(originally published at http://nomadreader.blogspot.com)The backstory: Babylon Sisters is the second novel in Pearl Cleage's West End series. Although this book isn't a sequel to Some Things I Never Thought I'd Do, the main characters from Some Things do pop up a few times here, which will delight readers who enjoyed the first novel.The basics: Babylon Sisters focuses on Catherine, who describes her work perfectly in this passage: "What I do is coordinate and integrate services for programs assisting female refugees and immigrants. Atlanta is a magnet for people trying to make a new start in a new country, and even though the town’s natives still think in terms of black and white, in reality we’re looking more and more like the Rainbow Coalition." She's also a single mother to a smart, confident seventeen-year-old young woman who longs to know her father, but Catherine remains committed to keeping that secret from her.My thoughts: It's no secret Pearl Cleage is one of my all-time favorite writers. I love her ability to write characters who can simultaneously be human beings struggling with romance and trying to make the world a better place. Pearl Cleage's novels make me feel like I'm sitting at the greatest dinner party ever. Her characters eat, drink, think, speak and act in ways that inspire me and leave me breathless:"There are always a million answers—the generals and the rebels make sure of that—but when you really think about it, there’s no good reason to try to kill as many people as you can, for as long as you can, until the ones who are left surrender their lives, or their resources, or their culture, or their self-respect, or their ancestors, or their spirits, or their oil, until they get strong enough to throw you off their backs and the whole cycle starts all over again. Thinking about it can make you feel powerless and scared, and that was no way to end an evening that had evolved into one of the best I’ve had in too long."Catherine is the heart and soul of this novel, and I loved her personally and professionally. She's smart, driven, loyal to her friends, and a wonderful mother. What makes her great, however, are her raw honesty and her expression of fears and vulnerabilities:"I wondered if it was possible to be in love with a man and develop a vocabulary free of the responses that make every conversation a minefield of hurt feelings, half-truths, and dashed expectations."I'm rarely sad when I finish a novel because I'm usually eager to find out how it ends and ponder my thoughts on the novel as a whole. Babylon Sisters, however, is the rare novel that makes me sad when I finish because I want to go on glimpsing into the lives of Catherine and her friends because they feel like my friends.Favorite passage: "Trying to change poor people’s lives is never as glamorous or inspirational as they make it when some do-gooders get the central role in a Hollywood movie. In real life, Sam’s experience is probably closer to the truth, a long series of unrewarded sacrifices and thankless tasks that rarely impact the lives of the people you want to rescue."The verdict: Babylon Sisters is a rallying cry for social justice, a love story, a touching tale of a mother-daughter relationship, and a story about the family we make for ourselves, but most of all it's a beautifully written novel filled with memorable characters faced with difficult decisions, both personally and professionally. And it makes readers think about the choices we wish we would make and the choices we fear we might make.
More like 3.5 stars. This is a perfectly good little book. Enjoyable, not particularly challenging but still smartly written. I have two quibbles with it. One is that a central driver of much of the plot is that our narrator, Catherine, has not only not told her teenage daughter who her father is, she has actually planted false information to throw Phoebe off the trail. Lying like this not only comes off as completely outside of Catherine's character, she lies "dumb". A small thing perhaps but something that kept coming back to me: Why didn't she just TELL her in the first place and all of this would have been avoided? Yes, I know, then there only would have been half a book but this was an exposed seam that really irritated me every time I ran into it.The second quibble is that although Catherine's area of expertise is refugee resettlement and although Phoebe's father comes back into town to cover a female slavery ring involving refugees we actually see virtually nothing of the refugee communities, meeting only one woman who is searching for her sister. We are TOLD about refugees, how difficult life is for them, the ways in which they are vulnerable but we see almost none of that.
What do You think about Babylon Sisters (2006)?
Single Mom, Catherine Sanderson, has been living off an inheritance and working as an advocate for immigrant women, making connections to housing and services, when her daughter indicates an interest in attending an expensive college. Just as she begins to think about paid employment she is approached by the renowned Miss Ezola Mandeville, a Black woman who has organized Black maids in Atlanta to get better working conditions and benefits. Her company needs to expand and she wants to incorporate immigrant women into her network and thinks Catherine can help make those connections. As she is winding up her unpaid services and getting her feet wet at the company, she is asked to help a young immigrant girl find her missing younger sister. There is also a side story about her daughter wanting to know the identity of her father. When a reporter, Burghardt Johnson, shows up investigating the rumors of a sex slave trade moving into the Atlanta area immigrant community and said reporter turns out to be the secret father things get interesting.This was a nicely done African American romance with a look into a couple of current social issues; the exploitation of immigrant labor and the sex trade and right of discovery of birth parents. Both are handled well and with a little intrigue. The lower rating is mainly for the fact that there were too many coincidences and things fell into place much too easily.
—Linda C
I really enjoyed this installment of The West End series. The beginning syarted off slow but built up momentum. The ending was a jewel..."if this were a fairy tale I could tell you that...". Phoebe's innocent quest to know who her father is set of a serious breach within the sacred bond of the single parent household that was thought to be unbreakable.Catherine cooked up an elaborate plot to conceal Phoebe's quest which ultimately bites her in the back. Though smart as a whip and untrusting by nature, Catherine never questions the "puy of the blue: call received from Sam Hall on behalf of Miss Mandeville. I love the writings of Pearl Cleage and this series ss well
—Teaguem2005
I enjoyed this audio book, read by the author. Cleage is the perfect reader for her entertaining story. Catherine is truly enjoying her life. She has a job she loves, a daughter she adores, two friends she trusts completely, and a lovely home in a wonderful neighborhood. What else could a woman want. It's not Catherine, but her daughter, Phoebe who wants to know her father's identity. Phoebe is not longer willing to go along with Catherine's obvious lies and Phoebe takes a stand. Catherine did not see this coming, nor the fabulous job offer that comes her way, that may be too good to be true. The new job will allow Catherine to continue her work with female refugees, as well as work with the legendary Miss Mandeville. Miss Mandeville, a former maid who is now a multimillionaire. Just to stir the pot a little more, B.J., Phoebe's father returns to Atlanta on business that may become a permanent. As Catherine soon finds out, things are not as the appear and this new job may not be all that she thought.
—Mona Grant-Holmes
