Sandra Kitt

American Visions, June-July, 1996 by Sandra Kitt

Like many writers, I came to the profession by way of being an avid reader. My reading has been actively cultivated and encouraged since I was 6 years old and I discovered my local library, which allowed me to take home as many books as I could carry.

In my adult life, however, my writing schedule, as well as traveling and professional obligations, have cut severely into time I might have had just to sit and read. I used to do it in bed at night. Now I quickly fall to sleep. Long flights are taken up with preparing and reading notes for presentations ... and sleeping. Once in the habit of reading in the tub during a long hot soak. I've largely given up this form of relaxing. No, I don't fall asleep there, but the books do get wet. So, what's a reader to do?

I have been creating in my mind the perfect beach trip, a pure state of solitude that would enable me to catch up on reading ... and on more sleep ... where my major decisions each day would include where to place my chaise longue, what color bathing suit to wear and what book to read.

I would start my reading by backtracking to a few titles I missed when they were first released, such as the charming Clover (Fawcett, 1994), by Dori Sanders, about a black girl who, after the death of her father, finds herself in the care of a white stepmother. I would then switch moods and read Another Good Loving Blues (Ballantine Books, 1994), by Arthur Flowers. I have seen Mr. Flowers from his work, bringing his words to life. He is jazzy and funky.

Something I definitely want to read again is a terrific, sad/funny and painful, innovative novel, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven (HarperCollins), 1994), by American Indian writer Sherman Alexie, whom I met at a book festival. From a host of characters who jump back and forth over a period of 20 years, we learn the anguish of a people searching for a way into mainstream American society while attempting to maintain traditional tribal and clan values.

The 1995 printing of Life on the Color Line: The True Story of a White Boy Who Discovered He Was Black (Dutton, 1995), by Gregory Howard Williams, would give me a break from fiction as I delve into one man's personal and family struggle with racial identity. Rounding out my list of beach reading would be Caught Up in the Rapture (Simon & Schuster, May 1996), by Sheneska Jackson, and Ain't Gonna Be the Same Fool Twice (Hyperion, 1996), April Sinclair's second novel, which continues the coming-of-age (and awareness) story of Stevie, a young black woman who is finding herself, and her sexuality as a lesbian.

There's something for every mood on my list and enough material to last me for about a week in the sun. Now all I need to do is make my reservations and pack my bags.

Sandra Kitt, the author of 17 novels, was the first African American to publish with Harlequin. Her next novel, Significant Others (Onyx, 1996), is due in July.