SINGING IN THE COMEBACK CHOIR

Campbell writes feelingly and humanely about today's African-American women, their relationships, sense of self and connection to their roots. In this novel, a successful TV talk-show producer copes with her straying husband and self-destructive grandmother, a former pop singer, while wrestling with her failed idealism and inability to trust. It is a kind of fantasy in that all the characters, even the less admirable ones, are too good to be true. As narrator, Campbell authentically delivers the African-American cadences in the dialogue that, as a writer, is her principal strength. She also nicely communicates her characters' passions and humor. However, a more accomplished reader would do more justice to the actual characterizations and would give more grace to the descriptive passages. Y.R. ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: MAY 98]