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Title: Camilla's Roses by Bernice L. McFadden ISBN: 0-525-94796-5 Publisher: E P Dutton Pub. Date: 22 April, 2004 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $23.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.88 (8 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Steel Roses! McFadden Delivers!!
Comment: Camilla's Roses, Bernice McFadden's latest release, is told in three parts: the present day when Camilla's husband discovers a lump in her breast, a flashback to the haunting past that she would rather erase, and a return to present day to face reality and her future. Camilla's middle name is Rose and all the women on her maternal side share the same middle name honoring a one-of-a-kind rosebush that only prospers and blooms on her great-great grandmother's land in Southern Georgia despite being stolen and clipped many times over the years.
Camilla suffers from an identify crisis and abandoned her family ten years ago. However, after learning about her childhood, one can understand her self-imposed exodus. Raised in a house full of cousins by her maternal grandmother (Velma Rose) and great aunt (Maggie Rose), Camilla seldom saw her heroin-addicted parents (Audrey Rose and Leroy Brown) and when she did, the results of the visits were disappointing and heartbreaking. Her childhood experiences causes her to develop an identity crisis that leads to serious skin bleaching and lying - to her friends about her family situation and to herself which proves to be most damaging.
With her usual flair, McFadden cuts to the core of humanity and deals with raw pain, loss, and suffering. This book deals with a multitude of issues: breast cancer, the affects of drug addiction, abandonment, self-hate, infidelity, etc. Every character is fully developed with a rich history and strong role in the plot - making it a well told story. The subject matter is dark and harrowing, but there is a silver lining embedded between the lines -- despite the despair, like the rose bush planted so long ago, Camilla and her "Roses" are made with a strong constitution and we are left with a glimmer of hope that they will be all right.
(...)
Rating: 5
Summary: No greater love, 'cept God
Comment: A comfortable lifestyle rocked by a not so routine doctor's visit forces Camilla Rose Boston to face a past she'd rather forget. A less than stellar lineage comes face-to-face with the present when Camilla Rose, a long time wannabe is diagnosed with advanced breast cancer.
"Where are your people?" A simple question that requires a complex answer.
Family, hmmmph.
Velma Rose, the disillusioned maternal grandmother who raised her and is still smarting from the loss of her first love.
Maggie Rose, once simple and beautiful, now just simple.
Her grandfather, Chuck, married to Velma Rose, a lifetime of loving a shadow of a woman whose heart was buried years ago.
Audrey Rose Brown, her drug-addicted mother whose thoughts are anywhere but on the daughter she brought into the world.
Leroy Brown, a father by birthright only.
Now, a well-known advice columnist, Camilla Rose is living the life she carefully crafted in college. A successful husband, a house in the 'burbs, and Zola, her contribution to being fruitful and multiplying come crashing down with the force of a demolition ball.
Images from yesteryear provoke unsettling memories from one who has abandoned her family. But when the chips are down and despair takes up residence, Camilla wonders if sage advice passed down through the generations has any merit. "Family is precious, t'aint nothing greater, 'cept God."
"Camilla's Roses" by Bernice McFadden is a moving, motion picture skillfully compressed within the covers of a book. Expertly mingling the past with the present in a series of vignettes the reader comes to know Camilla Rose Boston through the roots that spawned her.
With her knack for right on the money descriptive prose, realistic and flawed characters, and the bittersweet side of the human condition, Ms. McFadden regales readers with yet another classic literary rendering.
-Rosalind Stormer, author of "Healing the Breach"
Flavah Reviewer
Rating: 5
Summary: Another Winner!
Comment: Bernice McFadden has given us another winner with Camilla's Roses. Although this novel is more contemporary than her other novels; I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I cried with Camilla each time her drug-addicted mother broke her heart. As usual; this was an all-night read for me.
Velma was such a strong character who made do with what life dealt her and continued to love her family despite. It was a story charged with emoition and human conditions in the life of an African American family that had so many losses but also had a legacy of strength and fortitude from ancestors long gone.
McFadden is a master storyteller and Camilla's Roses will not disappoint.
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Title: Leaving Cecil Street by Diane McKinney-Whetstone ISBN: 0688163858 Publisher: William Morrow Pub. Date: 30 March, 2004 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Tastes Like Chicken : A Novel by Lolita Files ISBN: 0743245253 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 10 May, 2004 List Price(USD): $22.00 |
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Title: Better Than I Know Myself by Donna Grant, Virginia DeBerry ISBN: 0312273096 Publisher: St. Martin's Press Pub. Date: 01 June, 2004 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Too Much of a Good Thing by Kimberla Lawson Roby ISBN: 0060568496 Publisher: William Morrow Pub. Date: 06 January, 2004 List Price(USD): $23.95 |
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Title: A Woman's Worth : A Novel by TRACY PRICE-THOMPSON ISBN: 0375506500 Publisher: One World/Strivers Row Pub. Date: 30 March, 2004 List Price(USD): $21.95 |
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