This Side of Eternity

Caroline Clay's narration works admirably in McMillan's sprawling tale of an African-American family as its members face abuse, insanity, addictions, murder, and wealth. Clay's voice ages appropriately as Anne, the youngest daughter, goes from her teens through her forties. The elegantly spoken passages that chronicle the Civil Rights Movement and the history of Memphis add texture. Unfortunately, the same qualities that enliven the background information also emphasize the frequent and highly detailed sex scenes, making them seem more vulgar than they are in print. D.T.H. (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine

April 30, 2001
Racial bigotry, poverty, infidelity, mental illness, murder, life-threatening illness, alcoholism and gambling addiction figure prominently in McMillan's latest chronicle (following The Flip Side of Sin)
of an African-American family. After Anne Russell's father is killed in a workplace accident in Memphis at the height of racial tensions in the 1960s, she and her five siblings struggle against poverty and racial strife. At 16, Anne lands a job at the local newspaper, the Appeal, and her subsequent romance with the paper's wealthy owner, Scott Hamilton, leads to pregnancy and marriage. Her husband becomes physically and mentally abusive, however, and keeps her and their two small children confined to his mansion. Almost a decade passes before Scott suffers a stroke and Anne is finally reunited with her family. Shortly afterward, Isabell Ford, a white woman who sits on the paper's board of directors, enters Anne's life; by book's end, Isabell has infiltrated the entire Russell family. Meanwhile, Anne's niece Bentley lands a comic strip gig at the
and Bentley's boyfriend becomes involved with Isabell. Many events of modern African-American history are recorded here, but in cursory fashion, as McMillan devotes her narrative to an endless succession of domestic catastrophes that strain credibility. Uneven pacing and sloppy, extravagant prose further undermine the novel's appeal. Though the publishers call the book "the story of an African-American family's determination to stay together and survive... in a world of discrimination and limited opportunity," most of its many characters land better than average jobs and come into money; when jobs and money are lost, it has little to do with discrimination or limited opportunity. More a slick soap opera than an account of the civil rights era, this uneven novel disappoints.