Terry McMillan is the critically acclaimed, award-winning author of five previous novels and recipient of the Essence Award for Excellence in Literature.
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From the critically acclaimed author of A Day Late and a Dollar Short and The Interruption of Everything, a wise, earthy story of a friendship between four African American women who lean on each other while "waiting to exhale": waiting for that man who will take their breath away.
Four African American women living in Phoenix devote most of their energies to searching for the one good black man who will make their dreams of the perfect partner and lover come true. Unsurprisingly, Savannah, Bernie, Gloria, and Robin all kiss several toads, but their trials and errors never arouse much interest. Far stronger is the author's sharp, often humorous depiction of the strong bonds among the four friends, their relationships with their families, and their community activities; readers will regret that McMillan did not develop these areas further.
-- Faye A. Chadwell, University of South Carolina Library, Columbia
In Waiting to Exhale, her blockbuster best-selling third novel, four vibrant professional women console and support one another in a nurturing friendship that helps each of them deal with troubled relationships with men. Waiting to Exhale demonstrates that no matter how hard we search, sometimes Mr. Right just doesn't show up, but that life goes on without him.
Even as the book was dismissed by some critics as popular fluff or anti-male, millions of readers of all colors identified with the struggles and the enduring sisterhood of Robin, Savannah, Bernadine, and Gloria. Waiting to Exhale became a publishing sensation, proving for once and for all that there is a substantial audience of readers for popular, well-written African American novels. The book also became a successful movie starring Whitney Houston and inspired a flurry of knock-off books of lesser quality.
The four are in their mid-to-late 30s, middle-class women making good money, and they live in Phoenix. Savannah, who has everything she wants except a man, has just moved from Denver, partly to be close to best friend Bernadine, whose 11-year-old marriage has collapsed. Super-successful "buppie" (black yuppie) John has tricked Bernadine every which way, but his greatest betrayal is crossing the color line to snare a California blond; now Bernadine must raise their two kids alone. Her friends Robin and Gloria are not having any better luck: Robin is a backsliding bubblehead whose study of astrology has not cured her weakness for "pretty men with big dicks" who use and abuse her, while the only male in overweight, matronly Gloria's life is her teenage son Tarik, a source of both anxiety and pride. We watch these women in a swirl of motion: working, partying, dishing, dating, and consoling each other on their misfortunes with men. Their consensus is that "black men play too many games" and are terrified of making commitments, even if they're buppies ("riffraff comes in all kinds of packages"). Two points here: First, McMillan's novel is not indiscriminately bashing brothers—there are good men out there (both Bernadine and Gloria have fine prospects by the end), and women cannot escape all the blame (Savannah's inability to say the three magic words costs her dearly). Second, these women do not mope. The story's best scene has them falling-down drunk at Gloria's hilarious birthday party; indeed, they are as timeless as Molly Bloom or the Wife of Bath in their robust sensuality.
A novel that hits so many exposed nerves is sure to be a conversation-piece: it has heart and pizzazz and even, yes, the sweet smell of the breakthrough book.