If This World Were Mine

Four near-40 African-American college buddies meet monthly to read from their diaries and make entries into the collective journal they call ''If This World Were Mine.'' Leland, a gay psychiatrist mourning the death of his lover, and Yolanda, who's building a successful media-consulting business, drive the narrative. Riley, an aspiring singer and poet, and Dwight, a computer engineer consumed by anger at white racism, round out the Chicago-based friends. Lynn Harris' fourth novel is an engrossing, fast-paced buppie Big Chill, in which sex, death, and disillusionment are mixed with unabashed lessons on loving who you are, where you came from, and the people you're with. B+