BIG GIRLS DON'T CRY

Briscoe returns (Sisters and Lovers, 1994) to tackle 30 years of African-American history through the wide eyes of an Everywoman protagonist. In early 1960s Washington, D.C., Naomi Jefferson's most pressing issues are extracurricular activities (piano or ballet?), her older brother Joshua's superiority complex, and romance (will she ever be kissed?). Her family, meantime, is being affected by the Civil Rights movement: Joshua's becoming a radical while her parents—middle-class African-Americans who've become resigned to the racism they've been struggling against all their lives—prefer to fight within the system. By contrast, Naomi's new friend Jennifer (who's rich, spoiled, and won't associate with Naomi's best friend Debbie because she's ``too dark'') accepts the status quo. As children, Naomi and Debbie had always planned to open their own business someday, but they hadn't counted on the (stereotypical) pitfalls of growing up black in America: Debbie gets pregnant and Naomi meets all the wrong men, dabbles with drugs, drops out of college, then loses Joshua to the cause she's only just begun to understand. Thanks to her iron-willed parents and Joshua's best friend Dean, however, she does get back on track, earning an MBA degree and a highly prized position as a unit manager at Systems Solutions, Inc., a major D.C. consulting firm. But when she's passed up for a promotion she's more than earned, she decides to go one step further and fulfill her childhood dreams, professional and personal. Only the appearance of Joseph, the adolescent son no one knew Joshua had, threatens to throw a wrench into the works. Briscoe's been touted as another McMillan or even a peer of Morrison's, but the stilted dialogue, heavy-handed moralizing, and plodding plot here keep her in a lesser league entirely. (150,000 ad/promo; author tour)