Jean “Stevie” Stevenson, the indomitable heroine of Coffee Will Make You Black, is back — somewhat older and wiser, with some experience and a college degree — diving headfirst into the hot tub, free love, yoga, and vegetarian lifestyle of 1970s San Francisco. In this liberating new world of raised consciousness, mind-expanding, and disco-dancing, a soul sister with passion and daring has room to experiment with life and love to find out who she really is.Jean &quotStevie&quot Stevenson, the indomitable heroine of Coffee Will Make You Black, is back-somewhat older and wiser, with some experience and a college degree-diving headfirst into the hot tub, free love, yoga, and vegetarian lifestyle of 1970s San Francisco. In this liberating new world of raised consciousness, mind-expanding, and disco-dancing, a soul sister with passion and daring has room to experiment with life and love to find out who she really is.

Kate Moses

Two years ago April Sinclair made her debut with the best-selling Coffee Will Make You Black, a coming-of-age novel set in Chicago”s South Side during the politically turbulent ”60s. The story of high school student Jean “Stevie” Stevenson”s personal awakening amidst war protests and the black power movement, it was also a chronicle of the absurd and hilarious pop culture of the times. Ain”t Gonna Be the Same Fool Twice continues Stevie”s story as she leaves the nest, first for a small-town college three hours from home, then as she makes the big leap to a new, bemused life in San Francisco during its most frivolous decade, the ”70s.

Stevie is smart, funny, observant and refreshingly innocent of doctrinaire posturing, whether as one of the few “sistahs” at her mostly white college or as a sexually confused out-of-towner just arrived at the eye of the Bay Area”s gay and lesbian storm. Therein lies her character”s charm: although Stevie has a firm grasp of the hippest phraseology, she still winces at a bad case of b.o., even if it belongs to one of her “enlightened” lesbian roommates: “A chill ran down my spine. What if the feminists were wrong? What if women did need to douche after all?”

In fact, there are a lot of people overdrawn at the funk bank in San Francisco, most notably Stevie”s first two girlfriends. Traci, another “sistah” whom Stevie meets at a women”s community dance where the patrons are “dressed like farm hands,” neglects to mention her live-in lover for months because she “just wants to go with the flow.” Cynthia, leader of the Pre-Orgasmic workshop at the Personal Change Center where Stevie works, isn”t available to “be there” for anyone in the first six months of a relationship, even when being there only means driving Stevie to the airport so she can catch a plane back to Chicago before her grandmother expires. “You puttin” me through too many changes, Stevie!”

The compassionate and optimistic Stevie moves forward despite disappointments and confusion. “Chile,” her wise grandmother tells her, “maybe your nature is a journey and not a destination.” And — just as Stevie says that she”s “tired of tripping on race!” — she”s clearly not going to trip for long over a few bad apples at the bottom of the barrel at the Loving Foods Co-op.

Ain”t Gonna Be the Same Fool Twice is not deep or artful. But it is ripely funny, unpretentious, and sincere, and Sinclair proves herself cunning by placing her curious heroine within certain special interest groups while slyly exposing their often foolish ideologies. Sisterhood is powerful, but a sense of humor is more so. — Salon