Many other Goodreads reviewers have made note about how this pseudo-intellectual supposed satire is racist in the way it glibly tackles the experience of Blacks in the south through a white lens. While that's absolutely true, they're missing an important point--it's also incredibly homophobic.

The central conceit of the novel--he's a gay professor of literature, she his lesbian student--is set up for the sole purpose of grabbing the attention of a potential buyer in a bookstore perusing the cover blurb. Character development isn't something Zink has time for, as she tries desperately to pack as many "bon mots" as possible into each and every sentence, which makes this an incredibly exhausting read by the end. Neither character's queer identity is explored at a level any deeper than that of a purely carnal relationship to either each other or other very minor characters who are occasionally introduced and quickly forgotten. Stereotypes in particular are at play--Meg immediately moving in with another woman she gets into a relationship with, because lesbians and the old "moving van" joke (ha. ha); Lee basically being a pederast because all gay men just lust after 15 year olds. And so on.

Zink, a straight woman, seems to have as much depth of understanding of the queer community as could be gleaned from a drunken bachelorette party on drag night at a gay bar. And a commiserate level of interest in getting to know it better, too.

I really liked the beginning but I wasn't aw wowed by the middle or end.

I actually only got halfway through before I stopped - I just didn't care about anyone and was annoyed. Not 1 star because there's not something specific I dislike - I'll pick it up again in a bit to see if the timing was just bad for me.

Meg grows up wanting to be a man and join the Army. Not what her parents want. She ends up going to Stillwater College where she falls in love with and marries the resident poet, a charming bisexual. She bears two children and after 10 years flees with her young daughter to find reality and become a wealthy playwright. She find poverty instead, raising her daughter as black in rural Virginia. Her plays are adrift and she wanders into life as a drug dealer's helper. Temporarily. She finds a lover and through a variety of circumstances her son and daughter, both now at UVa, meet and eventually the story tumbles out. There is reunion and reconiliation. Along the way we step inside the lives of all of the characters, done nicely. An amusing tale well told.

Misschien zelfs wel 4,5, maar ik moet nog even nadenken over het einde.

Loved the beginning, but lost interest in the middle. A decent ending.

an enjoyable read with fun characters. although a lot happened, I kept waiting for something *else* to happen. kinda ended with a fizzle...

When I finished this book, the only thought in my mind was, "What did I just read?"
That's exactly what I enjoyed about this book. It's satire and the finest so far.

Perhaps it is the historical and cultural moment in which I decided this was a book I should read, but I think there is great danger in uncritical depictions of poverty and of the cultural appropriation of Blackness by a white woman. Yes, it's clever, as books go. But too much so, I think, given the subject matter. There are books that take themselves too seriously, and this one does not take itself seriously enough.

This was my second Zink novel, so I was prepared. This novel was at times meandering but also whimsical and a weirdly pleasant read.