Book Report: Flyy Girl & Them

I recently read the third in a 'trilogy,' if you will. Or at least, the second sequel. You may have heard of the first of the series. It's a little book, a large urban phenomenon named Flyy Girl by Omar Tyree. Most black women who have read a book have likely read it. It's a classic, right up there with The Coldest Winter Ever. The two sequels that Tyree wrote after Flyy Girl are For the Love of Money and Boss Lady.

The second sequel, Boss Lady, was published just last year. I was very satisfied to finally see it in the library (yes, people actually go there). However, after finishing the book, I had to wonder what Tyree's agenda was...

You see, the first book Flyy Girl is really really good. It tells the story of Tracy, a young girl growing up in lower/middle class Philly. It kind of chronicles her relationships with different men from age 6 to age 18. She learns a lot about herself as she uses her feminen wyles to get what she wants from men. There is also a side story of her neighbors who are sisters--one who is too fly and too fast and ends up into drugs, the other a straight laced do-gooder who never has relationships. This was one of the first books to really tell the urban girl's story. Now I am clearly a suburban girl, but it still was a book that tells the African American girl's story.

So then, many years later, Tyree puts out a sequel. I remember thinking "Why?" The book Flyy Girl truly comes full circle. For the Love of Money was decent, but he added a twist in that the character "wrote" the first book Flyy Girl. So now she has all these fans of her book/life story and she is in Hollywood trying to become famous. A major thing that bothered me about this book was that it was told in the 1st person, and we are supposed to more so believe that Tracy is a real live person that is letting Tyree tell her story. Flyy Girl was told in the third person, which enabled you to gleen more of the world of Flyy Philly in the late 80s. The book was aiight, but no where near Flyy Girl. Pretty much was "Tracy is grown, dealing with crazy people in Hollywood."

Finally comes Boss Lady. "Why!!??" I think there clearly was no need. This book was told from Tracy's NIECE's point of view, as she convinces Tracy to turn her Flyy Girl story into a screenplay. Tracy is thus the Boss Lady telling people what to do. But you really don't know Tracy's motivations, because it is told through her neice's POV. WHAT IS THE POINT? Clearly Tyree just wanted to say "readers, please beg Hollywood to make Flyy Girl into a movie!" He must have repeated the same passages in the book a dozen times. I don't know how I got through it.

I as so mad I was duped into Tyree's hidden agenda! Although I'm sure there are tons of people who have asked him to make it a movie, did he really need to write a book just to gain support? The funny thing is, in the book, the niece creates a Flyy Girl website. I decide to check out Tyree's website, and sho' nuff, there is a tacky Flyy Girl website linked to his page! It basically promotes a magazine, which probably only had one production, and some other random stuff. Looks as though the projects on there have been abandoned.

So, these are basically my thoughts as a classic urban novel has been ruined over the course of a decade. The theme is to leave well enough alone...let legends live!