The Barnes & Noble Review
Equal parts cultural phenom, literary trailblazer, and all-around
righteous sister, Terry McMillan inspires hope and devotion, her
novels -- including Waiting to Exhale, How Stella Got Her Groove
Back, and Disappearing Acts -- celebrated for their affirming
vision of empowered women. A Day Late and a Dollar Short
delivers this and more, exploring the Price family: matriarch Viola;
daughters Paris, Janelle, and Charlotte; husband Cecil; and son
Lewis. And as never before, McMillan's men give as good as they
take, equal to their feisty, fast-talking feminine relations. The
layered characterizations -- revealed through first-person chapters
told individually by each family member -- imbue the novel with a
rare dimensionality, as the same people and events are viewed
from multiple perspectives. And more than the title allows, the
Price family in McMillan's A Day Late and a Dollar Short
discovers that forgiveness can offer powerful healing, even from
beyond the grave.
Any man with a whiff of sense knows better than to express a
critical opinion about the work of Terry McMillan in gender-mixed
company. McMillan's legion of female readers fiercely protect
her, unafraid to speak at length and at the drop of a hat about her
gifts and her relevance. Male validation is unnecessary.
Sometimes that level of loyalty gets delightfully loud. Attending an
Atlanta screening of the film version of Waiting to Exhale several
years ago, I witnessed the largely female audience actively
participating, peppering the on-screen dialogue with "Tell the
truth!" and "Amen, sister!" Sunday morning church services
blended with Friday night cineplex previews. At McMillan's
bookstore appearances, too, women have been known to testify
during the question-and-answer periods, joyously, tearfully
remembering the discovery in McMillan's novels of women like
themselves: strong and vulnerable, delicate and determined,
flawed and fabulous.
In A Day Late and a Dollar Short, the four Price women are
complicated and conflicted, seemingly unable to figure out ways to
express their love for one another or the men in their lives without
bumping up against family ghosts and assorted personal baggage.
Intimacy remains illusory. Echoing the four female voices of
Waiting to Exhale, the Price women face some familiar challenges,
including health, finances, children, spouses, infidelity, and career
options. But a departure awaits, as McMillan flexes her fictional
muscles, including several strong male characters who boldly claim
equal time.
Although McMillan has employed a male voice before in
Disappearing Acts, where Franklin alternated with Zora to tell the
tale, it always felt more like a woman's story. In A Day Late and a
Dollar Short, family patriarch Cecil Price and his only son, Lewis,
are equal to the task of getting a word in edgewise among all those
fast-talking women. The male characters are as fully realized, as
complex and as capable of growth and transformation, as any of
the women.
A Day Late and a Dollar Short is, ultimately, about those
transformations. It's about the healing power of family forgiveness,
even when it comes to the wounds that go back to when Mama
didn't love you enough or Daddy wasn't paying attention or your
little sister got to ride in the front seat while you had to squeeze in
the back. In McMillan's novel, those old hurts are batted back and
forth among the characters so often that sometimes it is a struggle
to see the whole picture and, therefore, the whole truth. In this, the
reader's journey is similar to the one taken by the Price family
itself, requiring us, like them, to take one step back for every two
steps forward, but promising great rewards if we just commit.
When Viola's family gathers on Thanksgiving to share the letters
she has written each one, absolving them of all crimes, real or
imagined, the book signals a transition for McMillan, as well as for
her characters. In A Day Late and a Dollar Short, she seems to
have decided that forgiveness is preferable to harsher judgments,
especially in matters of the heart. Where this kinder, gentler
worldview will ultimately lead McMillan's female characters is still
a mystery. For the moment, it seems enough that they can simply
forgive, forget, and, finally, exhale.
From the Publisher
Las Vegas, 1994. The Prices are introduced by Viola, the family's
matriarch: Her husband, Cecil, and their four adult kids, scattered
across the country, seem determined to send her to her grave, or
at least to the hospital with worrying. Paris is divorced, mother to a
nearly seventeen-year-old son, a successful businesswoman and
the one who always comes to everybody's rescue. Lewis is the
scapegoat - his troubles keep landing him in jail, which only seems
to confirm what his family thinks he is. Out in Chicago, Charlotte
knows she's gotten the short en of the stick, has "nothing in
common except blood" with her parents and siblings and would just
as soon divorce them all. Janelle, the baby of the family, is not only
on the defensive about the course of her own life and the man she's
recently married but she's also facing a new crisis with her teenage
daughter that threatens more than she's willing to admit.
With her hallmark exuberance and a cast of characters so sassy,
resilient, and full of life that they breathe, dream, and shout right
off the page, Terry McMillan has given a tour-de-force novel of
family. Healing, and redemption.
From The Critics
Essence
A valentine to the power and beauty of black families and the
indestructible bond that holds us together.
Undoubtedly, McMillan's finest novel to date...a delicious family
saga...McMillan has an uncanny ability to render family conflict
with both humor and compassion...a life-affirming read...a triumph.
Los Angeles Times
Undoubtedly, McMillan's finest novel to date...a delicious family
saga...McMillan has an uncanny ability to render family conflict
with both humor and compassion...a life-affirming read...a triumph.
People
Touching and funny.
Chicago Tribune
By the last pages you're weeping. You're laughing. You're hooked.
It's oh-so-good.
Writers