Big Girls Don't Cry: Novel, A

In her eagerly-awaited second novelBig Girls Don't Cry, bestselling author Connie Briscoe (Sisters and Lovers) examines the issues faced by a young black woman determined to be successful both professionally and romantically. Growing up in a loving and supportive middle-class family in Washington, DC, in the '60s, Naomi Jefferson worries about what to wear, her bra size and meeting boys, and she has dreams of one day opening her own clothing store. While she knows racism is a problem (occasional brushes with the uglier side of people don't let her forget it), Naomi is, at heart, just like any other teenage girl.

All of that changes when Joshua, Naomi's older brother, is killed in an accident on his way to a civil rights demonstration in Chicago. Racism becomes a personal issue, and Naomi decides that she needs to help bring about changes in the system. At college in Atlanta, she becomes immersed in politics, organizing protests and butting heads with school administrations as well as with her boyfriend, who isn't too friendly to the cause. Disillusioned by authority figures and betrayed by the man she loves, Naomi returns home, confused about the world and her place in it.

Witty, sensitive, bittersweet and triumphant, Big Girls Don't Cry is a compelling portrait of a woman who refuses to compromise her standards -- cloudy as they may be at times -- in her quest for satisfaction. In Big Girls Don't Cry, Briscoe has created a heroine and a story to which any woman who has faced the frustrations of glass ceilings, the pain of loss and sacrifice and the perils and pleasures of love will immediately relate.