Scenes from a Sistah by Lolita Files

First published: 1997

Type of work: Novel

Type of plot: Domestic realism

Time of work: 1990’s

Locale: Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Atlanta, Georgia; New York, New York

Principal Characters:

• Armistice (Misty) Fine, the central character and narrator, who has more success in the world of business and finances than in her personal relationships
• Teresa (Reesy) Snowden, Misty’s friend and advisor, a competent worker, exotic dancer, and actress
• Stefan Adams, Misty’s live-in lover, who is an incompetent lawyer with the firm of Snowden & Snowden
• Roman Frazier, Misty’s lover in Atlanta, who turns out to be about to marry another woman
• Rick Hodges, a new love interest of Misty who lives in New York
• Rich Landey, Misty’s boss and supporter, who helps Misty when her professional life runs into snags

The Novel

Scenes from a Sistah consists of three parts, detailing the narrator’s life in Fort Lauderdale, her life in Atlanta, and her life in New York. Each episode in the novel focuses on business life and personal life, with Reesy Snowden serving as a foil for the narrator, Misty Fine.

Misty is a successful property manager in Fort Lauderdale. Readers are told little about her job itself, as the narrative focuses more extensively on the narrator’s love life. Misty’s love interest is Stefan Adams, a lawyer in the firm of Snowden & Snowden, the legal firm of Reesy’s parents. Misty anticipates marriage; Stefan offers an arrangement of cohabitation until he becomes partner in the firm. Reesy, however, tells Misty that it is unlikely Stefan will ever be made a partner. She also sees quite clearly that he is a much less competent lover than Misty is willing to admit.

The relationship turns bad when Stefan’s mother comes for a visit. Relatively young since she became a mother at age sixteen, Ms. Adams has a wasp waist and a sizable bosom. Stefan is enthralled with his mother and also with breasts in general, being a faithful visitor to topless bars. The final break occurs when, in his sleep, Stefan clutches Misty’s breast, suckling and urinating while still sleeping. Misty cleans the bed but says nothing. The next time it happens, however, Misty confronts Stefan, who is in denial, accuses Misty of deception, and finally hits her in the face. That act ends the relationship altogether.

Luckily for Misty, Rich Landey, her boss from corporate headquarters in Atlanta, takes great interest in her work and offers her a job in Atlanta. Faced with the obviously disastrous outcome of her relationship with Stefan, Misty accepts the job offer and transfers to Atlanta, with all expenses paid by the generous corporation, Burch Financial.

A center of African American culture, Atlanta is “Chocolate City” for Misty. Her apartment complex is filled with “up-and-coming African-Americans.” Misty decorates her apartment with African art and art by Frank Frazier, an African American artist who began his career very young in Harlem. As she hangs her art, Misty reflects that she was unable to display these art works when she lived with Stefan, since he considered their apartment to be too small for such displays.

Professionally, the move to Atlanta represents a promotion rather than a lateral move. In Fort Lauderdale, she was a property manager; she now is responsible for several properties, some of which are out of state and require some travel. Soon, Reesy comes for a visit, announces her interest in moving to Atlanta, and indeed does so very soon after.

The focus of the novel again turns to Misty’s love interests. She discovers wax strips that will permit her to remove body hair “down there” without leaving ugly bumps. She begins a romantic relationship with Roman Frazier, whose sexual interest in Misty is wonderful and untainted. He has little time for her, however. Roman spends the week with Misty, leaving early each morning, but for the weekend, he claims to spend time with a young boy from the inner city as part of a Big Brother program. Overhearing a conversation between Reesy and a friend of Reesy, Misty finds out that Roman Frazier is actually engaged to Stacy, the sister of Reesy’s friend. Stacy’s sister says Roman is a hard worker, who has time for Stacy only on weekends.

Misty is devastated. Though consoled by Reesy, Misty is ready to run again and looks to New York as her next destination. Meanwhile, Reesy has been making a living in Atlanta as an exotic dancer at the Magic City strip club. She frankly shares with Misty the feelings of power and personal ecstasy that motivate her choice of work. These revelations throw into relief Misty’s own sex-dominated interest in the two-timing Roman Frazier.

Rich Landey comes through again for Misty and points out that the corporation has acquired a subsidiary in New York, where Misty is to be groomed for a position of significant leadership in the corporation. Again, the move happens comfortably for Misty, since the corporation pays all expenses and also pays for a very large apartment in the middle of Manhattan. Reesy decides to come along to New York. She anticipates finding a job once in town. However improbable finding a job may be, the two decide to share Misty’s apartment. Landey arranges for first-class tickets for Reesy and Misty, a fact that leads Reesy to speculate incorrectly about Landey’s amorous intentions. Reesy herself, however, does enjoy seduction. She displays herself quite freely to men in the airport, earning Misty’s scorn for her behavior.

Settled in New York, Reesy has no luck finding a job. At her own new office, Misty runs into racist phenomena that render stressful some of her work relationships. The awareness that she will probably replace some persons in leadership at the company further exacerbates these relationships. To alleviate these stresses and to help Reesy find a job, Misty suggests to Landey that Reesy become Misty’s personal secretary. Reesy turns out to be most efficient in that job. Partly through her astute eye for detail—Misty compares her to Dustin Hoffman’s idiot savant character in the film Rain Man (1988)—Jeff Branniker, a key person in the business, is identified as an embezzler. Nonetheless, the job does not fulfill Reesy’s ambitions; she seeks and finds work again as an exotic dancer.

Reesy also has much time left to engage in phone conversations, which are often filled with the kind of talk that offends her coworkers. Misty has to call Reesy’s attention to the inappropriate nature of her phone conversations, and, at about that same time, someone recognizes Reesy as a former exotic dancer at Atlanta’s Magic City. That revelation ends Reesy’s secretarial career. Though Misty, too, fears for her job, she is retained. As the novel closes, Misty is looking for a new relationship with Rick Hodges, a competent African American financial analyst in a senior position at Burch Financial. Reesy, meanwhile, is trying out for auditions as a dancer for Bubbling Brown Sugar, a major theatrical event. “Maybe, just maybe, things were going to be all right after all,” the narrator comments finally.

The Characters

Misty and Reesy are foils for one another. Misty’s success in business is complemented by Reesy’s joy of life. Misty’s romantic search for Mr. Right causes her to make errors, but Reesy’s sober understanding of sexuality without love also has its dangers. One night after a strip show, she is raped by one of her steady customers in the alley behind the club; bystanders, who know her, are indifferent to her plight. The two women are supportive of each other through all their emotional turmoil.

Some of the peripheral characters serve only to move the plot. Rich Landey seems to operate as a deus ex machina to allow Misty to move from one location to the next. Stefan and Roman are purely instrumental to an understanding of Misty and Reesy. These men are minor characters that are not explored fully. Neither are the characters that surround Misty and Reesy at Burch Financial in New York; they are flat characters, mere props for the stage that displays Misty and Reesy.

Critical Context

Scenes from a Sistah was Files’s debut novel. In 1999, she produced a sequel, Getting to the Good Part, and she proved to be a prolific writer in the first years of the twenty-first century. Her place in the canon of African American literature, though, remains open, as she has yet to receive serious critical attention. Judging by her vivid narrative style and frank narrative voice, she may become a writer of some prominence.

Bibliography

McDonald, Katrina Bell. Embracing Sisterhood: Class, Identity, and Contemporary Black Women. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2007. Discusses the representation of African American “sisterhood” in contemporary American culture.

Publishers Weekly. Review of Scenes from a Sistah, by Lolita Files. January 6, 1997. Compares Files to Terry McMillan and focuses on her crude but funny dialogue.