I had the pleasure of reading several of her novels and found them to be thought provoking, sincere and poignant. My favorite was "72 Hour Hold" that was an unflinching look at the mental health system. Based on a personal account, she wrote about a mother's struggle to get treatment for her daughter diagnosed with Bi-Polar disorder.(From the New York Times)
(Along with writers like Terry McMillan, Ms. Campbell was part of the first wave of black novelists who made the lives of upwardly mobile black people a routine subject for popular fiction. Straddling the divide between literary and mass-market novels, Ms. Campbell’s work explored not only the turbulent dance between blacks and whites but also the equally fraught relationship between men and women.
Throughout her work, Ms. Campbell sought to counter prevailing stereotypes of black people as socially and economically marginal. Though critics occasionally faulted her characters as two-dimensional, her novels were known for their crossover appeal, read by blacks and whites alike. )
Mrs. Campbell succumbed to a neurological condition last week and I will miss her unique and gifted voice in the publishing world.
God bless her family in their time of grief.
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