"Lita"

by Jervey Tervalon, 2003, 211p, rating=2.5

I'm not sure how to describe this book.  It's a simple read and technically flowed but for some reason I found it fragmented... storyline-wise.  In general it was wacky!  According to the book's front flap, this is the eagerly awaited sequel to Dead Above Ground ... perhaps I should have read that first but I sincerely think it wouldn't have helped.  I think this sequel just didn't cut it! 

Book's synopsis:

"Ten years after Lita, her twin sisters, her husband Winston, and their two children, packed up and moved to Los Angeles, issues left behind in New Orleans come back to haunt her.  Lita is already at loose ends, trying to hold house and home together.  One younger sister rebels and both conspire to free themselves from her protective grip.  Lita herself can't decide whether to stay in a marriage that is dangerously weak at the seams.  Then, she receives an unwelcomed phone call from a trouble-making aunt, telling Lita that her father --with whom she has a strained relationship--is on his deathbed.  The aunt also says that she has seen Lita's beloved mother--never mind that the woman has been dead for a decade.  As Lita finds herself overwhelmed by a flood of long-suppressed memories, she grudgingly realizes that she must return to New Orleans and take the opportunity to make amends and come to terms with her family and her past.  As she makes the journey back, a growing sense of dread takes root in her soul.  She has the sense that her life will change again and there will be no simple turning back to the life she led in Los Angeles."