Little, Benilde 1958–

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Benilde Little 1958–

Novelist

Former Essence magazine staffer Benilde Little is one of a new wave of successful African American female authors whose novels are earning legions of devoted fans. Her smart, attractive, overachiever protagonists are outwardly successful, but struggle with self-doubt, invisible class barriers, and heartache. Little has been compared favorably with notable writers of American fiction such as Edith Wharton and Terry McMillan.

Little was born in 1958 and grew up in a modest, integrated neighborhood in Newark, New Jersey. Her mother had dropped out of high school, became a nurse’s aide, and then served as president of the Parent-Teacher Association at her daughter’s school. Little’s father worked at General Motors as a materials coordinator and was active in community and civic organizations as well. Little’s parents provided her with music lessons and nice clothes and strongly encouraged her to excel in school.

The 1967 riots in Newark irrevocably changed Little’s neighborhood. Many of the white families moved away, as did some of the established African American households. The Littles, however, refused to move. Newcomers to the neighborhood, many of them from a riot-torn area of Newark known as Central Ward, viewed middle-class families like the Littles with suspicion. Little, an overachieving student, was often ridiculed by her fellow African American classmates. “I was the rich kid,” Little recalled in an interview with Pamela Newkirk in the Washington Post. On several occasions, she was attacked on her way home from school.

Following graduation from high school, Little attended Howard University in Washington, D.C. At Howard, she met many wealthy students who had several generations of Howard alumni in their family. For the first time in her life, she was asked what her grandfather had done for a living. Little became acutely aware that there was a type of caste system among African Americans. Because she had her own apartment and car, she was considered part of the elite.

After earning her degree, Little interned at the Cleveland Plain Dealer, and was then hired by her hometown paper, the Newark Star-Ledger. She also spent five years as a writer with People magazine before becoming the entertainment editor at Essence magazine. She eventually quit her job at Essence in order to complete her first novel. This novel fictionalized the class issues Little had encountered both at Howard and in the world of professional, urban African Americans. “I wanted to talk about what we do to each other at that level,” Little told the Washington Post. “How black people look down on other black people. That’s an element of this group that I find very disturbing, the way they play the strata thing.” Another inspiration for Little’s writings centered around the perceptions that society had of African Americans in general. As Little related to Michael Kenney in the Boston Globe, she had grown weary of

At a Glance…

Born 1958; daughter of a nurse and a General Motors employee; married to Clifford (a stockbroker); children: one daughter. Education: Howard University, B. A., c. 1980.

Career: Novelist. Began career in journalism with an internship at the Cleveland Plain Dealer; hired as reporter by Newark Star-Ledger; spent five years at People magazine; became entertainment editor at Essence.

Addresses: Office—do Simon & Schuster, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

contemporary portrayals of African Americans in books, television, and film, “of ghetto blacks being held up as the authentic black person. I just refuse to buy that.”

Little’s first novel, Good Hair, was published in 1996 and became a bestseller. The title referred to a trait that was essential for membership in the upper echelons of the African American social order, hair that didn’t need to undergo lengthy chemical treatments to become straight. Using whites as an example of beauty, the characters in Good Hair also judged their peers by the shade of their skin. The main character of the novel, Alice Andrews, is an African American woman from Newark who earns a scholarship to a prestigious women’s college in New England. Good Hair follows Andrew’s life as she struggles for acceptance among her elite classmates and, after graduation, in her professional and social life in Manhattan. She becomes deeply ashamed of her blue-collar New Jersey roots and lies to others about her father’s occupation. She eventually falls in love with a successful but superficial African American surgeon, Jack Russworm. Little illustrates in the novel how, through lies and denial of her roots, Andrews has lost her self-identity and become a prisoner in a world of pretense.

In a review of Good Hair, Sandy Coleman of the Boston Globe noted that, “The author gives us an average story that starts off slowly, picks up only after the novel’s midpoint and then drops off with an unsatisfactory end.” She further remarked that “Little does a good job creating a main character who is vulnerable enough to be appealing.” Coleman also criticized Little for failing to chronicle whether Andrews attains any measure of personal growth. She concluded, however, that Good Hair “is a good attempt to bring us into the world of the black upper class with all its petty pretensions.”

Little was criticized by some African Americans for placing too much emphasis on the trappings of wealth enjoyed by the characters in Good Hair, trappings such as designer clothes, imported cars, and $650 bottles of wine. Some of the issues of class, education, and skin tone that Little detailed in the novel manifested themselves at her book signings and readings of Good Hair. As Pamela Newkirk noted in the Washington Post, African Americans who met Little on her promotional tour “were intensely curious about her pedigree and wary of what they perceive to be her own elitism.” Others chastised Little for the novel’s title, which they believed helped to perpetuate a stereotype.

Little’s second novel, The Itch, was published in 1998. This novel tells the story of a film production executive named Abra Lewis Dixon, who forsakes Manhattan to join her best friend, Natasha Coleman, in Los Angeles. As the novel opens, Dixon seems to possess the ideal life. She has earned a degree from a prestigious Ivy League school and is married to a successful stockbroker. However, Dixon’s marriage ends in divorce and she decides to start anew in Los Angeles. Dixon and Coleman start their own production company, Is My Wig on Straight? Productions, and struggle to get their first film project off the ground. Natasha eventually becomes engaged to a philanderer while Dixon falls in love with a film director. The “itch” of the title refers to the characters’ eventual realization that they need to do more with their lives than simply earning money and spending it extravagantly.

Debra Dickerson reviewed The Itch for the Village Voice and called the novel “a collection of blackface paper dolls striking self-conscious poses.” Other reviewers responded to the novel more favorably. “For all her overindulgence in brand identification and blandification,” wrote Lily Burana in Salon, “Little makes this book satisfying by layering on—but not belaboring—issues of family history, racial politics and social posturing. She also refuses to tie all the conflicts into a nice, neat bow.” A Publishers Weekly reviewer noted that “what distinguishes Little among commercial novelists is her honest ambivalence toward her characters’ conspicuous consumption; their glitz comes at a spiritual price.” Kirkus Reviews declared Little’s novel “an improvement over her debut,” calling “both Abra and Natasha likable and real.” Booklist’s Lillian Lewis called The Itch “a winning tale sure to please her growing fans,” and Newsweek declared that Little “has a talent for the comedy of manners.”

Little lives in South Orange, New Jersey with her husband and young daughter. Plans are underway to make both Good Hair and The Itch into Hollywood films. Little is also hard at work on her third novel. “I have no idea what this book is about,” she admitted to the Washington Post about her third novel. “It’s a matter of having faith.”