Criticism > Contemporary Literary Criticism > McMillan, Terry - Charles R. Larson (review date 31 May 1992)
McMillan, Terry - Charles R. Larson (review date 31 May 1992)
Charles R. Larson (review date 31 May 1992)
SOURCE: "The Comic Unlikelihood of Finding Mr. Right," in Chicago Tribune Books, May 31, 1992, p. 6.
[In the following review, Larson offers favorable assessment of Waiting to Exhale.]
In the climactic scene of Terry McMillan's wickedly acerbic third novel, Waiting to Exhale, four African-American women—Gloria, Savannah, Bernadine and Robin, all between the ages of 34 and 38—celebrate the birthday of the youngest by drinking five bottles of champagne and talking about their on-going problems with men. All of them are single and/or recently divorced and "waiting to exhale"—yearning for the ideal mate who takes your breath away, although he never seems to materialize.
Furthermore, these women are all economically independent, horny and explicit in their feelings. Among other things, they conclude that the problem with black men is that they are "with white women," "gay,"...
[The entire page is 907 words long]
Join eNotes
Over 3,500 study guides, question and answer forums, literature criticism, reference content, and much more!
Navigate
- Introduction
- Principal Works
-
Criticism
- Thulani Davis (review date May 1990)
- Charles R. Larson (review date 23 September 1990)
- C. J. Walker (review date September-October 1990)
- Publishers Weekly (review date 23 March 1992)
- Terry McMillan with Wendy Smith (interview date 11 May 1992)
- Charles R. Larson (review date 31 May 1992)
- Paula C. Barnes (review date Fall 1992)
- Frances Stead Sellers (review date 6 November 1992)
- Darryl Pinckney (review date 4 November 1993)
- Donnella Canty (review date April 1996)
- Publishers Weekly (review date 1 April 1996)
- Malcolm Jones Jr. (essay date 29 April 1996)
- John Leland (essay date 29 April 1996)
- James Wolcott (review date 29 April 1996)
- Liesl Schillinger (review date 5 May 1996)
- John Skow (review date 6 May 1996)
- Richard Bernstein (review date 15 May 1996)
- Terry McMillan with Evette Porter (interview date 21 May 1996)
- Sarah Ferguson (review date 2 June 1996)
- Janet Mason Ellerby (essay date Summer 1997)
- Further Reading
- Copyright
