If This World Were Mine: A Novel

By E. Lynn Harris

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?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Nov 28, 2012
• ISBN: 9780307831750

E. Lynn Harris

E. Lynn Harris, a #1 national and New York Times bestselling author, wrote twelve acclaimed novels including Basketball Jones, Just Too Good to Be True, and I Say a Little Prayer. There are more than four million copies of his novels in print. He died in 2009 at the age of 54.

Reviews for If This World Were Mine

[laytonwoman3rd · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is the story of a group of black college friends who establish a journal-writing "salon" later on in their lives, to share thoughts and feelings. Each individual has personality traits that are well-defined from the start, and each one undergoes some sort of transformation through the course of the story. The writing is quite good, some of the characters are very well drawn, and I am glad I read it, although I have reservations about a full recommendation. The weakness I found in the book is that some of the transformations are a little too quick and easy, and while I like a neat and tidy ending, I don't want to get there by shortcuts. There are a few "outsider" characters who interact in intriguing ways with the main group, and a tricky ethical question that never gets properly addressed. I also found it a bit jarring that after no indication that this was coming, most of the characters seemed to get religion (or return to it) by the end. A fair bit of sexual activity, some crude language, and (from one character) racial hatred, may affect your mileage with this one.