This jaunty but topical coming-of-middle-age story from Cleage (Baby Brother’s Blues
) opens with an indignant argument about American culpability in the Iraq war, as African-American actress Josephine Evans—a self-proclaimed “Las Vegas of grandmothers” living and working in Amsterdam—has just been fired from a theater production, ostensibly for being too American. She returns to Atlanta to spend time with her granddaughter Zora, recently undone by her peripheral role in a splashy murder case, and to check on her family house. Josephine is hoping to keep Zora’s trust while steering her away from Zora’s father’s tragic bout with alcohol. After seeing the cracked-out wreckage of her stretch of Atlanta’s West End, Josephine also embarks on a plan with four other women to fix up her vandalized manse, a plan that includes the squatter she discovers there, Victor Causey. The plot is predictable but satisfying, and Josephine’s voice comes through movingly throughout. (Mar.)
