Nappily Ever After

December 4, 2000
African-American advertising agency executive Venus Johnston has had enough. Enough of the painful, expensive hours spent relaxing her "good" hair and enough of her four-year relationship with medical intern Clint Fairchild, which has lasted too long without a ring. She shaves her hair to a quarter-inch stubble, tells Clint to pack his bags and spends the rest of Thomas's empowering debut novel building a new life to match the new woman she's become. Clint, on the rebound, meets beautiful, longhaired and marriage-ready Kandi Treboe and proposes on an impulse, despite evidence that he's not over Venus. Meanwhile, Venus confronts issues of sexual harassment and racism in her predominantly white Washington, D.C., firm, where she begins to receive threatening notes. The crisis at work fuels Venus's fears that she's not strong enough to survive her new freedom. Has she made a mistake by abandoning the security of her boyfriend and her long, straight hair? Kandi develops into a complex character, with her own set of concerns and a sense of humor about the lovers' triangle. Her perspective provides an interesting counterpoint to Venus's obsession with the consuming culture surrounding black women's hair. Clint's confusion over his choice between the two women is treated honestly, and Venus's discovery that she has moved to new psychological territory carries emotional weight. This exploration of an African-American woman's journey to self-acceptance is not without flaws (spotty writing and loose ends tied up too fast), but Thomas refuses to let her characters slide into stereotype, and she keeps the pace fast and funny.

November 15, 2000
Venus Johnson has been cultivating a relationship with Clint Fairchild, supporting him through medical school and hoping to end up as a doctor's wife. But at 34 she's run out of patience with Clint's reluctance to commit. She ends their relationship and sheds her shoulder-length, chemically straightened hair in a bold act of liberation. But the less than encouraging reactions from friends and colleagues leave her pondering the politics of hair and beauty. Venus puts her considerable energy into her career as an advertising executive, hoping Clint will come to his senses. Clint struggles to find spiritual support to get through his internship and finds solace in Kandi Treboe, a long-haired beauty eager to take up where Venus has left off. When Venus is threatened by a stalker, she realizes that her personal insecurities and career woes accentuate a need to discover who she is and what she wants. Thomas offers painful but amusing insights into the politics of beauty, black culture, and male-female relationships; her first novel places her in a league with Terry MacMillan and Bebe Moore Campbell.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2000, American Library Association.)