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Getting to Happy »

Book cover image of Getting to Happy by Terry McMillan

Authors: Terry McMillan
ISBN-13: 9780670022045, ISBN-10: 0670022047
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated
Date Published: September 2010
Edition: (Non-applicable)

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Author Biography: Terry McMillan

Terry McMillan has been making waves in publishing since she steamrolled her way to the bestseller lists in the '90s and gained even wider audiences as film versions of Waiting to Exhale and How Stella Got Her Groove Back hit theaters. Like no one else, McMillan conveyed the complexities of being a single, upwardly mobile black professional woman -- and a whole group of underserved readers validated her efforts.

Book Synopsis

An exuberant return to the four unforgettable heroines of Waiting to Exhale--the novel that changed African American fiction forever.

Terry McMillan's Waiting to Exhale was more than just a bestselling novel-its publication was a watershed moment in literary history. McMillan's sassy and vibrant story about four African American women struggling to find love and their place in the world touched a cultural nerve, inspired a blockbuster film, and generated a devoted audience.

Now, McMillan revisits Savannah, Gloria, Bernadine, and Robin fifteen years later. Each is at her own midlife crossroads: Savannah has awakened to the fact that she's made too many concessions in her marriage, and decides to face life single again-at fifty-one. Bernadine has watched her megadivorce settlement dwindle, been swindled by her husband number two, and conned herself into thinking that a few pills will help distract her from her pain. Robin has an all-American case of shopaholism, while the big dream of her life-to wear a wedding dress- has gone unrealized. And for years, Gloria has taken happiness and security for granted. But being at the wrong place at the wrong time can change everything. All four are learning to heal past hurts and to reclaim their joy and their dreams; but they return to us full of spirit, sass, and faith in one another. They've exhaled: now they are learning to breathe.

The Washington Post - Lisa Page

McMillan has said she didn't plan to write a sequel, but her old characters "began to reclaim their place in my heart, and, like old friends you haven't seen since college, I wondered how they might be faring now." She fleshes them out by shifting the point of view, sometimes writing in first person, sometimes in third, resulting in a crosshatch of perspectives. Her dialogue remains superb.

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