Jackson’s ‘Divas’ more than a tale

Friday, Sept. 14, 2007

I’m not sure that’s something an up-and-coming Washington, D.C., lawyer should actually put into print, true or not. But that’s what it says on the first page of Waldorf resident Asia Jackson’s first novel.

Maybe it’s the diva in Bianca that makes her think she is going to get away with murder. Sooner or later it is bound to come out. Maybe it’s sooner, because poor Bianca is about to confess.

I say poor Bianca, but why? She has everything an overachiever could want. She’s beautiful, smart as a whip, handles high-profile legal cases, has a hunk of a beau, chic friends, a stylish and comfortable home and works in a prestigious law firm.

Politics, academia, the bench could all be in her future. Yet she has become increasingly disillusioned, frustrated — downright unhappy — about her current status as a highly marketable, glamorous ‘‘diva.”

With all that, I would agree that ‘‘Divas Have Dilemmas, Too!”

Most of the story the author took from personal observations rather than experience.

‘‘Only a small percentage is about me — like 10 or something. Some people think I am Bianca and others think I am Teryn [Bianca’s best friend]. I just giggle. Most of those problems I’ve never had but it keeps people entertained,” Jackson wrote in response to an e-mail query.

Bianca is having trouble attaining the well-deserved pinnacle of the law firm for which she works. It took long enough to make junior partner despite her exemplary record.

Now, a problem client she has worked hard to retain after cleaning up someone else’s mess is being handed over to one of the firm’s golden boys.

Is it because she’s female, African-American or both? It’s hard to tell, but the glass ceiling is very much in evidence and after confiding to an associate that enough is enough, she decides to make a change.

Bianca’s revelations are told alternating between first- and third-person narration. What goes on inside Bianca’s head begins to come out in her relationships with other people.

This isn’t so much a blood-and-gunpowder murder mystery as it is how to handle what life gives you, honestly and up front.

There are mostly really good people in Jackson’s book, with warm moments, irritating incidents and the occasional eye-opener. ‘‘Divas” is full of personality and worth a read.