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Idlewild #1

What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day

pearl cleage

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Acclaimed Playwright, essayist and columnist Pearl Cleage breaks new ground in African American women's literature--with a debut novel that sings and crackles with life-affirming energy as it moves the reader to laughter and tears.

As a girl growing up in Idlewild, Michigan, Ava Johnson had always heard that, if you were young, black, and had any sense at all, Atlanta was the place to be. So as soon as she was old enough and able enough, that was where she went--parlaying her smarts and her ambition into one of the hottest hair salons in town. In no time, she was moving with the brothers and sisters who had beautiful clothes, big cars, bigger dreams, and money in the bank.

Now, after more than a decade of elegant pleasures and luxe living, Ava has come home, her fabulous career and power plans smashed to bits on one dark truth. Ava Johnson has tested positive for HIV. And she's back in little Idlewild to spend a quiet summer with her widowed sister, Joyce, before moving on to finish her life in San Francisco, the most HIV-friendly place she can imagine.

But what she thinks is the end is only the beginning because there's too much going down in her hometown for Ava to ignore. There's the Sewing Circus--sister Joyce's determined effort to educate Idlewild's young black women about sex, drugs, pregnancy, whatever. . .despite the interference of the good Reverend Anderson and his most virtuous, "Just say no" wife. Plus Joyce needs a helping hand to make a loving home for Imani, an abandoned crack baby whom she's taken into her heart.

And then there's Wild Eddie, whose legendary background in violence combined with his Eastern gentility has stirred Ava's interest. . .and something more.

244 pages, Paperback

First published January 1,1997
Series
Idlewild
Places
idlewild michigan, 

This edition

Format
244 pages, Paperback
Published
November 1, 1998 by HarperPB
ISBN
9780380794874
ASIN
038079487X
Language
English

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About the author

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pearl cleage

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Pearl Cleage is an African-American playwright, essayist, novelist, poet and political activist. She is currently the Playwright in Residence at the Alliance Theatre and at the Just Us Theater Company. Cleage is a political activist. She tackles issues at the crux of racism and sexism, and is known for her feminist views, particularly regarding her identity as an African-American woman. Her works are highly anthologized and have been the subject of many scholarly analyses. Many of her works across several genres have earned both popular and critical acclaim. Her novel What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day (1997) was a 1998 Oprah's Book Club selection.

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Community Reviews

Rating(4 / 5.0, 100 votes)
5 stars
32(32%)
4 stars
34(34%)
3 stars
34(34%)
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0(0%)
1 stars
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100 reviews All reviews
Profile Image for Kimberly .
-Forgotten-
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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The ability to transcend individuality in writing is such an incredible feat that often goes without mention. The fact that I, a suburban 18 year old white girl, could be so profoundly affected by a novel about a black woman with HIV and a shattered home town, is remarkable. The love and teaching that this novel is riddled with is something I will never forget, and the final line and instructions for woman throughout are things I’ll have saved forever. This book is so close to five stars for me, but it’s just not quite there in a few aspects, but none so overwhelming as to bear inherent notice. Nonetheless, I really did adore this book and I’m sure to reread and recommend it frequently in my future.
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SkootSkoot
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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This review is several months overdue, but here are a few thoughts.

This was a quick and interesting read, but I'm not sure that it deserves the acclaim that many readers have offered. The story is filled with lots of unrealistic drama that takes away from the very real and human story at its core. Ada's struggle as a woman recently diagnosed with HIV becomes essentially buried as a love interest, an abandoned child, delinquent teenagers, lies within the church, crack addiction, and custody issues all try to crowd into the relatively short book. I also felt that Joyce and Eddie's characters were quite static, with only a terse attempt to develop depth.

Overall, this was an OK read, but it doesn't make any of my "best of" lists.
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SilverLicht
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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After completing this book a second time, I realize the things I love most are Joyce's endeavors to "save" the young women in her community. The events that emerge from her attempts are this books gems.

The audiobook reader's voices and cadence are perfect for this pearl of a novel. My mind often travels back to these characters and I understand how they've become the foundation for Pearl latest novels. I wonder if she'll ever bring us back to Idlewild and to Joyce, Ava and Eddie's lives. But interestingly enough, at the book's conclusion, their lives felt complete. I'm sure they continue on, but I don't feel an absolute connection where I'd beg for a sequel.

I enjoy Pearl's writing and this book sets the pattern. I wouldn't discourage anyone from reading it, however, I know this isn't her best work.
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Arka_otaku
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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I happened to read the second book of this duo first. I called that one my favorite book of 2022 so far, despite the fact that it was written in the 1990's. This book is not quite up to that standard, but it's got most of the attractions of Idlewild, #2: smart, funny dialogue combined with sharp social observations and Black women characters you would recognize if you met them on the street. I resonated more with Joyce than with Ava, and I liked hearing more about the young women of the Sewing Circus in the second book, but those are minor differences, not objections.

Both books have some of the same problems, too. I did think Eddie was a more intriguing male character than Nate in I Wish I Had a Red Dress, but both are women's fantasies. It's a problem that Ava and Joyce want to be protected. It's a problem that the protection takes the form of violence. In both books, the bad guys are shallow and not well delineated.

So why did I like them so much? It felt as if Cleage welcomed me into her community without explanation or apology. She didn't use the explanatory comma for white readers, and she assumed that crises affecting the Black community in Idlewild were parts of the plot, not confessions of inferiority that needed to be defended.

Truth is, though, I enjoyed the voices of sisters Ava Johnson and Joyce Mitchell enough that I didn't really care about anything else.
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greenwarrior33
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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Very good read. It had all that I was looking for; humor, suspense, love, and class. I would definitely recommend this one.
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GothicShadow22
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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“And we danced too wild, and we sang too long, and we hugged too hard, and kissed too sweet, and threw back our heads and howled just as loud as we wanted to howl, because by now we were all old enough to know that what looks like crazy on an ordinary day looks a lot like love if you catch it in the moonlight.” p.244
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