Here and Now

The soap operatic plot of Kimberla Lawson Roby's second novel (Behind Closed Doors) revolves around the lives of two African-American sisters, Marcella and Racquel. Teacher Racquel threatens the stability of her four-year marriage with her determination to conceive a child. She is both critical and jealous of Marcella, who married immediately after high school to legitimize her baby. Marcella's situation is hardly enviable, though, as she struggles on minimum wage and scant child support to raise two children in a suburban Chicago project. Racquel and her husband mortgage their house to pay for infertility treatments, while Marcella decides to go to college with hopes of becoming a CPA. Untidy human dilemmas (i.e., Marcella's discovery of her 13-year-old daughter's diary with its innocent revelations of her budding sexuality) backlight the sisters' larger struggles with marriage, money, sex and family bonds. Each chapter ends in a crescendo of melodrama, emphasized by a chorus of slamming telephones and doors, and a proliferation of unusual deaths. Though the novel provides a window on a distinctive segment of American society, its breezy, colloquial vocabulary and propensity for hype and stereotype satisfy as little as a couch-potato's snack. Doubleday Book Club featured alternate; author tour. (Feb.)