DREAM IN COLOR

A new African-American imprint banks on women readers feeling dissatisfaction with the men in their life—or so it would seem from this thinny-thin first outing, initially self-published, about a sadly married young woman and her desperate daydreams.

There are two serious romances going on in Cincinnati schoolteacher Victoria Jordan’s life, and neither involves her indifferent husband of five years, Gerald, who is also the father of her daughter. One of Victoria’s fantasies involves Michael Prince, a world-famous British rock star she meets backstage after winning tickets to his concert; the two proceed to fall in love after a night in his luxury hotel room, marry, then try to stay that way despite his drug habit. Victoria’s other fantasy is about a 17-year-old she meets at a disco, a student in her school by the name of James, who begs her to marry him before he goes off to George Washington University. In zippy chapters, the narrative shifts from first to third person, Victoria appearing sometimes in the arms of one man, sometimes the other, but her bliss always undercut by the gloomy facts of her actual marriage to a man who never loved her in the first place but married her because she got pregnant. Pat characterizations and clichéd settings, lacking strength of their own, may be the cause of Johnson’s ongoing attempt to win the reader by sheer earnestness of dialogue. An overall murkiness reigns, and the balance is tipped into incredulity in the end, when there’s a reconciliation with white stud Michael. All along we’ve waited for Victoria to face her own life—but there’s always the safety net of a nice man she just met, someone who’s waiting for a nod from her before starting the romance of her life.

Escapism for the unhappily marrieds: silly and depthless.