I Wish I Had a Red Dress.

I Wish I Had a Red Dress by Pearl Cleage William Morrow, July 2001, $24.00, ISBN 0-380-97584-X

For many writers, having your debut novel chosen as an Oprah's Book Club pick might be an insurmountable barrier to future creativity. Not so for Pearl Cleage. She not only steps up to the plate with her new novel, which takes readers back to the former black paradise of Idlewild, Michigan, but also hits an effortless home-run without even breaking a sweat. She takes readers to Lake Michigan again for the continuing story of her regular-folk characters, working to overcome dysfunction and reclaim their lives.

Readers of What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day, will welcome back Joyce, the ever-conscious sister of Crazy's lead character, Ava. Joyce continues her work empowering the young women in Idlewild, but gets some special attention of her own when a handsome stranger comes to town. Joyce gets matchmaking help from the new preacher in town, Sister, and her poetically inclined husband Bill, whose arrival in Idlewild brings her companionship, understanding, support and much needed laughter-because "forgetting how to have a good time on Saturday night is as lethal as smoking crack." I Wish I Had a Red Dress is one of those rare adult novels that offers important lessons young adult readers can enjoy as well. A steady crew of teenage characters pick up life lessons that won't be lost on younger folks who yearn for their perspective to be understood by the adults in their lives. And the unabashedly political author of Deals with the Devil and Other Reasons to Riot doesn't miss slipping some learnin' in. The information is not always subtle, but that isn't the point.

Cleage has successfully rendered the urgency faced by our communities, too often disproportionately affected by drugs, poverty and self-destruction, in a romantic story that will easily appeal to all ages. "Sometimes, I think I should just pack up and move, too" says Joyce, "but that's a self-fulfilling prophecy, like believing there will always be wars." It is too easy to give up, she concludes, as she rolls up her sleeves to get to work. For readers, especially those beleaguered by the amount of work that must be done, this story inspires us to take a breath, keep on keepin' on and maintain our sense of humor and lust for life in the process.