Bookstore Refuses to Carry Plummer's Tell-all Novel  | Entertainment News | Advocate.com

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September 27, 2007
Bookstore Refuses to Carry Plummer's Tell-all Novel

Jonathan Plummer's tell-all novel, loosely based on his breakup with author Terry McMillan, has been banned by a bookstore in Oakland, Calif.

Balancing Act -- cowritten by Karen Hunter -- will not be carried by Marcus Books, a local bookstore, according to a press release from Plummer.

He and McMillan divorced in 2005 after he revealed to her that he is gay. Their romance was the basis of her hit novel, How Stella Got Her Groove Back, about an older woman who finds the love of her life, a young man, in the Caribbean.

Mark Plummer, the new novelist's cousin and manager, said that he was disappointed that the bookstore would not carry the tome.

"Why Marcus Books would ban a novel that encourages compassion and understanding instead of homophobia -- in the community that needs it the most -- is indeed very sad but not a surprise," he said in a statement. "Terry McMillan has gone to great and personally humiliating lengths to prevent the publication and distribution of this book. Balancing Act is fiction with a purpose and it will prevail with or without the support of Marcus Books.”

Joe Hawkins, a radio commentator, said that he asked a Marcus bookstore employee why they would not stock the book, and she said it was a personal preference of the store. Hawkins said in the statement that out author E. Lynn Harris is carried in that store.

"I don't think that homophobia is the issue where Marcus Books is concerned." He continued, "Jonathan-o-phobia is more likely the reason for the decision not to sell the book." (The Advocate)

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