Darnella Ford, Crave

There is not a character that I could not relate to or know someone just like them in Darnella Ford's Crave. I did't go to sleep till 3:30am because I could not put it down.

Crave

Darnella Ford

St. Martin's, Mar 2004, $13.95, 320 pp.

ISBN: 0312304072

Michael Morgan craves love without strings as her only goal in life. She grew up in a household in which Mama Bear expected her to be perfect and her dad Papa Bear seemingly ignored his wife's tirades until he broke, got drunk, and died in a DUI. Michael's only friend over the years is Molly Wood, who has spent more time in rehab than in her home. Still when it comes to a man or masturbation, Michael prefers males and freely goes into each relationship naively believing this is the one.

When Lorenzo left her pregnant, he offered sympathy, but nothing else as he fits the norm of the men in her life. They leave and her heart breaks. She thinks Eddie will have staying power, but he too dumps her. This hurts more than most as she has no idea what she did wrong. On the positive side, Michael is beginning to look within perhaps because she is prepared to give up on her quest to find a lasting love.

This is an interesting psychological character study of an individual in trouble due to her selection in men. Michael's childhood haunts her as she believes only by behaving "perfectly" can she receive love, but her definition and the men in her lives definition do not match so they leave like her dad did. Molly is a form of comfort candy, but also adds to the destructive nature of Michael as they need each other, but are not good for one another. Superb work by Darnella Ford provides the audience with an intense drama.

Harriet Klausner