WHAT LOOKS LIKE CRAZY ORDIN (Idlewild, 1)

What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day is an example of one of the things a book is good for. The main character, Ava Johnson, is a young black woman from Idlewild, a small town in Michigan. She couldn’t wait to get out as soon as she was old enough to be on her own, moving first to Detroit and then, when that wasn’t exciting enough, to Atlanta where she had her own beauty salon by day and partied happily with whatever men took her fancy by night for ten years or so. Then she was diagnosed as HIV positive. Now she has decided to move to someplace like maybe San Francisco where she expects to encounter less prejudice because of her medical condition. But first, she has decided to come home to Idlewild to visit her sister for a little bit.I will never, at least in this life, be a young black woman who is HIV positive, but this book allows me a glimpse into what that would be like.Ava’s sister is a former social worker who quit that occupation when her husband’s unexpected death left her well enough off that she no longer had to work for a while. But Joyce, the sister, has no problem with working; she is driven to try to make a difference. She is just looking for the best way to use her good fortune to benefit others. People in Idlewild know that when there is a problem they can call on her and she will be there doing whatever she can to help.On the day Ava is due to arrive in Idlewild, Joyce has been called upon to take a younger woman to the hospital to have her baby. Since she can’t meet Ava at the airport she sends an old family friend, Eddie Jefferson, to pick her up instead.Ava quickly discovers that Idlewild has become a place befitting the ‘wild’ part of its name. All the big city problems she thought she left behind in Atlanta have come to her small town – things like cocaine addiction, out-of-wedlock childbirth, and AIDS – without bringing anything fun to relieve the boredom with them. She hasn’t even made it home before she encounters a case of domestic violence in the parking lot of a liquor store.But there are some nice things too. Like Joyce. And Eddie Jefferson. When Ava thinks she may be falling for Eddie, she wonders why this had to happen after she became HIV positive.One of the things Joyce has been involved in recently is trying to set up a support group for young unwed mothers at her church. The group is showing some promise until the preacher’s wife starts to attack it. The preacher and his wife at this church remind me of the preachers plaguing Miss Julia in the Miss Julia series. But it turns out that this preacher is involved in much more sinister activities even than Pastor Ledbetter and Brother Vern. And his wife’s attacks on Joyce, while not physically violent (well not the ones she personally launches anyway; the same can’t be said for other people she stirs up), are truly vicious. What is she trying to prove?

This book writes about a myriad of topics found in a dying community with was once considered the Mecca of African American relaxation and vacations. With that, we see a young woman Ava, who comes home for a short visit to recharge her life after getting a devastating health blow. But what she unexpectedly finds is the love of a man who wants to spend what time she has left with her.Her sister Joyce, has suffered a lifelong experience of grief and focuses her time on trying to mentor the young women of the community any way she can. That includes the saving of an innocent baby.We read how devasting the drug scene is to a small community just as bad as it harms the big city and how the residents cope to rid themselves of it. We also read how the cover-up of abuse in a church can be just as harmful in the next community as it was where the offense first happened.But, regardless of all of the problems in the community of Idelwilde "what looks like crazy on an ordinary day looks a lot like love if you catch it in the moonlight."<b> NOTE ,/b> <i> This book was read for the month of December 2022 for a book club </i>

Excellent purchase

Every time you turn a page you can be reminded that Ava is HIV positive. You can be reading about a beautiful night sky, shared by two sisters who love each other and have complete trust; the beauty of the moment, not just the sky, the lake and the dock on which they lie.Ava is HIV positive. Pearl Cleage's What Looks Like Crazy on an ordinary Day is a book full of plot. Ava is a young black woman, a successful woman who left home in Michigan at age nineteen to make her fortune and life in Atlanta and has now returned home after discovering that she is sick. Really sick. She's been through the emotions: the denial, the anger, the lists of men who might have infected her, the self-loathing, the regret and now at last, the acceptance. Ava knows she will die. The story does not end here, however. This is simply the first chapter, so I know something more is coming. It just seems that the something is going to be pretty bad. The story will end, I know, with Ava's death. Even if the book ends before the story does, in the back of your mind is the fact that Ava is HIV positive. The small town of Idlewild, Michigan is the town where Ava was raised by her older sister Joyce and her husband, Mitch, who died one night two years ago when he and Joyce were playing on the frozen lake by their home. Mitch slid across a spot that had been a previous ice-fishing hole and went through. It took nearly a year before Joyce was able to move forward again feeling as though the insurance money was "blood money." Joyce is well enough now and by her nature is more than ready to take on the task of healing Ava. It is Ava's attempt to spend the summer with Joyce and then move to San Francisco to die, like a cat that chooses to die alone in the woods rather than at home with her family. The author, Pearl Cleage, is one of today's masters because though we believe we can tell what will happen, we meet some remarkable people. Sp does Ava. Very slowly she and we are led back to the fold of trust. Then love. Then spiritualism. This book ends with jubilance, not at all as I had predicted. It is a book I've recommended dozens of times, added to classroom reading lists and given as a gift more than a dozen times. If you need a lift; if you wish to be spiritually inspired and want a remarkable story with well defined characters, then you won't do better than Pearl Cledge's "What Looks Like Crazy on An Ordinary Day"

No spoilers first of all as the summary of the book is covered in the blurb.It was the best kind of holiday read, light but with a bit of grit around it to give the usual man meets woman story an edge. To explain, it's the same hamburger you usually get in this genre but the fillings are different.The main reason I talk about the end in my review title is how abruptly it finishes. It's almost like, got bored and so instead of going through what happened I'll just sum it up in a few paragraphs and explain why it's a typical chick lit ending. I was really disappointed.I would have rated this book four stars up until then but due to the abrupt end, I have downgraded it to three stars.

A well written book that covers several complex issues in a humerous and witty way but with real heart felt emotion

Exellent book. I am a HUGE fan of the author and have bought most of her books. Stories always well constructed.

I loved the story line, and couldn't book the book down. <3

I read this book when I was a teenager and read it again as an adult. Can't comment too much without spoilers. Easy to read and a good story.