Grab the Lapels

What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day by Pearl Cleage

Don’t you just love reading all the titles in a used bookstore only to find one that grabs you? That happened to me when I found What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day by Pearl Cleage. The cover reminded me so much of Coffee Will Make You Black and Ain’t Gonna Be the Same Fool Twice by April Sinclair.

If you look, each cover has the initials Z.A. somewhere, which I learned stands for Zita Asbaghi. I can find no information on this person other than they make album covers, too, and have been working at least since the 1990’s. So, yes, all the covers are by the same person.

What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day was published in 1997. This is relevant because the main character, Ava, is HIV positive. She grew up in Idlewild, Michigan, a backwoods area that became a sort of lake-side resort for Black people. Later, Ava moved to Atlanta, Georgia, repeatedly referred to as the Black Mecca in the novel, where she opened a successful hair salon. That is, until word got out she has HIV and customers cancel their appointments. Ava sells her salon and is flying back to Michigan to live with her sister, Joyce, for the summer before moving to San Francisco, where she believes she will be more accepted with her diagnosis.

The novel opens with Ava on a plane, and her personality is crystal clear from the first few pages. She laments how daytime talk shows have guests with “full-blown AIDS!”, serving only to scare viewers and then reassure them they are safe because the person who has AIDS used drugs or slept around. Basically, AIDS is only for people who make bad choices, is the message. Ava also acknowledges that when she flies first class on the plane, she is making the white man next to her uneasy because she is a bald Black woman. However, Ava thinks, “It used to make me uncomfortable. Now I think of it as helping them take a small step toward higher consciousness.” This is a woman with a serious diagnosis who is not ashamed of herself, and who moves through life despite the craziness that crops up. I liked Ava immediately, which is one of Cleage’s talents: she puts so much feeling into such a small space.

In fact, we learn why the sister, Joyce, lives alone; she’s actually a widow. Joyce married her high school sweetheart, the only man she’d ever been with, and had two children, both of whom died. Then, one night Joyce and her husband are walking on the frozen lake where ice fisherman had made holes but didn’t put up warning flags because typically folks are sitting out there getting drunk. That’s when something terrible happens as Joyce’s husband tries to show off for her: “So he got up some speed, slid way out, opened his arms into the wind, hollered, ‘I love my wife!’ and disappeared.” That is, Mitch slid right into a fishing hole and drowned under the ice. Cleage is such a talent because readers meet Joyce’s husband and experience his death in about three paragraphs. Nonetheless, I was sad!

Interestingly, Cleage’s ability to fit in so much in such a small space (the book is 244 pages, small by today’s standards) is what makes it so readable. Joyce runs a group called “The Sewing Circus” at the church, which is made up mostly of teen moms who need to learn about parenting, safe sex, and financial independence. However, the reverend’s wife pushes abstinence only, causing Joyce to seek out a new location when The Sewing Circus is shut down. There is a crack epidemic in Idlewild that results in violence, criminal activity, “crack babies” (as they are called), and all this butts up against a lackadaisical police unit, which seems small because Idlewild is a small town. Ava is there to navigate the setting with Joyce.

Meanwhile, Ava is falling in love with Joyce’s old family friend, Eddie, who spent time in prison but is now a meditating carpenter (there is a Jesus vibe going on, but no religion). Is it possible to start a romantic relationship, Ava wonders, if she has HIV and is going to die a horrible death? I was worried Cleage would polish up the book, toning down the violence, graphic language, or even the symptoms of Ava’s health worsening, but Cleage does not. A book need not be pretty to be hopeful or effective.

This an excellent novel worth seeking out.

#7 of the #20BooksofSummer 2023 challenge

31 comments

  4. I love those covers – like Karissa, they scream 90s for me.

    Wow, what a rollercoaster this book sounds like. It really interests me though, and not surprising it was an Oprah pick. I can’t stop thinking about that man dying by sliding under the ice, ugh. What a terrible way to go.

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  5. That was good pick-up about the cover designer (I searched on ‘Z.A. covers’ but got nowhere). It always bothers me just marrieds dying, though I’m not sure why I should think of them any differently to all the other people dying at “the wrong time”.

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    • Because the whole world was in front of them. Potential unlocked, untapped, ready to go. And you think, “If things can go this wrong so early, what is even the point?” So then your hope is dead, too.

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  8. I’m so sorry I took so long to read this post, but life is settling down now. Our house went formally on the market today, so now we just the the worry of waiting but we can fill up that worry time with fun things like reading, walking, catching up with friends, etc. I can manage that.

    I enjoyed your review and thought that this is a book I could enjoy, but with so many books I should read I won’t seek it out I think. However, I really liked your comment at the end that “A book need not be pretty to be hopeful or effective.” And I really like writers who can convey a lot in a few words. They are the best. I don’t mind longer works but being able to convey much in little is such a skill, it wows me, because I am not that person. I always worry my readers will miss the point so will always over-explain!

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    • I wonder how fast your house will sell. The house three doors down from me sold in two days. My grandma, age 83, I think, is putting her house on the market, and I believe she ought to find a place to live first, as things go fast!

      Oh, Sue, but don’t you ever take one book off your TBR to add another that is perhaps more enticing? ☺️

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      • Who knows about our house. We know someone is keen but they haven’t seen it yet and are out of town this weekend. (They lived in the street during COVID then went to Sydney but apparently are back and like this area.) The market is mixed at the moment. Next door took a long time to sell. Lap of the gods!

        Re your second question, not very often I’m afraid. I think I need to change this in my declining years!

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  10. I was gobsmacked by the frozen lake I encountered in Madison, WI: my friend was so blase about it and I was raised on “Don’t go on a frozen lake, you will fall through it and die”. No way would I step on one. Anyway, I know I’ve read this but recall nothing about it, so thank you for the reminder. How lovely about those covers, too.

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