Some Soul to Keep

The five long stories in this volume radiate the same energy that readers of Cooper's A Piece of Mine and Homemade Love will expect. Love between parents and children, between sisters, friends, women and men, are all illuminated in the author's sprightly vernacular prose. Each tale is narrated by a spirited black woman who, by perseverance and innate good faith, has triumphed over the deprivationssometimes emotional and always materialof her childhood. Cooper has a sharp eye for detail and her characters are distinct in their circumstancessome had loving families, some cruel, one is blind and abandonedbut all follow the same path to happiness and satisfaction, gamely choosing love over security, revenge or dependence. Ultimately, no matter how admirable and lively these stories are individually, the sameness of their tone and structure (the tales are all retrospective and chronological) defuses the impact of the volume as a whole. (October 19)