How Stella Got Her Groove Back is the 1996 best seller written by Terry McMillian. She is also known for Waiting to Exhale. How Stella Got Her Groove Back was made into the 1998 film of the same name. The film stars Angela Bassett, Taye Diggs, Whoopi Goldberg, and Regina King.
The book is about Stella Payne and her need to do something with her life other than her job and raising her son. I found this book to be very captivating. I did not enjoy the movie.
It seemed to me that the movie wanted to give Stella more problems and make her more confused than she needed to be. The movie downplayed the role of her sisters by keeping her best friend alive in the movie and bringing her to Jamaica with her.
The powerful thing about Stella going to Jamaica in the book is that she went alone–no family, no friends, no man, just herself and her thoughts. I guess that I get frustrated when Hollywood seems to want to take away the power of women to add more main characters. All in all, read the book and skip the movie unless you are only watching for Taye Diggs with his shirt off.
