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It's Not All
Downhill from Here
by Terry McMillan
c.2020, Ballantine Books
$28.00 / $37.00 Canada
350 pages
By Terri Schlichenmeyer
The Truth Contributor
Getting old ain't for
sissies.
Aging is not for the weak,
whiners, or wimps, not for 'fraidycats or those with no
confidence, and aging is absolutely not for the inflexible.
But then again, as in the new novel by Terry McMillan,
It's Not All Downhill from Here, either.
The last thing Loretha
Curry wanted was another "surprise" birthday party.
Good heavens, she was
going to be 68 on New Year's Eve and she told her husband,
Carl, that she didn't want the fuss again this year. He
would listen to her wishes, but her girlfriends? They never
would. |
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Yet, they did.
Korynthia, Poochie, Lucky,
and Sadie stepped back and let Carl handle a special treat:
a weekend at Loretha's favorite hotel in Palm Springs, just
the two of them. It was exactly what she needed to take her
mind off everything: her mother had been moved into assisted
living; her sister, Odessa, was some kind of witch; her
daughter, Jalecia, was Heaven-knows-where and probably high
on something; her granddaughter, Cinnamon, was a "space
cadet"; and Loretha was just plain tired. A weekend away
with Carl would be perfect.
But before it had even
started, her birthday weekend ended in a way that Loretha
could never have imagined, with a loss both unfathomable and
unfair. When it was all over and everybody went home, she
could barely remember what hour it was. She closed her
businesses because she had no energy to run them.
Staying at home, alone and
staring at four walls, wasn't an option, though. Jalecia
moved in with Loretha's ex-sister-in-law, who was always
calling for money. Cinnamon announced that she was pregnant
with twins and could she have one of Loretha's
rentals? Then Korynthia insisted that Loretha join her dance
class, some young man showed up and announced that he was
Carl's long-lost son, and Poochie started planning an
all-girls cruise week. And life goes on after a bad event:
uphill sometimes, and sometimes not...
FaceTime isn't cuttin' it.
Skype's not enough. You can get by with phone calls and
texts but it isn't the same: you need your friends, just as
in It's Not All Downhill from Here.
And yet, don't think that
this is just another "girlfriends" book. Yes, absolutely,
it's a story about women's friendships, but author Terry
McMillan also explores what it's like to grow older, when a
body's Of A Certain Age but the mind forgets that's so.
Readers who've glued together the pieces of a life shattered
know all about this, and what it's like to do it again
tomorrow, if the need arises. McMillan's characters possess
just the right amount of wisdom for that, which will appeal
not so much to her younger readers as, perhaps, to the age
group that originally loved Waiting to Exhale.
It's Not All Downhill from
Here
actually comes at the right time: it reminds readers that
even in Novel-Land, things can get messy and you'll be okay.
Find it for your next book-group virtual-meet. Read it and
share with your Sissies.
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