is not among Myles’s character strengths, and
when Marisa discovers his infidelity, she leaves
him, testing in the end the true strength of his
love for her.
A Man Most Worthy revisits The Great Gatsby’s
theme. Like Gatsby, John Sebastian is a success-
ful businessman who has realized all his dreams,
except one: a lasting relationship with Josephine
Flowers, the love of his life. Although he has a new
girlfriend, Scent, and Josephine, after seven years,
has married and has gone on with her life, John is
determined to win a second chance to prove him-
self worthy of her love.
Hot and passionate love and complex relation-
ships are also central to Four Guys and Trouble.
Four friends, Ibn, Colin, Michael, and Dexter, en-
counter “trouble” in the form of Erika, the sister
of their deceased fraternity brother whom they
promised to care for and protect. However, when
they are called upon to protect Erika, now a 24-
year-old, very attractive medical student, from
one of their own, Michael, who has developed
more than familial love for her, the bonds and
friendship among the four men are challenged;
they must come to grips with issues of loyalty and
friendship and reinforce and strengthen their re-
lationship if possible.
Major’s novella “Kenya and Amir” was pub-
lished in the best-selling Got to Be Real (2001),
which also includes works by E. LYNN HARRIS, ERIC
JEROME DICKEY, and COLIN CHANNER, some of the
most critically acclaimed male writers of African-
American fiction. Fidelity and friendship are also
major themes in “Kenya and Amir.” Although
Amir spends the most glorious year of his life in a
relationship with Kenya, he is unable to resist the
bait set for him by two women, Hope and Kenya’s
good friend Raquel, who want to spend a memo-
rable night having sex with him in a motel while
Kenya is out of town. Amir falls for the trap, losing
Kenya in the process, although, as he tries to jus-
tify to Kenya, he did not have sex with the women.
The story ends on a positive note when the two
former lovers begin to discuss what went wrong in
their relationship.
In his collected work, Major, like Harris, revisits
the lives of his characters and their families. This
sequence ensures him an audience that will want
to know more about the memorable characters
Major continues to create in his fictional world.
Carlos PerezMalcolm X (Malcolm Little, El Hajj Malik
El Shabazz) (1925–1965)
Born in Omaha, Nebraska, on May 19, 1925, Mal-
colm Little was the third son of Earl and Louise
Little. His parents were both active members in
MARCUS GARVEY’s Universal Negro Improvement
Association—a fact that ultimately helped shape
Malcolm’s Pan-African perspective on culture,
human rights, political struggle, and world history.
After having their house burned to the ground by
the Ku Klux Klan in Omaha, Earl and Louise Little
moved their family to Lansing, Michigan. As in
Omaha, the Littles’ expressions of black pride, eco-
nomic independence, and cultural integrity riled
the social sensibilities of Lansing’s white citizenry.
Earl Little died after being run over by a streetcar
in downtown Lansing, in 1931.
After the death of his father, Malcolm’s child-
hood and adolescence took a drastic turn for the
worse. The family’s economic self-sufficiency dis-
appeared as Louise Little found herself depend-
ing on state aid for her family’s subsistence. As
social workers made repeated visits to the Little
household, her psychological health finally de-
clined. Eventually, the state declared her mentally
unfit to rear her children and committed her to
the state mental hospital at Kalamazoo. The court
then placed Malcolm and his siblings into different
orphanages. Although Malcolm had been among
the top students in his class, his performance in
school weakened during this time. After complet-
ing the eighth grade, he dropped out of school and
moved to Boston to live with his half sister Ella.
Malcolm traveled between Boston and New York,
taking jobs as a shoeshine boy and porter before
settling on the vices offered in Harlem’s street lifeMalcolm X 329