cleage
OneWorld/ $18
