FICTION: VAMPS IN ATLANTA
“Just Wanna Testify” by Pearl Cleage
In 2010, Pearl Cleage published a novel set on the fringes of the Barack Obama campaign. In 2011, she’s on to our next great politicalcultural moment: vampires. Wait … aren’t we tired of vampires? Unfortunately, no. Every time I think their full moon has finally waned, I overhear grown women start up about “True Blood” or debate whether the shirtless werewolf guy is hotter than the shirtless vampire guy.
In “Just Wanna Testify,” Cleage returns to the southwest Atlanta neighborhood of West End familiar to her readers and to some favorite characters, primarily the miraculously manly and loving Blue Hamilton. Hamilton is the “godfather” of an anti-crime family, a former R&B superstar turned real estate mogul who keeps a 20-block section of Atlanta safe, prosperous and close-knit, an “Afro-urban paradise” where there’s no need to lock your doors.
Safe, that is, until Hurricane Katrina shakes loose some of the hot female undead from New Orleans, and suddenly it’s vampires, incoming!
Ostensibly, the “Too Fine Five” and their stunning 6-foot-tall manager, Serena Mayflower, are in town to do a cover shoot for Essence magazine, but in fact the immortal supermodels are there to press five young Morehouse men into service for a task that leads to a dangerous climax.
“Sometimes Blue missed the old days when the gangstas and the crackheads were as deep as it got,” and who can blame the guy?
“Just Wanna Testify” closes on a sappy note, but it could be a good addition to your summer reading list if you like all things undead or if Hamilton’s wife speaks for you when she says, “I believe there is still hope for men. And I think you believe it, too.”
