Don't Want No Sugar
Big passions lead to deadly romantic triangles for two generations of African-Americans in Mason's latest (after 2003'sOne Day I Saw a Black King). The story begins in the 1930s, when 14-year-old Roberta Adams sets her sights on handsome mill worker Charles Brooks, even though he's passionately involved with Nadine, a married woman. But Roberta is crafty: when love potions don't work on Charles, she tries poison on Nadine. One night, as Nadine lies dying, Roberta pounces on Charles. The seduction works; Roberta gets pregnant and Charles must marry her, a union that turns out quite well considering its provenance. But Charles eventually goes astray when his side job as a handyman brings him in contact with pretty young Sara Tate, whom he handily seduces and impregnates. And, oh, the lurid lives of smalltown Texans! Roberta, inflamed by jealousy, tries to kill Sara's child and then wakes her husband up and stabs him, nearly slicing off his head. The plotting turns even more cartoonish when Mason leaps ahead to the 1960s. Roberta has just been released after years of incarceration, and Sara's mentally handicapped son, Adam (people call him "Fool"), is accused of rape when the girl he loves gets pregnant. Mason's flair for fast-moving narration makes this an easy read, but readers may find there's far too much meanness, deceit and violence.Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.