by the agency of Benilde Little The Free Pres January 2003 $2300 ISBN 0-684-85480-5 "The Box" In confines of womanhood.

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by the agency of Benilde Little The Free Pres January 2003 $2300 ISBN 0-684-85480-5

"The Box" In confines of womanhood, the words beg up something, well, unflatteringly female. nevertheless for Benilde Little, an author who writes about women in all their incarnations, "the box" is something equable more threatening. The box is confining, something soul-stealing.

In Acting gone out Little's third novel, we're introduced to Paige, a just-40 suburban mother of three who played it safe by means of marrying Jay, a man who leaves her for a younger woman at the start of the novel. Despite her pain, Paige remains clear-headed, self-aware and reflective. steady as her world is falling apart, Paige's unimpassioned persona begins to explore the chest she has made for herself. It is then that she begins to draw near alive.

"Do we really change or does life or circumstances force us to adjust ourselves to fit in, just to finish up in the morning?" she muses. "The fundamental point in dispute between us [was that] he aspired to being in the case and I'd discovered that I couldn't breathe in it."

the same in a long line of female characters in Little's works who are willful and heady, Paige's dreams have been bring on hold but not forgotten. Little writes of "phillies," women abandoned, full-of-life, against-the-grain, steel-willed women--women who carried their admit water and weren't crushed by way of it. Little writes complete stories of smart, black women with rich inner lives.

Picking up the pieces after her failed marriage, Paige discovers the woman that she was before the case closed in on her--the photographer, the artist, the woman with passion. by dint of the novel's end, however, there is an unresolv question about where the marriage is going.

one time again, Little does the useful deed by capturing black life--gay, straight, bourgeois, "boxed" in, or near combination thereof. She tells an engaging contemporary tale in all its colors, nuances and shades. And she clearly writes outside the box

--Angela Bronner is a Harlem-based writer and CEO of The PlayGyrlz Music collection Inc., a music production company.

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