What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day (1997)

What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day is the 1997 debut novel by Pearl Cleage. It was published by Avon on December 1, 1997, and was selected for the Oprah Winfrey Book Club in 1998 and was a New York Times Best Seller for nine straight weeks. What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day marks Pearl Cleage's first published novel and it is followed by the 2001 novel I Wish I Had a Red Dress. The novel depicts the life of a young African-American woman named Ava Johnson in the following months after being diagnosed with HIV; in addition to the realities of living with a retrovirus, Cleage's work addresses issues involving race, sexuality, gender, class, and ability in American society.

Plot summary

The novel is separated into five parts: June, July, August, September, and November.

June

Ava Johnson, a young black woman living in Atlanta, is diagnosed with HIV which she contracted from an unknown source through sexual intercourse. Upon her HIV-positive diagnosis, she is alienated by her community in Atlanta and loses her clients at her hair salon on the basis of people's fear of the virus and their association of it with AIDS. Ava decides to move to Idlewild, Michigan, her hometown, to live with her widowed sister Joyce before fulfilling her dream to start a new life in San Francisco, California. When Ava arrives at the Grand Rapids airport, Joyce's close friend Eddie Jefferson comes to pick her up because Joyce is busy taking care of a young woman in labor. At Ava's request, Eddie and Ava stop at a liquor store on the way home from the airport. While in the parking lot of the liquor store, Eddie and Ava witness a violent dispute between a young man, Frank, and his girlfriend who have a young son together. Eddie manages to deescalate the fight by punching Frank in the Adam's apple, a skill which is revealed he learned from serving in the Army. After witnessing the fight and dropping the woman and the baby back off at their house, Eddie reveals to Ava that there is a budding crack problem within Idlewild. Once Ava and Eddie arrive at Joyce's house, Ava discovers that Joyce redecorated the entire house with shades of blue because of a magazine article she read that claimed it was a healing color. Once Joyce returns home, she tells Ava that the woman she was assisting in labor was a crack addict and that the baby will be tested for HIV. The following day, Ava and Joyce, find out that the baby tested negative for HIV; however, the mother left the hospital without the baby. Since the baby is orphaned, Joyce decides that she wants to personally care for the baby; upon making this decision, her and Ava head to Mattie's house, the aunt of the baby, to receive permission. Once the two reach the house, they are met by siblings Mattie and Frank, who tell Joyce that they do not wish to keep the baby. Joyce decides that she wants to find the baby a temporary home; in the meantime, the baby is taken back to the hospital. Joyce reveals to Ava that she leads a group of young teenage mothers at the local church in a weekly group meeting called the Sewing Circus. While the group was initially formed in order to offer Sunday morning nursery care for the mothers, the group evolved into being a group discussion of any issue the girls are struggling with in their daily lives. As a social worker, Joyce uses the Sewing Circus as an opportunity to empower and especially educate young women. While the group is a positive outlet for young women in the community, the topics discussed in the group, such as birth control, do not sit well with the Reverend and the Reverend's wife, Gerry Anderson. The hospital decides that Joyce is allowed to take temporary custody of the baby; once Joyce brings the baby home, she decides to name the baby Imani meaning "faith" in Swahili. Eddie and Ava continue to deepen their friendship; however, Ava fears that any sort of romantic relationship is off-limits due to her HIV-positive diagnosis.

July

Come July, Joyce is met with the news from Gerry Anderson that the Sewing Circus is not allowed to meet at the Church anymore because it does not align with their conservative values. Although upset by Gerry and the Reverend's decision, Joyce is unsurprised by its removal from the Church grounds. When Ava goes to the town pharmacy to pick-up her HIV medication, she finds out that the pharmacist revealed her diagnosis to some members of the town including Gerry. In turn, Ava is faced with ridicule and judgement from some of the community upon the news from the pharmacist. In response to the banning of the Sewing Circus from the Church, Joyce holds the meeting at her house and the turn-out is higher than it ever was at the Church leading Joyce to the idea that the group will need a larger meeting space. Later that night, Ava goes to Eddie's house where he tells her about his past serving in the army in Vietnam. The following night, Ava and Eddie begin to watch Menace II Society together until Eddie decides that he cannot watch it anymore; upon telling Ava this, he reveals to her his violent past involving drugs and a ten year sentence to prison for murder. While shaken up by the news of Eddie's past, she maintains her relationship with him and decides to reveal her HIV-positive diagnosis to him a few nights later. Eddie is accepting of Ava's diagnosis and the two begin a romantic relationship together; however, they must take certain precautions during sex to protect Eddie from contracting HIV.