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I Wish I had a Red Dress
by Pearl Cleage 
2 copies

Since Joyce Mitchell was widowed five years ago, she's kept herself occupied by running the Sewing Circus, an all-girl group she founded to provide badly needed services to young women at risk, many of whom are single mothers. But some nights, home alone, she has to admit that something is missing. And soon she may not even have the Sewing Circus to fill up her life, as the state legislature has decided not to fund the group.

Feeling defeated and pessimistic, Joyce reluctantly agrees to dinner at the home of her best friend, Sister, and finds not only a perfect meal but a tall, dark stranger named Nate Anderson. His unexpected presence touches a chord in Joyce that she thought her heart had forgotten how to play.

Suddenly, Joyce feels ready to grab a sexy red dress and the life that goes with it . . . if she can keep her girls safe from the forces—useless boyfriends and government agencies—alike against them.

Library Journal

It's not surprising that Joyce Mitchell wears black all the time; her life has been full of darkness and death. Her story is the sequel to Cleage's well-received debut novel, What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day, and is also set in a small Michigan town formerly a resort for wealthy African Americans. Joyce is a social worker counseling young African American women, dedicated to guiding them through teenage pregnancies and destructive relationships. She herself has been on her own for five years of widowhood, and aside from some dreaming, she cannot imagine a life in which wearing a beautiful red dress is ever going to be possible. Then Nate, a former Detroit cop and new high school counselor, moves into town. Nate and Joyce's relationship is developing at the same time Joyce is trying to protect one of her members from a violent man. As reader, Cleage captures the struggles, tensions, and "cosmic confusion" of the war between the sexes in her fictional African American community. The struggles will continue, of course, but the hope is there for an occasion to wear that wonderful red dress. Recommended for public and academic libraries that feature African American fiction. Barbara Valle, El Paso P.L., TX Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.