A Man Most Worthy.

by Marcus Major Dutton, January 2003 $23.95, ISBN-0-525-94685-3

In a familiar story line, A Man Most Worthy, by Marcus Major, features a protagonist who is lucky in business but unlucky in love.

Set amid the posh `burbs of northern New Jersey, A Man Most Worthy is the story of a young brotha' named John Sebastian. A rich, successful entrepreneur, John is actively seeking a long-term mate. In spite of having all the money and material wealth he could ever hope for--not to mention a young hoochie in his bed--he is unhappy. He still carries the torch for a former lover, Josephine Flowers.

Josephine, as it turns out, is stuck in an unhappy marriage and discovers that her husband Darren is sleeping with a white girl. When Josephine confronts Darren about the affair, the fireworks begin.

A Man Most Worthy is Major's third book and a follow-up to last year's Four Guys and Trouble. He was also featured in the enormously successful anthology Got to Be Real. As a writer, he does a splendid job of adding realism to his characters, dialogue and scenes throughout the novel.

Major, who was an educator in the tough Newark, New Jersey, school district for several years before becoming a full-time writer, has joined the ranks of African-American writers who have decided to write and promote relationship-based books. In A Man Most Worthy, Major does a wonderful job of telling the story of "boy gets girl; boy loses girl and finally, boy gets girl again." However, readers will inevitably get tired of reading books with the same story line and yearn to read something different.

--Glenn Townes is a New Jersey-based writer and regular contributor to BIBR.