I had no idea what to expect with Substitute Me. The cover image is non-descriptive at least, and plus it was one of those books sent to our publishing office in hopes we'll review in our women's magazine. The editor of that magazine gave it to me. It seemed like some form of chick-lit, an easy read, and so I, desperate to read anything, read it in a weekend...a few weeks ago.
This book is a first novel from Lori L. Tharps. It's about an almost-30 black woman, Zora, whose high-achieving parents and family are at odds with her chosen profession at a nanny. Zora seems to have a faith and a patience in herself that her family doesn't have, but that a part of herself is always questioning.
She takes a position as a nanny for a well-to-do white family. Which brings us to our first conflict: race. The mother of this family, Kate, is portrayed mostly as a highly driven, independent woman with major professional aspirations. She works until 9 or 10 pm nightly during most of the book. She is the one asking : "substitute me" in the life of her newborn son. Enter conflict 2: the Mommy Wars. Is Kate a bad mom for hiring a substitute mom? Should she celebrate her ability to pay someone to care for her son so she can have the best of both worlds?
OK. The following contains spoilers.
This question is still lingering at the end of the book, and I'm fine with novels leaving questions unanswered (kind of their point). But mostly it's because the reader gets distracted by sex.
I mentioned that I read this novel in a weekend, and it's because it was intriguing, suspenseful even, well-written, and full of a sense of dread that you had to keep reading to know what horrible thing was going to happen to these dysfunctional folks. At first, when the hot, exotic nanny appears on the scene, you think affair. Then, the father in the story has no interest in her. Her race makes him nervous, because he has white guilt. Whew, no affair you think. Then the mom starts working until 9 and 10pm, to finish some project that she really really cares about, but seems stupid in the grand scheme of her life. She's obsessed with being an over-acheiever at work and gaining approval from her boss. Her and hubby grow distant. Oh no, it's infidelity time, you think. Wrong. Zora is busy dating a decent guy for the first time in her life, and starting to pursue her lifelong dream of being a chef. And then she starts to cook for the family. And hubby starts sitting down to eat with her. And the next thing you know, they're having sex on the kitchen floor. And it's really just downhill from there.
Just because a character is lamenting that whatever is happening in their life is "cliche" doesn't make it OK to be a cliche. In the end, ideas about motherhood and race get shoved to the side in a commentary about love. And it seems that the true driving force behind love is...availability. It was a pretty bad let down for me, narrative-wise. But I know I'm just picky when it comes to cliches. In the end, I'm glad I read it, because it made me think. I just wish I didn't hate of all the characters by the end, despite their personal growth.
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