Taming It Down

by Kim McLarin

Book Overview

First-time novelist McLarin delivers a poignant lesson in love and life as a young African-American journalist struggles to find her professional and personal identity. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0446675741
• ISBN13: 9780446675741
• Release Date: August 1999
• Publisher: Warner Books (NY)
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Powerful, thought-provoking story!

I read McLarin's second book ("Meeting of the Waters") first and was so impressed, I couldn't wait to read "Taming it Down." McLarin's Hope is a woman on the verge, forced to be the voice of her people when she is just an individual. The book flowed so smoothly and honestly, I wondered if it was a memoir disguised as a novel.If I have one criticism, it is that the obit incident where Hope incorrectly attributed the wrong medal to a deceased war veteran and was reamed by the widow was duplicated in both books (?).It is obvious many of the "reviewers"--and I use that term loosely--are haters! Sign your names, cowards, and stand behind your words! These are the same people McLarin writes about in the voice of her character, Hope. They are the people who "just don't get it" and go through life without any real worries in the world, never thinking about race because THEY are the problem. Of course, Hope is the extreme case, but "Taming it Down" is a fictionalized version of what happens in the workplace--and the rest of society--when a certain people are left out of the equation. Had the U.S. constitution included ALL people when it was first written, we wouldn't have the problems we are having now.

A voice that needs to be heard

Ms. McLarin weaves an incredibly complex story that really challenges her reader to step in Hope's shoes. She goes to great lengths to develop Hope- plunging into events in Hope's past that make her into who she is. Many books offer the reader a plot in which something happens to the main character, there's some resolution and the reader walks away not even interested in what happens after the last period after the last page. Ms. McLarin inserts her reader into all the complexities of Hope's experience so that readers who may not have ever known the life Hope lives have to try to understand where she's coming from. All in all, the author gives life to a faction of readers (black women) who live and feel Hope's situation. In the topics Kim McLarin explores there is comfort to those who can relate to Hope and clarity to those who have never had to.

Wonderful, Couldn't put it down

A wonderful book that kept moving me along. Sure Hope is a bitter character but that is part of the story. Kim McLarin brings up issues that face many women, no matter what race, and althougth the story is fiction it is representive of real life. Look forward to Ms. McLarin's next project.Definately suggest to anyone who wants to feel life through the eyes of Hope Robinson. Best read I have had in a long time! Thanks!

a rarely told, but very real story

such a great novel! and so very real for black women who get caught up and dragged around emotionally by predominatly white, upper-middle class environments. i read it quickly and eagerly, hoping that Hope had the answers that many of us do not. how many stories are written about straddling the fence between racial worlds? this is a book i plan to share with my mother, who often wonders (silently) what my world is like.

Couldn't put it down!

This is a terrific first novel! I couldn't put it down and I didn't want it to end. It's well written, quick paced and interesting. The main character is very likeable and I think black and white readers can identify with her work and love life situations.