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Overview
Bestselling author Tina McElroy Ansa is back with another tale from Mulberry, Georgia, the richly drawn fictional town and home of the extraordinary Lena McPherson. Lena, now forty-five and tired of being "the hand everyone fans with," has grown weary of shouldering the town's problems and wants to find a little love and companionship for herself. So she and a friend perform a supernatural ritual to conjure up a man for Lena. She gets one all right: a ghost named Herman who, though dead for one hundred years, is full of life and all man. His love changes Lena's life forever, satisfying as never before both her physical and spiritual needs. Filled with the same "humor, grace, and great respect for power of the particular" (The New York Times Book Review) as her previous critically acclaimed novels, Baby of the Family and Ugly Ways, The Hand I Fan With is yet another memorable and life-affirming tale from one of America's best-loved authors.
Editorials
Library Journal
Lena McPherson, first seen in Ansa's Baby of the Family (Harcourt, 1991), is now the 45-year-old town matriarch of Mulberry, Georgia. Lena was born with a caul over her face, a veil of skin that, according to legend, signifies a charmed life and the powers of clairvoyance. A successful businesswoman, Lena has always been financially and spiritually supportive of Mulberry citizens and her generosity has earned her the nickname "the hand I fan with." Though overwhelmed with business and social obligations, Lena begins to realize that something is missing in her life. She and a friend perform a ritual to conjure up a man for Lena, and a few days later, Herman, the spirit of a man who died 100 years ago, appears. Sheryl Lee Ralph's lively narration adds much to this engaging but sometimes uneven romance. Suitable for popular collections.Beth Farrell, Portage Cty. Dist. Lib., OhioKirkus Reviews
Ansa's second Lena McPherson novel (after Baby of the Family, 1989) is short on plot and long on rhapsodic descriptions of the worshipped Lena.When the Big Flood of '94 hits Mulberry, Georgia, none of Mulberry's residents are surprised when Lena McPherson escapes disaster-free. Of course, no one resents her either; the 45-year- old Lena is beautiful, rich, intelligent, outfitted in couture clothing, and good down to the very bottom of her soul. Her business prowess is legendary, her philanthropy an accepted fact, and her bar/restaurant, The Place, which she inherited from her parents, is the hottest spot around. So the town idolizes her, children and adults alike—but no one can really understand why Lena doesn't "have a man of her own." What they don't know (although they do know that Lena has been marked since birth as "special" because she was born with "a veil"—a piece of fetal membrane—over her face) is that Lena is in love, with a recently appeared spirit named Herman that only she can see or feel. In fact, she's happier than ever. Herman is the man she's been dreaming of: He cooks dinner, waits for her to get home from work, takes evening swims with her. He even encourages her to do more with her blessings—as in the home she opens for needy children and adolescents. Of course, the Herman situation eventually comes to a head—it's hard to live in the real world with a spirit for a lover—but Lena ends up the richer for her yearlong affair, in more ways than one.
Ansa writes energetically, colorfully, even evocatively at times (after closing, she can "almost touch their backs [The Place's regulars] like taps for the draft beer" as she passes their stools,) but boy-meets-girl is the extent of the story here, and in the end it's just not enough.