Book Review of "Red Hats" by Damon Wayans (online only)
July 2010
By Terri Schlichenmeyer
Sometimes, you feel
like you’re being stalked.
The woman two doors down keeps asking you to lunch or to
join her after work or to check out her book club. You’ve politely (and
not-so-politely) declined at least ten times and she keeps on asking. She’s
nice and all that, but you have no intention of having a new best friend - and
even if you did, it wouldn’t be her.
But hold up. Maybe that hand of friendship she’s
extending may change your life. That’s what happened to Alma, and in the new
book “Red Hats” by Damon Wayans, she
didn’t want that, either.
How hard would it have been for Harold to do something
right for once? Alma, his wife, remembered how wonderful things were when they
were first married and their romance was new, but lately, all he did was sleep,
drink, and paw at her. Alma couldn’t stand it, and she wished Harold was dead.
But when his frail heart stopped, Alma was devastated.
She truly did love Harold, even though she complained
about him all the time. Alma’s children, Teddy (who married a white woman Alma
called “The Wet Dog”), Angel (who had a lout for a husband) and Jesse (a heroin
addict) tried to tell her that Harold knew how much she adored him, but it
didn’t do any good. Alma became depressed. She just wanted to be left alone.
If only that persistent woman, Delilah, would understand
that. Delilah, or Dee to her friends, was a member of the Red Hat Society, and
she kept asking Alma to join the group. Dee even bought Alma one of those
stupid red hats, but Alma refused to wear it. She didn’t need a bunch of
hat-wearing, purple-dressed, meddling women around.
But when disaster happened, Dee was the only person in
the world who reached out to help Alma. She opened her home and her heart to
Alma, who had no choice, really, but to put up with Dee’s loud-mouthed Red Hat
friends. Dee even saved the red hat she bought for Alma in the hopes that Alma
might wear it.
And Alma finally did – for an event that she never
thought would happen…
For a first novel, this isn’t bad.
It’s not good, either.
“Red Hats” is a five out of ten. It’s square in the
middle. It’s a solid so-so with fine points and not-so-fine points.
Author Damon Wayans’ sense of comedy comes out in his
excellent characterizations, especially that of Alma. She’s grumpy, sour,
nasty, she says what she thinks, and she made me laugh. By far, she’s the best
part of this book.
Still, I got bored. “Red Hats” has too much going on;
some of it goes nowhere and other plot lines labor for a long time before they
tie up in an oh-so-convenient (and quite unbelievable) way.
Overall, I think this book is worth a look-see, but it
probably won’t be the best thing you’ve ever read. Keep that in mind and “Red
Hats” won’t make you blue.
The Bookworm is Terri Schlichenmeyer. Terri has been reading
since she was 3 years old and she never goes anywhere without a book. She lives
on a hill in Wisconsin with her two dogs and 12,000 books.