Ain't gonna be the same fool twice

April Sinclair

In her second novel, Ain't Gonna Be the Same Fool Twice, Stevie, an immensely appealing young African-American woman, is just graduating from college and is ready to expand her horizons. She goes to San Francisco with two friends as a post-graduation trip, and decides to stay when she realizes the city holds more promise for her than returning to her cramped room in her parents' house on Chicago's South Side. It was the best of times...if you knew where the party was. The year is 1975 - a time of one-night stands, disco, personal growth, and the height of the women's liberation movement - and Stevie dives into the scene. At a women's dance, she meets Traci, a cute, cinnamon-colored woman with attitude, who introduces her to yoga, hot tubs, and vegetarianism, and tells Stevie she "has enough tofu burgers in her freezer to last till we put a black woman in the White House." When their relationship becomes intimate, Stevie discovers a side to her nature that would make her mama's hair stand up. Soon, though, things with Traci go sour, and Stevie has to crash on the couch of a brand-new friend, a disco queen named Sterling. April Sinclair shows us Stevie's adventures in the go-with-the-flow atmosphere of Seventies San Francisco, with crackling dialogue and hilarious scenes that sparkle with authenticity.