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Four friends, all graduates of Hampton Institute, keep a collective journal they call "If This World Were Mine," and share their personal diaries each month at a gathering filled with humor, gossip, and affirmation. The four group members are as different as the seasons, yet they all share a love of one another. Yolanda, a media consultant, keeps it going on with a no-nonsense attitude and independence that are balanced by the theatrics of Riley, a former marketing executive whose marriage has reduced her to a "kept woman with kids." Computer engineer Dwight's anger at the world is offset by the compassion of Leland, a gay psychiatrist whose clients make him question why God ever invented sex. But after five years, the once-strong bonds of friendship are weakening, and the group must handle challenges of work, lost love, and a stranger in their midst. As the group members confront their true feelings toward each other, resentments and long-held secrets surface, and the stability of the group begins to disintegrate. Is their past friendship strong enough to survive the future?… (more)
User reviews
The novel explores the complexities of friendship between four disparate black characters that all went to Hampton College before going their separate ways in life. They run the gamut, from highly professional to career-floundering; gay, straight, and bisexual; both satisfied and highly dissatisfied with their lives. The four friends meet up to share personal journals about their lives, though each also keeps a separate journal in which they reveal more truths to themselves but not each other.
With such a wealth of variety in character, it's astonishing that the novel does not deal with character development in a convincing or natural way. As one character finds love and another questions whether she should explore an online alternative to her staid marriage, the potential for grand emotional outpouring is raised. But when each finds an unexpected resolution, the flatness with which each character moves on makes the novel feel more like an extended cliché than a real, relevant exploration of contemporary issues.
Perhaps the novel's failure comes from its desire to raise too many ethical or personal issues without exploring enough of them in depth. Several characters are confronted with the issue of bisexuality, which is treated in a surprisingly harsh and unwelcome manner considering that both homosexuality and heterosexuality are accessible and accepted throughout. A doctor, confronted with an ethical professional decision, is made to feel guilty for siding with his Hippocratic Oath, but when the decision works out in his favor anyway, the potentials for further discussion are simply dropped. And instead of offering a meaningful meditation on friendship when one of the group is shot near the end of the novel, we are instead confronted with Hallmark-style schmaltziness.
Harris appears to have bitten off more than he could chew here, wanting to be deep and meaningful but failing to extract little more than the expected. If This World Were Mine will be widely loved by the Oprah crowd, but for those expecting a little more depth and complexity with their beach reading will be sorely disappointed.