Never As Good As The First Time
by Mari Walker

Reviewed by: Joey Pinkney

From the church house to the crack house, Mari Walker's debut novel is the classic tale of "a good girl gone bad". The cover makes the book look like a love story, but that's not the case. The reader follows the main character, Samai Collins, as she gets drafted into the crack epidemic of the mid- to late-eighties.

Samai weds a minister of questionable values in her early twenties. She soon finds herself separated after six years of marriage, struggling to make sense of what went wrong and how to deal with her tenacious need for intimacy. The most important thing that Samai must do is find a job to financially support her three children.

A church member suggests seeking a job in the hardware store where he is employed. She gets the job, and her schedule includes long hours. Worst of all, she is required to work Sundays, thereby missing the one thing that has been keeping her stable – going to church. While at work Samai has a chance encounter with Zane, a person she had a high school crush on. He was bad in high school, and he's worse now. Samai catches Zane at a time where he is an occassional cocaine sniffer and not yet a hopeless junkie.

Although Samai and Zane are only separated from their spouses, Zane manages to convince Samai not only into adulterous sex but also drug use. Everything is telling Samai to leave Zane alone: the weird dreams, the fact that her two little boys blatantly dislike Zane, the fact that her involvement with Zane breaches the Christian values which are the foundation of her spiritual existence.

Curiosity develops into the utter destruction. What starts as a "bump" of cocaine with Zane turns into freebasing cocaine and naturally progresses into an unshakable crack habit. Samai gets her divorce, loses jobs left and right eventually winding up on public assistance.

"Never As Good As The First Time" is so interesting because it shows exactly how that relative, that friend, that business associate can go from heading in the right direction to crackhead in a few short months. Usually, the junkie is the nefarious supporting character in most urban lit novels. Author Mari Walker gives the reader a character that is simultaneously pitiful and despicable.

What did you like best about this book?
This book is about authentic as it gets when it comes to the story of a person who struggles with God and crack. Mari Walker skillfully sculpted Samai Collins. As she slips away from being involved in the church, she quickly becomes enveloped by the culture that comes along with being addicted to crack. The reader learns as Samai learns.

Samai's struggles and cravings are so realistic. Who knows that the steel wool put in the glass stem is called "chore" after a company that makes steel wool? Who knows that a crack dealer will put the stuff used to sooth a teething baby's gums on fake rocks to numb a crack-addict's lips and gums when they test a rock's authenticity? This aspect of the novel is researched on Mari Walker's part.

If this book was a movie, Zane would win the role of Best Supporting Actor. He is the gas to Samai's engine. I laughed out loud to one of his many stories early in the novel. I actually grumbled and put down the book when he popped back up on the scene after Samai swore off of him. In some ways, Never Good As The First Time is about Zane's deterioration from a pretty boy pusher to a run of the mill crackhead as much as it is about Samai's turmoil.

I also liked that fact that the story happened in the late eighties without hitting the reader over the head with it. References to watching Luther Vandross perform, saying "that's the bomb!", going to see Spike Lee's School Daze at the movies were sprinkled throughout "Never As Good As The First Time" just enough to frame a story about the arrival of crack.

What did you dislike about this book?
I didn't like the way this book ended. The last twenty pages didn't flow like the previous two hundred seventy. Too much action. I thought this story should have stuck with dealing with the issues of leaving behind crack for family instead of turning in an action packed adventure.

How can the author improve this book?
Besides the surprise ending, the book can be condensed. "Never As Good As The First Time" is almost three hundred pages. A couple of smoke sessions could have been left out and the theme would still be intact.

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Kenann T. :

Posted 45 days ago

This book is the best read I've had in a while, i definitely agree with Adonna about the flow of the story capturing your attention and holding it from page one to the very end! I don't know what book nameless was reading, but it definitely couldn't have been the one I read!

Nameless one :

Posted 53 days ago

This book had it's moments. It was an ayyite read, but the ending was definitely off....not the ending that I saw coming for this book. In some parts of the book, it kind of got redundant with her constant crack addiction and her on and off dealing with Zane...I like how the book started with her husband and his crazy issues, but throughout the book, it did get kind of predicatable....I give it 3 1/2 stars...

C.Sing :

Posted 64 days ago

This book cannot stay on the shelves in my city. The writer's skilled ability invites you to take a journey into her "world" and compels you to keep reading from start to finish. I eagerly anticipate the next journey with Ms. Walker.
Enjoy the ride!

Adonna :

Posted 64 days ago

I really enjoed reading this book. Mari Walker kept the flow of the story from beginning to end. the book was as informative as it was
entertaining.

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