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P.g. County

Review

P.g. County



Welcome to Silver Lake. As you turn into the entrance, you'll need
to stop at the gate and speak to the guard. Traveling along the
tree-lined main road, you'll pass large, Tudor and Colonial-style
homes with flawlessly manicured lawns, tennis courts, and swimming
pools.

You should meet some of the neighbors. They are a very interesting
bunch. On the northern side of Silver Lake, you'll find the
Bentley's lavish estate. Barbara is the elegant wife of gorgeous
multimillionaire Bradford Bentley. One of those women who seems to
have it all, Barbara is struggling to keep from self-medicating the
fury within her, caused by her husband's acute philandering.

Also in the northern portion of Silver Lake, you will find the
large contemporary house that Jolene Brown and her family are
building. Jolene, her daughter Juliette, and her husband Patrick
live on the southern side of Silver Lake, where the more modest
family homes are. Jolene is obsessed with keeping up appearances,
but only succeeds in looking cheap. Oh, and she has a slight
problem keeping her skirt down when in the presence of rich and
powerful men.

Next door to the Browns resides Candice Jones and her family.
Although they are one of the only families in Silver Lake that is
not of color, they have never felt out of place. However, when her
daughter, Ashley, tells her of a new romantic interest, Candice
becomes concerned. But after a little venture into family history,
Candice has a bit of an identity crisis of her own.

On the southern edge of Silver Lake are the townhouses, which some
residents feel are beneath the exclusive neighborhood. This is
where hairstylist Pearl Jackson lives with her son Kenyatta. Pearl
owns the local beauty parlor, with clients such as Barbara Bentley
and Jolene Brown. She's worked harder than she'd care to mention to
make sure her son had a chance when so many young, African-American
males do not. That is why she is so disturbed when she meets her
son's new love interest, Ashley Jones.

And then there's Lee, the streetwise and street weary teen whose
search for her father leads her to the gates of Silver Lake.

P. G. COUNTY serves the reader a delectable buffet of the struggles
and triumphs of Maryland's African-American elite. Connie Briscoe
creates several strikingly different families, and shows how their
stories intertwine. She breaks them down to the reader to reveal
core beliefs and desires that lurk in all of us. But Briscoe
doesn't present it in a preachy manner. She hands us a platter and
heaps on piles of lust, greed, heartache, love, and money until
your plate is heavy with dishy dialogue, lush settings, and
scandalous characters.

No review or synopsis of this book will prepare you for the wacky,
heinous capers of the women of P. G. COUNTY. Just be sure to have
on your highest pair of Manolo Blahniks and your sharpest Chanel
suit before giving your car to the valet. These women mean
business.

Reviewed by Elisa Kai Smith on January 22, 2011

P.g. County
by Connie Briscoe

  • Publication Date: September 17, 2002
  • Genres: Fiction
  • Hardcover: 336 pages
  • Publisher: Doubleday
  • ISBN-10: 0385501617
  • ISBN-13: 9780385501613