A Day Late And A Dollar Short By Terry Mcmillan

By Desa Philadelphia

The Waiting to Exhale author takes a multiperspective view of dysfunctional families with each member of the Price clan giving his or her own version of how screwed up they all are. The telling is led by Viola, the know-it-all matriarch and glue who holds her estranged husband Cecil and four far-flung children together. Their heavy load--incest, substance abuse, poverty, infidelity, death--makes this a soap opera, but it is leavened with a big dollop of sass.

--By Desa Philadelphia