Synopses & Reviews
Spanning the last fifty years and set largely in Los Angeles, this is a revealing and impressive look at the changes in the way black Americans have been perceived by white Americans -- and by themselves as well. Using the filter of the cosmetics industry -- what better vantage point than an industry devoted to image? -- Campbell tells a compelling tale of a black-white friendship that began in hardship and was destroyed by fear and greed -- and of the fallout from this betrayal as it unwound over fifty years. But this is also a wonderful look at the way Big Cosmetics operates to lure women into buying new products -- and the way big white-owned conglomerates have changed their hiring practices to grab a new market share -- black women with their newly won purchasing power. In the end, however, it is a story of love -- love found, betrayed, lost, and renewed; love between parent and child, men and women, and yes, blacks and whites. As in everything Campbell writes, there is a liberating spirit of reconciliation and redemption in What You Owe Me.
Synopsis
If this is a fair world, Bebe Moore Campbell will be remembered as the most important African-American novelist of this century . . . Her writing is clean and clear; her emotions run hot, but her most important characteristic is uncompromising intelligence coupled with a perfectionist's eye for detail. The Washington Post Book World
Maxine McCoy s life is going just fine. She s the executive producer of a popular talk show, married to the man she loves, and pregnant with their child. But her security is shattered when Maxine gets a call from the caretaker of her 76-year-old grandmother, who raised the orphaned Maxine. She s summoned back to the Philadelphia neighborhood of her childhood that, like her grandmother, has seen better days. Maxine is set to move her grandmother out of the neighborhood, but the independent Liddy isn t quite ready to leave. She has plans of her own. Bebe Moore Campbell demonstrates why Entertainment Weekly called her a master when it comes to telling a story in this tale of hope and redemption and making the impossible come true.
A book that embraces readers and wraps them in the humanity of characters who love, cry, laugh and experience the transitions of life at every turn. Dallas Morning News"
Synopsis
A woman's journey back home takes her life in a new direction in this inspirational New York Times bestseller from the author of Brothers and Sisters. Maxine McCoy's life is going just fine. She's the executive producer of a popular talk show, married to the man she loves, and pregnant with their child. But her security is shattered when Maxine gets a call from the caretaker of her 76-year-old grandmother, who raised the orphaned Maxine. She's summoned back to the Philadelphia neighborhood of her childhood that, like her grandmother, has seen better days. Maxine is set to move her grandmother out of the neighborhood, but the independent Liddy isn't quite ready to leave. She has plans of her own. Bebe Moore Campbell demonstrates why Entertainment Weekly called her "a master when it comes to telling a story" in this tale of hope and redemption and making the impossible come true.
"If this is a fair world, Bebe Moore Campbell will be remembered as the most important African-American novelist of this century...Her writing is clean and clear; her emotions run hot, but her most important characteristic is uncompromising intelligence coupled with a perfectionist's eye for detail."--The Washington Post Book World
Synopsis
Bebe Moore Campbell, acclaimed as one of the "most important African-American writers of this century" ("Washington Post Book World"), now presents an unforgettable tale about second chances. Successful Los Angeles TV producer Maxine McCoy faces a whole new set of challenges when she learns she must return to her home in a working-class neighborhood of Philadelphia to care for the grandmother who had reared her.
About the Author
Bebe Moore Campbell was a bestselling author and a journalist. Her nonfiction work has appeared in
The New York Times, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Ms., Essence, Black Enterprise, Ebony, Working Mother, USA Weekend, and
Adweek, among other publications. She was a regular contributor to National Public Radio.
Bebe Moore Campbell was the author of such national, critically acclaimed bestsellers as Brothers and Sisters, Singing in the Comeback Choir, Your Blues Ain't Like Mine, and What You Owe Me as well as the award-winning children’s book, Sometimes My Mommy Gets Angry and the recently published Stompin’ at the Savoy.
Campbell was born and grew up in Philadelphia and graduated from the University of Pittsburgh, where she earned a bachelor of science degree in elementary education. She taught elementary and middle school for five years. She is survived by her husband, Ellis Gordon, Jr., her daughter, the actress Maia Campbell, and a son, Ellis Gordon III.