Kim McLarin

PRAISE FOR TAMING IT DOWN

"McLarin [is] a writer of significant promise." --New York Times

"A tale McLarin tells with keen humor and an edge as sharp as the favorite saying of Hope's mother: "Whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger." --Essence

"Defining a place in each of two competing worlds -- one black, one white -- is the burden and the triumph of the protagonist of this warm and absorbing first novel. McLarin manages the complex narrative adroitly. This is an assured debut that accurately reflects salient concerns of many young people, blacks in particular." --Publishers Weekly

"McLarin's first novel goes beyond the typical woman-in-the-Nineties-looking-for-happiness story to explore how rage can erode both individual lives and whole societies and how one woman's ability to let go and forgive can lead to healing." Library Journal

"McLarin's debut novel is quite notable...An excellent book." --Booklist

About the book:

At the heart of this wonderful novel is a young woman trapped between two worlds. Hope Robinson is black, embattled -- and bright enough to win a scholarship to an exclusive prep school. It's an opportunity that comes at a high price; Hope never really feels comfortable in the white community and worries that she has been cut off from her roots. Her struggle to find her place has left her confused, alone, and profoundly angry.

Now twenty-eight, a reporter for a Philadelphia newspaper, Hope still clings to her rage. As the novel unfolds, she finds her life spinning out of control, both at work -- where conflicts over affirmative action escalate into outright hostility -- and in her tangled personal life, where she's torn between her relationship with an Afrocentric journalist and her affair with a white man. Finally, overwhelmed by stress, she's driven to a desperate act that ultimately leads her to an understanding that hatred is the most self-destructive of all emotions. Hope tells her story in an articulate, colloquial voice that rings with truth. She's smart, wry, and every bit as unsparing of herself as she is of others; in short, she's a woman any reader can root for -- and as she comes to grips with herself, it's impossible not to feel sympathetic, moved, and uplifted.