Jesus Boy

December 14, 2009
Though well plotted, this tale of a May-December romance in a religious black community in 1970s Florida fails to become anything more than a passing crush. Elwyn Parker is a smart 16-year-old equally dedicated to piano and God. When his sweetheart marries another man after conceiving a child with him, Elwyn is thrown into the arms of the seductive Sister Morrisohn, 42 years old and mourning a deceased husband. What begins as lust turns into something that will test Elwyn’s strict adherence to biblical law, as well as alienate him and Morrisohn from their congregation, community, and peers. Allen can plot, and his prose is always up to the task of delivering the next twist in the story, but his characters and their world never become complex enough to satisfy. Though apt at quoting the Bible, their conscience-pricked gnashings rarely get beyond that stage, making the dilemmas they wrestle with feel false. Similarly, a potentially interesting subplot involving Morrisohn’s disapproval of her gay brother remains stuck in the name-calling stage. Allen’s novel isn’t without merit, but it doesn’t penetrate as deeply as it could.

April 15, 2010
African American teenager Elwyn Parker, who's smart, studious, and gifted at the piano, learns to play for the Church of Our Blessed Redeemer Who Walked Upon the Waters, near Miami, in which he, his family, and all the other folks he knows are passionately involved. Elwyn develops a crush on Peachie, a girl at the church who also plays piano, but he's later strongly attracted to Sister Morrisohn, a fortysomething beauty and grieving widow of a rich lawyer who had been a kind of church patriarch. The two improbably begin a torrid affair, all the while doubting their faith and hiding from the community of righteous gossips led by Elwyn's grandmother. When Elwyn finally decides to marry Sister Morrisohn and seeks the approval of his grandmother, he learns that she had had an affair with his fiance's deceased husbandonly one of many long-hidden extramarital relationships in this tightly knit community. This latest from Allen ("Churchboys and Other Sinners") is hilarious, as the characters for the most part dismally fail to adhere to their idealistic religious views whenever they are faced with temptation. Scenes of preaching and singing in church convey the boisterous fervor of African American gospel music and religious practice in a soulful, vibrant style. VERDICT This is a very enjoyable and well-done novel; highly recommended.Jim Coan, SUNY Coll. at Oneonta

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 1, 2010
Elwyn is a godly child, but not above fabricating a holy vision to convince his hardworking parents to pay for piano lessons so he can impress Peachie, the love of his young life, by performing in their Church of Our Blessed Redeemer Who Walked upon the Waters. Loyal and pure, Elwyn believes he and Peachie are destined for each other, but by the time theyre in high school, Peachie is bound by necessity to another. Hurt and angry, Brother Elwyn redoubles his evangelical efforts at school, nearly getting expelled for his zealous proselytizing and plummeting grades. Then he falls hard for Sister Morrisohn, a sexy widow 26 years his senior. As time goes on, they become a covert, insatiable, scandalous, and contentious pair given to epic battles and reconciliations. Allen has created a consummate tragicomedy of African American family secrets and sorrows, and of faith under duress and wide open to interpretation. Perfect timing and crackling dialogue, as well as heartrending pain balanced by uproarious predicaments, make for a shout-hallelujah tale of transgression and grace, a gospel of lusty and everlasting love.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)