In my spare time whenever I'm not writing a TransGriot blog post, poetry or some fiction, I take a moment to read novels for fun since I do so much serious reading in the process of compiling posts.I first discovered Marcus Major when I was reading the 2000 Got To Be Real anthology of original love stories. I love the late E. Lynn Harris (and was mad I missed him at my neighborhood bookstore in Da Ville because I had to work that day) and Eric Jerome Dickey, and bought it on the strength of their names. But the unexpected bonus was discovering Colin Channer's work and Major's through that anthology, and I fell in love with the Kenya and Amir story that was part of it.
I loved the story, which focuses on barber and Lawndale, NJ resident Amir Moore meeting Kenya Wallace. He has a rep as a serious playa playa, but Kenya moves his heart to the point that he's on the verge of giving up his playa card. But a jealous girlfriend of Kenya's creates some drama in their relationship that I'll let y'all read to find out what happened..
There is a character in one of Major's later books that he foreshadows in this story, the ouitrageous playa playa character of Marcus' Philly-New Jersey-Washington DC metro area centric character universe from Newark via Guyana, Ibn Barrington. So after reading the anthology I rushed to the bookstore and bought Major's 2001 debut novel Good Peoples. It's set in the Philadelphia metro area a few years after Kenya And Amir takes place and focuses on Amir's schoolteacher brother Myles. He's having a rough time with the ladies and getting a hard time from the fellas about it until Black Cubana lawyer and talk show host Marisa Marrero enters his life courtesy of a hookup from his best friend Carlos Roque's wife Jackie.
Marisa is everything Myles wants in a woman and he quickly falls in love with her. She's beautiful, smart, sexy and successful but as he finds out in their rocky relationship she's oh so human as well. I won't tell you how it ends in case you want to read it. There's also resolution to what happened between Kenya and Amir in the anthology as well .
Major's 2001 novel entitled 4 Guys And Trouble is the one in which Ibn makes his debut along with his frat brothers Dexter Holmes, Colin Rogers, and Mike Lovett. They have been tight since college and are still hanging close by in the Philly area. They also have something else in common, Erika 'Bunches' Truitt, the genius baby sister of their frat brother Trevor who they promised to take care of before he died prematurely. Ibn, Dexter, Colin and Mike all have different levels of trouble with the women in their lives as well.
Erika is now an attractive twentysomething medical student who has been spoiled rotten by them, but is carrying a torch for one of the fellas. One of the guys is also falling for her and when he finally makes his move, it challenges everything they thought they knew about themselves and forces them to confront the double standards they have about the various women in their lives. Amir makes a cameo appearance in this novel because of Ibn and Mike being regular customers in his barbershop.
That one was quickly followed up by 2002's A Man Most Worthy, which was set in Newark and focuses on 36 year old multi-millionaire businessman John Sebastian who has everything he ever wanted. He has a thriving Charlotte, NC based business, luxury homes and cars, an elegant young Creole descended girlfriend and more money than he can count. What he doesn't have is Josephine Flowers, the lady that walked out of his life seven years ago. He decides he wants her back and will do whatever it takes to win the heart of the woman he drove away from him including setting up a branch of his security systems business in Newark as a start. There's two complications: She's married to school superintendent Darren Prescott and hates John's guts for what transpired in their relationship that broke them up.. There's also the subplot of Josephine's best friend Gloria Lawson and John's best friend and businessman Jules Anthony who once had a serious relationship with Gloria but something messed up their love connection as well. .
And oh yeah, Ibn makes a hilarious cameo in this book. There's another scene in which thugged out brothers Hakeem and Rashahn show up to help solve a problem Gloria and Jo were having. Their motto? "No problem too big or too small to be fixed, no azz too big or too small to be kicked."
Gotta love those two. You'll especially love who gets a beatdown from Hakeem and Rashahn and why. . Major's 2003 release was entitled A Family Affair, and brings us back to beautiful Lawndale, NJ to check in on the Moore and Roque clans a few years after the events of Good Peoples. New mom Jackie and Kenya are now business partners running a group home. Stacy from the 4 Guys And Trouble book causes some trouble in a Moore marriage, and speaking of trouble, you have Myles and Amir's mother Peggy trying to raise her sister Dee's rebellious teenage daughter Jasmine.
Marisa's back too in addition to Mike and Ibn making another hilarious stop in Amir's Camden, NJ barbershop.
As you can tell, I love Marcus Major's books and I'm rereading 4 Guys and Trouble right now as I compile this post.
But after getting rave reviews for his four novels and a 2002 Book of the Year award, all of a sudden Major just vanished from the literary world. He was a New Jersey teacher prior to beginning his writing career in 1998 with the manuscript that would become Good Peoples, so his fans like me are wondering what happened to him?
Are more novels in the works? Will we see a few of them turned into movies, or was A Family Affair the last book we'll ever see Marcus Major write?
I sure hope not, because Ibn's scandalous behind is worth one or two novels and a movie..
