P.G. County by Connie Briscoe

Connie Briscoe’s P.G. County provided us with an exciting page turning drama right from the beginning. Prince Georges County, Maryland, one of the wealthiest predominantly African-American communities in the United States. A drama fit for daytime soap operas, based on the lives of the haves, the have-nots and the wanna be social climbers. Each of the five main characters had obstacles to climb and fears to conquer. With each turn of a page, the common thread that binds each of the women begins to unravel. A ball of lust, lies, sex, and deception changes their lives.

Jolene, extremely low self esteem, always seeking a better deal; Barbara, the wife of a millionaire, surrendered her identity to the comforts of a huge bank account and a handsome husband, who has an immense appetite for women; Pearl, highly spiritual God fearing, single mother and business owner; Candice, married, mother of two, struggles with the discovery of family skeletons and experiences an identity crisis; and then there is Lee, a teenage street urchin, carrying an aged faded photograph of the father she’s never known, but she believes he is rich and will love her once she locates him.

I highly recommend this book as a must read; the emotional highs and lows, comedy and drama scenes paints a vivid picture of the trials and struggles of both, the have and have-nots; as it reveals the common thread carried in the society as a whole.

A page-turner, Ms. Briscoe meticulously played up the personalities and prejudices of the central characters, bringing to mind and highlighting some of the long held beliefs in many black circles since the early 1900’s, but has never been in vogue to talk about openly. The behavior exhibited by Jolene’s parents and Bradford Bentley, the philandering, nouveau riche husband of Barbara is reinforced by factual accounts of actual characters in a book by Lawrence Otis Graham, Our Kind of People.

Barbara Bentley, the long suffering wife of the vain, selfish, womanizing Bradford suffers because she convinces herself she had to stay in a despised relationship because of, “the kids,” and of course, she loved him. In actuality, she was plagued by low self-esteem, lack of ambition, fear of material lack and loneliness. Although it is atypical for a character of this nature to flip-flow, as Ms. Briscoe would have one believe, it is possible.

Jolene, the nemesis of both men and women kept the story interesting as her next move was anticipated, that is, in anticipation of discovering you were right, you knew just what she would do next. There are many Jolene’s out there, but they are to be pitied rather than ridiculed. Nevertheless, it is always good to see them reap what they have sowed.

Ms. Briscoe did a great job dealing with the mental agony Candace puts herself through while debating whether or not to come out of the closet and announce her black heritage. This seems realistic enough; however, it is doubtful she would have done so, even in light of her daughter’s affair with a black man.

Lee, the misguided teenager, simply came off as an after thought, plugged in as page filler.

Ideally, Jolene and Bradford deserved each other, and the best pay back they could have received would have been for them to be stuck with each other. Also, I thought Barbara and Patrick would have been a good match, instead of Patrick and Pearl. Overall, it was a mind relaxing and worthwhile read.

You can visit Connie Briscoe's web site at www.conniebriscoe.com.

Reviewed by BMIA.com Reviewer S. Hardiman, Midwest Reviewer