Her son Dexter is about to be paroled from prison Quentin, the family success, can't be bothered to lend a hand and taking care of two lively grandsons is the last thing BJ thinks she needs. BJ, a trademark McMillan heroine, already has her hands full dealing with her other adult children, two opinionated sisters, an ill husband, and her own postponed dreams-all while holding down a job as a hotel maid. Who Asked You? opens as Trinetta leaves her two young sons with her mother, Betty Jean, and promptly disappears. Now, in her eighth novel, McMillan gives exuberant voice to characters who reveal how we live now-at least as lived in a racially diverse Los Angeles neighborhood. (Aug.Summary "With her wise, wry, and poignant novels of families and friendships-Waiting to Exhale, Getting to Happy, and A Day Late and a Dollar Short among them-Terry McMillan has touched millions of readers. 25,000 first printing movie rights optioned by Tri-Star. Though, indeed, real people talk that way, the question is: Do we want to read a novel with such relentlessly scatological dialogue? In the end, however, readers who are willing to immerse themselves in this gritty slice of life will count it an edifying experience. But in her effort to achieve authenticity, the author bombards readers with four-letter words, and the effect is both irritating and distancing. In that sense, and it's not necessarily a bad one, this is an old-fashioned kind of novel, the kind with a Message. McMillan threads her politics through the narrative and her characters occasionally lapse into dialogue more appropriate for a position paper than conversation. Life has been unkind to these star-crossed lovers, but they're both survivors. This is a love story between Zora, an independent, aspiring singer who is said to teach junior high school (we never really see her at work) and Franklin, a sometimes-employed carpenter with an estranged wife and three young children (they're vague props). Naming the heroine of this second novel Zora may have been intended as an homage to that also gifted and black writer, but despite an abundance of flash and energy, this book lacks the depth and breadth to which McMillan aspires.
McMillan's first novel Mama was highly praised critics compared the author to Zora Neale Hurston.
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