Married but Still Looking

April 22, 2002
This melodramatic, preachy novel chronicles the life of Genesis Styles, a retired basketball player in his late 20s. He works at a youth center in Atlanta and is engaged to Terri, who owns a small bookstore. Even though they are already living together, Terri—correctly intuiting that all is not right between them—is denying him sex until they are married. It should hardly make much difference, because horny, philandering Genesis has been having no problem satisfying his desires elsewhere. Can Genesis commit to one woman forever? Can his friend Prodigy Banks (the hero of Hunter's debut The Hearts of Men)—who up until now has been helping him cover up his affairs—talk some sense into him? There are family crises galore, as Genesis's sister Phyllis, a tough-as-nails lawyer, leaves her white husband and takes up with a black colleague. Another sister, Grace, returns to Atlanta from New York, planning to become a minister. Genesis's mother suffers a stroke, his brother is a drug-addicted convict and the whole family is still affected by the promiscuous lifestyle of the long-dead patriarch. When a former employee abandons her baby, Terri takes it in and, a week before the wedding, Genesis gets arrested for soliciting a prostitute. This is an irritatingly talky novel, with the characters constantly offering up facile insights along the lines of "you got to trust your heart." Hunter is a motivational speaker, and the shallow characters are used to spout clichéd messages better confined to self-help books. (May 21)FYI:Hunter self-published his debut; at BEA 2000 he secured a contract for a reprint of
The Hearts of Men (which hit the
Essence bestseller list) as well as this second effort. Booksellers may want to handsell to readers eager for tales of strong, responsible African-American men.

April 1, 2002
Genesis Styles has always been a ladies' man and never been quite satisfied with one woman, but he finally meets one who challenges his long-held bachelor ideals. Terri is an independent bookstore owner who has vowed celibacy until marriage. Genesis is sure that his love is complete and asks her for the ultimate commitment, marriage. Yet, he is only motivated to pop the question because of his fear of losing her rather than his desire to love one woman. His best friend, Prodigy Banks, who is his happily married childhood friend, constantly talks to him about relationships and marriage. He warns that if Genesis does not change, he will jeopardize his relationship with a good woman. As the wedding date gets closer, Genesis makes one foolish decision after another. He is finally confronted about his philandering and has to accept the consequences of his past actions. Genesis does not learn his lesson about love and commitment until his relationship is in jeopardy.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2002, American Library Association.)