A review by sunnydunlap
Some Love, Some Pain, Sometime: Stories by J. California Cooper

reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Read a few of these short stories and you’ve got the gist which is; if you be “respectable” you can get a good man who will love you and take care of you for the rest of your life. Oh and you need to have socially acceptable dreams and ambitions to have a happy life such as completing college, buying or owning a home etc. According to the virtue signals in this book, a life isn’t worth life if it’s not done “right”. This messaging grated on my nerves. I could hardly finish it. Though I pressed on because I tried to read through the lens of the times written by the author, consider her age and her background. That’s the only way I could get through all of the dogma.  

Who would like this book?

-deeply religious folks who live life according to set rules 

-people who really enjoy seeing others get their come uppence 

-people who stand for J. California Cooper

-people who live by rules and mores society has set before them and believe others should be punished for not abiding by these standards 

-people who enjoy southern dialect and this time period (I enjoy southern dialect but this wasn’t done well in this book. Dialect was only depicted in misspellings (ie. “bliving” instead of believing ) or lengthening words (de…ter…mined) NOT pronunciation or idioms (ie. Horse of a different color) 

-people who can’t get enough of Tyler Perry drama movies