Before I proceed with my review of the new RM Johnson book, Do You Take This Woman?, I feel the need to mention 2 things. First is that this is not the normal genre of book that I tend to read. As you may have noticed I enjoy Sci-fi, action, adventure and classical books. Examples would be the Bourne series, The Book of Five Rings, The Grifters, and The Sword of Shanara series. The second thing I should mention is this is the first book review I have done. Please forgive me if it seems unorthodox.
Do You Take This Woman? is the 7th book for author RM Johnson. His other books are Dating Game and The Million Dollar Divorce. I have not read these other books. The publisher is Simon and Schuster, and the book will be available in August 2006.
I liked the fact that each character is a successful Black African American. The main male characters Pete and Wayne are doctors with a successful practice. The female leads, Carla and Me’Shell, are equally successful. All are intellectuals with solid communication skills. All the characters feel strongly about what they are doing, whatever their motivation, and the conviction shows in their actions. Above all else this is a story about love. Love of brothers (Pete and Wayne), love of a spouse, love of a significant other, and love of the forbidden. It’s the last love that is central to the plot of the story.
From the start we are taken quickly into the middle of a situation that has gone from bad to worse. As the book progresses we are taken back and given the background on how things reached the point of the start, and then we watch as the dominoes fall. The pace of the book is fast, at times making me wonder when certain events happened in the overall timeline. I did not find the book to be a difficult read. I found myself quickly reaching the middle and then the end. [Of course I am comparing it to reading Homer or The Lord of the Rings, which can be quite difficult to read at times]
The characters are not so much described as evoked. By that I mean that I could feel how they felt far more than how they might look. Though the various sex scenes do give more refinement to the image. And while descriptive, I would say the sex was just a notch above an R rated movie scene and not X rated. While I cannot say that any of the characters looked like anyone I know, I can say they reminded me of aspects of some people. And that is one of the strong points of the characters, they all have flaws that most have had or seen in someone you know.
As I progressed deeper into the story the dominoes that would be set and dropped were not unexpected, but not overly obvious either. The writing conveys the anguish and difficulty several characters go thru before making a decision and then living thru its consequences. And the ending was somewhat of a surprise. The anti-climax was definitely a surprise and lifted my spirit a bit.
The one thing I found I did not like were the extremity of the flaws the characters had. Or perhaps the choices and decision made would be more accurate. While I can understand the motivations of each character in an isolated situation, I couldn’t imagine myself or anyone else going thru all of them. Perhaps I’ve been lucky, but there are several things that Pete and Wayne do that I could not have. Both characters make choices with consequences that I could not see happening. Carla and Me’shell both acquiesce to situations I have never know a Black African American woman to do. But my experiences are limited. Given the limits I will say that most every reader will probably see some event and say ‘I know how that feels’ or ‘I went thru something like that’ or ‘I wouldn’t go there if that happened to me’. Even so there is a soap opera feel to the overall story, which some will enjoy greatly.
In conclusion, Do You Take This Woman? is a decent book. If you are a fan of the previous RM Johnson books, I expect you will enjoy this. If you are a fan of soap operas and romantic tragedies this is in you line. If you want to look at your relationship and feel better this will do it. I found the book to be fair. And I am sure that those who like this genre more than I will find it worth the purchase. I think fans of RM Johnson will have this on preorder and won’t regret the decision.
This is what I think, what do you think?
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