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No One Is Coming to Save Us
The Great Gatsby brilliantly recast in the contemporary South:a powerful first novel about an extended African-American family and their colliding visions of the American Dream.
JJ Ferguson has returned home to Pinewood, North Carolina to build his dream home and to woo his high school sweetheart, Ava. But he finds that the people he once knew and loved have changed, just as he has. Ava is now married, and wants a baby more than anything. The decline of the town’s once-thriving furniture industry has made Ava’s husband Henry grow distant and frustrated. Ava’s mother Sylvia has put her own life on hold as she caters to and meddles with those around her, trying to fill the void left by her absent son. And Don, Sylvia’s undeserving but charming husband, just won’t stop hanging around.
JJ’s newfound wealth forces everyone to consider what more they want and deserve from life than what they already have—and how they might go about getting it. Can they shape their lives to align with their wishes rather than their realities? Or are they resigned to the rhythms of the particular lives they lead? No One Is Coming to Save Us is a revelatory debut from an insightful voice that combines a universally resonant story with an intimate glimpse into the hearts of one family.
JJ Ferguson has returned home to Pinewood, North Carolina to build his dream home and to woo his high school sweetheart, Ava. But he finds that the people he once knew and loved have changed, just as he has. Ava is now married, and wants a baby more than anything. The decline of the town’s once-thriving furniture industry has made Ava’s husband Henry grow distant and frustrated. Ava’s mother Sylvia has put her own life on hold as she caters to and meddles with those around her, trying to fill the void left by her absent son. And Don, Sylvia’s undeserving but charming husband, just won’t stop hanging around.
JJ’s newfound wealth forces everyone to consider what more they want and deserve from life than what they already have—and how they might go about getting it. Can they shape their lives to align with their wishes rather than their realities? Or are they resigned to the rhythms of the particular lives they lead? No One Is Coming to Save Us is a revelatory debut from an insightful voice that combines a universally resonant story with an intimate glimpse into the hearts of one family.
371 pages, Hardcover
First published April 4, 2017
988 people are currently reading
16k people want to read
About the author
Stephanie Powell Watts
7books253followersStephanie Powell Watts won the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence for her debut story collection, We Are Taking Only What We Need (2012), also named one of 2013’s Best Summer Reads by O: The Oprah Magazine. Her short fiction has been included in two volumes of the Best New Stories from the South anthology and honored with a Pushcart Prize. Ms. Powell Watts’s stories explore the lives of African Americans in fast food and factory jobs, working door to door as Jehovah’s Witness ministers, and pressing against the boundaries of the small town, post-integration South. Her forthcoming debut novel, titled No One Is Coming to Save Us, follows the return of a successful native son to his home in North Carolina and his attempt to join the only family he ever wanted but never had. As Ms. Powell Watts describes it, “Imagine The Great Gatsby set in rural North Carolina, nine decades later, with desperate black people.� Born in the foothills of North Carolina, with a PhD from the University of Missouri and a BA from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, she now lives in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania where she is an associate professor at Lehigh University.
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April 16, 2017
This is blurbed as a new and updated Great Gatsby, but let me start by saying the links to that classic are tenuous at best, in my opinion virtually non existent. At first I was reading this and trying to find the connection, disappointed when I couldn't and then realized I was doing a huge disservice to this book, so I pit it aside for a night and the next day started it over, with no preconceived notions. What I found was a wonderful story in its own right.
A depressed, mostly black town in South Carolina, the main employer the furniture factory now closed as are many businesses that depended on the money people earned from their jobs. Sylvia and Ava, mother and daughter are the two main characters and they are wonderfully fleshed out, real but with flaws like all of us. Sylvia, has had much tragedy in her past, wants to be seen, needed, Ava nearing forty wants nothing more than her own child. They are lucky in that they both have decent jobs, though no one really gets ahead financially in this town. Though they are lucky in their employment, they are not so lucky in their marriages. When JJ, comes back to town, now building a bog house on the hill, he appears successful to the others in town, but all he wants is Ava.
The dialogue in this novel is fantastic, free flowing and natural, this young author has a talent for this that many more accomplished authors lack. One of the hardest elements of writing or so I believe. These two women, and the men surrounding them are all in search of the American dream, and how they come to terms with their wants as opposed to their reality, is the story. And a fine one it is, I became invested in their lives, admired them at times, wanted to shake them at others, all signs of a very good book. So my advice is read this, but pay no attention to the blurb or comparisons. This is a young author with an amazing amount of talent, one I am sure we will see more of in the near future.
ARC from publisher.
A depressed, mostly black town in South Carolina, the main employer the furniture factory now closed as are many businesses that depended on the money people earned from their jobs. Sylvia and Ava, mother and daughter are the two main characters and they are wonderfully fleshed out, real but with flaws like all of us. Sylvia, has had much tragedy in her past, wants to be seen, needed, Ava nearing forty wants nothing more than her own child. They are lucky in that they both have decent jobs, though no one really gets ahead financially in this town. Though they are lucky in their employment, they are not so lucky in their marriages. When JJ, comes back to town, now building a bog house on the hill, he appears successful to the others in town, but all he wants is Ava.
The dialogue in this novel is fantastic, free flowing and natural, this young author has a talent for this that many more accomplished authors lack. One of the hardest elements of writing or so I believe. These two women, and the men surrounding them are all in search of the American dream, and how they come to terms with their wants as opposed to their reality, is the story. And a fine one it is, I became invested in their lives, admired them at times, wanted to shake them at others, all signs of a very good book. So my advice is read this, but pay no attention to the blurb or comparisons. This is a young author with an amazing amount of talent, one I am sure we will see more of in the near future.
ARC from publisher.
June 13, 2018
We believe despite all experience to the contrary in easy money and our own fortunes changing in an instant like the magician's card from the sleeve. If one quarter came miraculously from behind the ear, we would milk that ear for days for the rent money. We believe…We are full of the fevered hope of the newly come to Jesus. We can reinvent. We can survive. At least some of us think so. What choice do we have?
when this book was first offered to me and i read the beginning part of the synopsis:
The Great Gatsby brilliantly recast in the contemporary South: a powerful first novel about an extended African-American family and their colliding visions of the American Dream
i was like 'jay-z gatsby? sign me up NOW!'
i love gatsby, but it's certainly not the most ethnically diverse book ever, and i was looking forward to gatsby's themes filtered through a different perspective - something more modern, with a different idea of what constitutes the american dream. i was expecting something like maryse condé's or caryl phillips' , both of which used as a springboard to focus on the character of heathcliff and breathe new life into a classic novel by exploring ideas of race, culture, and social issues.
or, heel, even something like the wiz, which took a movie i found trite and insipid, gave it better music, and made it way more fun.
for the record, this is not a fun remake of gatsby:
and for the record, THIS is not really gatsby recast.
it's only similar if you distill gatsby to:
1) hometown boy makes fortune, returns to woo girl.
2) people have difficulties managing expectations vs. opportunities
it doesn't have the same brittle, shallow energy of gatsby, and daisy/ava's sole preoccupation is with getting pregnant, which is pretty much the last thing i expected from a daisy.
this is the part where i make it emphatically clear that i read this as an ARC, and while it appeared to be an ARC that had been through the editorial wringer a few times - i.e., a "finished" ARC with a proper cover and publishing details and not a bound manuscript or anything, it was kind of a mess inside: typos, words or synonyms of words repeated, as though a change had been made without removing the original word, dropped sentences, incorrect character names mid-dialogue, floating quotation marks� which might all seem like minor, cosmetic flaws, but it was distracting and it made me wonder if there were more "meaningful" changes still to be made to the text between now and the pub date, which would alter the reading experience.
because while there is so much that is good here, it's a little sluggish and it could use some tightening. it's really close to being really good, but there's something missing from it that is holding it back from greatness, apart from a stronger connection to gatsby - if that was the author's true intention and not just some hook imposed upon it by a well-meaning publicist.
because labeling something as "gatsby, recast" inevitably comes with a certain set of expectations, even if you're a reader who doesn't mind when adaptations take some liberties with their source material. which i generally don't. but it's so hard to see any similarities to gatsby in this. gatsby is about, if i may lazily quote my own review, vapid and shallow people who live selfish and hedonistic lives and treat other people like playthings. this isn't even close to that.
jj is too cautious to be a true gatsby figure. he's not at all flamboyant or ostentatious with his wealth. he buys a big house in his hometown, but it's completely unfurnished (which may be symbolic of his lack of drive or follow-through), and it's certainly no place to throw a lavish party. his pursuit of daisy is less obsessive and all-consuming and more, "hey, girl, i'm here if you wanna leave your husband or whatever." he doesn't really take any steps towards "getting" her other than � being nearby. there's no indication that he made his fortune by any unsavory means, so there's none of that delicious gatsby juxtaposition of the thin pretty glitter veneer over a foundation of tarnish and rot, nor is there anything particularly dangerous or excessive in jj's adoration of ava.
and this:
"I've been thinking, Mrs. Sylvia. Why do the good people have to do the right thing?" Jay said. "The assholes don't care and they get what they want."
YOU are supposed to be the asshole here, man!
the gatsby/daisy story isn't even the main focus of the novel, which is forewarned in the synopsis when it states that this is about "an extended african-american family," but MAN is there a lot of time spent on people other than jj/ava. the most well-defined relationship is between ava and her mother sylvia, and while there are excellent descriptions of the mother-daughter dynamic, and the relationship between generations of women in general, it just doesn't fit into the gatsby theme.
there are some superficial parallels:
- jj can see a portion of ava's roof from his mansion, but "portion of roof" lacks the symbolic resonance of "green light" that gatsby fetishizes.
- i could see an argument being made that simmy's is standing in for gatsby's doctor t.j. eckleburg, since it has "seen" generations of physical and social change affecting the characters.
but there's a scene at the end, involving a mumbledy mumble, that i thought was going to result in the same situation as in gatsby, but nope. it's that famous chekhov quote all over - 'if a crucial scenario in the great gatsby appears in an adaptation of the great gatsby, it had better have the same friggin' outcome.'
that might be a paraphrase.
i think i would have liked it more if i hadn't been squinting for gatsby the whole time, because a book can be great without being the great gatsby, and this does have some really great moments. i'm going to risk quoting the ARC, as far-from-final as i suspect it may be, because i don't want to come across as too negative and lead anyone away from it (especially since i think it may be more polished in its final state). but here - this is an example of one of the moments where i was all - YES! LOVELY! this is in a sylvia chapter, reminiscing about the dynamic of jj and ava's relationship as teens:
and there are a lot of moments like this - places where i folded over the page because of the perfection of a line, a description, an observation, and sylvia is a truly memorable character. but the overall story was a little unfocused. i definitely think there's a strong story here, and there's a good chance it will be more chiseled out in the finished book, so you should have it on your radar, and i will just sit here and eagerly await her second book, because she's got a strong voice and i want to see what else she does with it.
when this book was first offered to me and i read the beginning part of the synopsis:
The Great Gatsby brilliantly recast in the contemporary South: a powerful first novel about an extended African-American family and their colliding visions of the American Dream
i was like 'jay-z gatsby? sign me up NOW!'
i love gatsby, but it's certainly not the most ethnically diverse book ever, and i was looking forward to gatsby's themes filtered through a different perspective - something more modern, with a different idea of what constitutes the american dream. i was expecting something like maryse condé's or caryl phillips' , both of which used as a springboard to focus on the character of heathcliff and breathe new life into a classic novel by exploring ideas of race, culture, and social issues.
or, heel, even something like the wiz, which took a movie i found trite and insipid, gave it better music, and made it way more fun.
for the record, this is not a fun remake of gatsby:
and for the record, THIS is not really gatsby recast.
it's only similar if you distill gatsby to:
1) hometown boy makes fortune, returns to woo girl.
2) people have difficulties managing expectations vs. opportunities
it doesn't have the same brittle, shallow energy of gatsby, and daisy/ava's sole preoccupation is with getting pregnant, which is pretty much the last thing i expected from a daisy.
this is the part where i make it emphatically clear that i read this as an ARC, and while it appeared to be an ARC that had been through the editorial wringer a few times - i.e., a "finished" ARC with a proper cover and publishing details and not a bound manuscript or anything, it was kind of a mess inside: typos, words or synonyms of words repeated, as though a change had been made without removing the original word, dropped sentences, incorrect character names mid-dialogue, floating quotation marks� which might all seem like minor, cosmetic flaws, but it was distracting and it made me wonder if there were more "meaningful" changes still to be made to the text between now and the pub date, which would alter the reading experience.
because while there is so much that is good here, it's a little sluggish and it could use some tightening. it's really close to being really good, but there's something missing from it that is holding it back from greatness, apart from a stronger connection to gatsby - if that was the author's true intention and not just some hook imposed upon it by a well-meaning publicist.
because labeling something as "gatsby, recast" inevitably comes with a certain set of expectations, even if you're a reader who doesn't mind when adaptations take some liberties with their source material. which i generally don't. but it's so hard to see any similarities to gatsby in this. gatsby is about, if i may lazily quote my own review, vapid and shallow people who live selfish and hedonistic lives and treat other people like playthings. this isn't even close to that.
jj is too cautious to be a true gatsby figure. he's not at all flamboyant or ostentatious with his wealth. he buys a big house in his hometown, but it's completely unfurnished (which may be symbolic of his lack of drive or follow-through), and it's certainly no place to throw a lavish party. his pursuit of daisy is less obsessive and all-consuming and more, "hey, girl, i'm here if you wanna leave your husband or whatever." he doesn't really take any steps towards "getting" her other than � being nearby. there's no indication that he made his fortune by any unsavory means, so there's none of that delicious gatsby juxtaposition of the thin pretty glitter veneer over a foundation of tarnish and rot, nor is there anything particularly dangerous or excessive in jj's adoration of ava.
and this:
"I've been thinking, Mrs. Sylvia. Why do the good people have to do the right thing?" Jay said. "The assholes don't care and they get what they want."
YOU are supposed to be the asshole here, man!
the gatsby/daisy story isn't even the main focus of the novel, which is forewarned in the synopsis when it states that this is about "an extended african-american family," but MAN is there a lot of time spent on people other than jj/ava. the most well-defined relationship is between ava and her mother sylvia, and while there are excellent descriptions of the mother-daughter dynamic, and the relationship between generations of women in general, it just doesn't fit into the gatsby theme.
there are some superficial parallels:
- jj can see a portion of ava's roof from his mansion, but "portion of roof" lacks the symbolic resonance of "green light" that gatsby fetishizes.
- i could see an argument being made that simmy's is standing in for gatsby's doctor t.j. eckleburg, since it has "seen" generations of physical and social change affecting the characters.
but there's a scene at the end, involving a mumbledy mumble, that i thought was going to result in the same situation as in gatsby, but nope. it's that famous chekhov quote all over - 'if a crucial scenario in the great gatsby appears in an adaptation of the great gatsby, it had better have the same friggin' outcome.'
that might be a paraphrase.
i think i would have liked it more if i hadn't been squinting for gatsby the whole time, because a book can be great without being the great gatsby, and this does have some really great moments. i'm going to risk quoting the ARC, as far-from-final as i suspect it may be, because i don't want to come across as too negative and lead anyone away from it (especially since i think it may be more polished in its final state). but here - this is an example of one of the moments where i was all - YES! LOVELY! this is in a sylvia chapter, reminiscing about the dynamic of jj and ava's relationship as teens:
They had been nearly inseparable shortly after he arrived in town. All that time Ava pretended that his feelings were simply lustful and incidental, easily contained, easily disposed like a used carton of Chinese food. Often in these infatuations, the pretty girl uses the boy as a playmate, like another girlfriend but one who reflects back to her proof of her beauty and desirableness. His gaze proprietary but not competitive, his inclination was to do whatever the girl wanted. A teenage girl lives for that power, so often the only taste of it she gets. In that situation, the boy waits patiently for any opening in her amorous attention, any suggestion that his being the confidant and best friend might lead to her love. Not just sex, but of course the boy wanted sex, but these sorts of boys are romantics, the ones that hear the same call to love that so many of the girls hear. Theirs, Ava's and JJ's, was not that story. They had been friends. She had made an important friend in a life that had not produced many.
and there are a lot of moments like this - places where i folded over the page because of the perfection of a line, a description, an observation, and sylvia is a truly memorable character. but the overall story was a little unfocused. i definitely think there's a strong story here, and there's a good chance it will be more chiseled out in the finished book, so you should have it on your radar, and i will just sit here and eagerly await her second book, because she's got a strong voice and i want to see what else she does with it.
August 16, 2017
It was a dilemma for me trying to decide if I wanted to read this book . On the one hand I'm not fond of remakes of classics; they are perfect as they are . (I've had a hard time with the Hogarth Shakespeare Series for the same reason.) But I have to admit that on the other hand, I was drawn to read this book because it was described as a modern day Great Gatsby, from an African American point of view. Since it is my favorite novel, my curiosity won over my bias of not wanting to read remakes. I have to be honest here, while there are things about this book that might remind you of The Great Gatsby, it felt much too contrived and any comparisons are facile at best . Unfortunately, I had a hard time separating myself from the fact that a comparison was made in the first place and it got in the way of seeing this story on its own. To be fair to Stephanie Powell Watts, I have to say that enjoyed her writing and this cast of characters of Pinewood, NC, a town that has seen better days before the furniture factory shut down.
Different perspectives in alternating chapters depict some unhappy people whose lives have not turned out as they had hoped. Broken people with broken marriages as adultery abounds, the loss of a child, the heartbreak that comes with the inability to bear a child, a gut wrenching episode in a child's life and a his desire as an adult to recapture the love he found as a young man. Their stories , their relationships were moving in their own right and could stand alone as meaningful without the attempt to tie them to the classic novel. I will certainly look for more from this debut author in spite of my reservations here. May have been 4 stars for me if I hadn't read the description. There are some reviews which highly praise the book and you should read those because I fully understand that this review reflects my personal feelings on remakes. If you can separate yourself from that description as I wasn't able to do , I would recommend it.
I received an advanced copy of this book from Ecco/Harper through Edelweiss.
Different perspectives in alternating chapters depict some unhappy people whose lives have not turned out as they had hoped. Broken people with broken marriages as adultery abounds, the loss of a child, the heartbreak that comes with the inability to bear a child, a gut wrenching episode in a child's life and a his desire as an adult to recapture the love he found as a young man. Their stories , their relationships were moving in their own right and could stand alone as meaningful without the attempt to tie them to the classic novel. I will certainly look for more from this debut author in spite of my reservations here. May have been 4 stars for me if I hadn't read the description. There are some reviews which highly praise the book and you should read those because I fully understand that this review reflects my personal feelings on remakes. If you can separate yourself from that description as I wasn't able to do , I would recommend it.
I received an advanced copy of this book from Ecco/Harper through Edelweiss.
April 30, 2017
2.5 stars
This book did not hold my interest. I did not like any of the characters. I saw little to no resemblance to the classic The Great Gatsby. I was however able to make each characters association to this book title. They all had varying problems and were looking for a savior. I think the author did a good job of making you visualize her characters. You could even see them in their speech, although there were parts of this story that just did not make any sense. One conversation between Jay and Sylvia, about Barack Obama, went from him saying he "missed his mother and they weren't making him president" to Sylvia saying, in the very next line, that she "had not changed her phone number. " I saw absolutely no connection there, nor in any of the other instances where this separation happened.
Other than a basic liking of Jay - aka J J - I did not like any other character. Sylvia was worn out and boring. She did not seem to have a very good grasp at times. She did things that the normal woman her age would never do - however desperate she was. Ava was a spoiled brat, too good for those around her. She had had her share of problems, but gave me the impression she expected others to clear them up for her as she whined about her life's position. Jay seemed to be the only smart one of the bunch, even though he was deceiving himself that what he originally ran from, would wait for him. Most of these characters make a shift towards the end of the book, but for me it was way too late already.
Thank you to BookBrowse for the book in exchange for an honest review.
This book did not hold my interest. I did not like any of the characters. I saw little to no resemblance to the classic The Great Gatsby. I was however able to make each characters association to this book title. They all had varying problems and were looking for a savior. I think the author did a good job of making you visualize her characters. You could even see them in their speech, although there were parts of this story that just did not make any sense. One conversation between Jay and Sylvia, about Barack Obama, went from him saying he "missed his mother and they weren't making him president" to Sylvia saying, in the very next line, that she "had not changed her phone number. " I saw absolutely no connection there, nor in any of the other instances where this separation happened.
Other than a basic liking of Jay - aka J J - I did not like any other character. Sylvia was worn out and boring. She did not seem to have a very good grasp at times. She did things that the normal woman her age would never do - however desperate she was. Ava was a spoiled brat, too good for those around her. She had had her share of problems, but gave me the impression she expected others to clear them up for her as she whined about her life's position. Jay seemed to be the only smart one of the bunch, even though he was deceiving himself that what he originally ran from, would wait for him. Most of these characters make a shift towards the end of the book, but for me it was way too late already.
Thank you to BookBrowse for the book in exchange for an honest review.
March 27, 2017
At a crucial moment in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel “The Great Gatsby,� when Nick says, “You can’t repeat the past,� Gatsby instantly disagrees: � ‘Can’t repeat the past?� he cried incredulously. ‘Why of course you can!� �
Whether you should is less clear. Various people � starting with Fitzgerald himself � have been borne back ceaselessly into the past, particularly by trying to repeat “The Great Gatsby.� Since it was published in 1925, the story has been adapted for radio and television, acted out on Broadway, jazzed up as a musical, spun into a ballet, sung as an opera, digitized into a computer game, reimagined in new novels, and, of course, dramatized in film, most recently in a garish blur by Baz Luhrmann that portrayed Nick recalling his experience from inside a mental hospital.
These efforts fail � dully or hilariously � because once Fitzgerald’s poetic language has been stripped away, “The Great Gatsby� is just a silly story about a misfit obsessed with a gangster who’s stalking his cousin. But seduced by the book’s enduring fame, writers and producers keep reanimating Frankensteinesque imitations of the Jazz Age masterpiece.
Crossing through that valley of ashes once again, we approach Stephanie Powell Watts’s debut novel with a mixture of wariness and dread. “No One Is Coming to Save Us� is billed as an African American version of “The Great Gatsby.� It doesn’t help that Christopher Scott Cherot’s movie “G� already attempted that color switch back in 2002. It helps even less to remember that some English professor caused a stir in 2000 by claiming that Jay Gatsby is actually a black. . . .
To read the rest of this review, go to The Washington Post:
Whether you should is less clear. Various people � starting with Fitzgerald himself � have been borne back ceaselessly into the past, particularly by trying to repeat “The Great Gatsby.� Since it was published in 1925, the story has been adapted for radio and television, acted out on Broadway, jazzed up as a musical, spun into a ballet, sung as an opera, digitized into a computer game, reimagined in new novels, and, of course, dramatized in film, most recently in a garish blur by Baz Luhrmann that portrayed Nick recalling his experience from inside a mental hospital.
These efforts fail � dully or hilariously � because once Fitzgerald’s poetic language has been stripped away, “The Great Gatsby� is just a silly story about a misfit obsessed with a gangster who’s stalking his cousin. But seduced by the book’s enduring fame, writers and producers keep reanimating Frankensteinesque imitations of the Jazz Age masterpiece.
Crossing through that valley of ashes once again, we approach Stephanie Powell Watts’s debut novel with a mixture of wariness and dread. “No One Is Coming to Save Us� is billed as an African American version of “The Great Gatsby.� It doesn’t help that Christopher Scott Cherot’s movie “G� already attempted that color switch back in 2002. It helps even less to remember that some English professor caused a stir in 2000 by claiming that Jay Gatsby is actually a black. . . .
To read the rest of this review, go to The Washington Post:
July 24, 2017
3.5 stars rounded down for reasons that will become obvious later in this review. I picked this book up because it was the first pick by Sarah Jessica Parker who is the honorary/celebrity/book selector of the American Library Association's Book Club Central.
This is a good news/bad news book, I will start with the
GOOD NEWS:
1. Excellent character development. The characters were believable and jumped off the page. I was invested in them right from the start.
2. Great storytelling. The interconnectedness of the characters both with one another and their small town was well done. Descriptors executed in a manner to create a meis en scene akin to a film rather than a book that made me feel like I was transported to Pinewood, North Carolina.
3. At times, truly beautiful writing and compulsively readable.
Now, the
BAD NEWS:
1. My kingdom for a copy editor. For goodness sake, Ecco Publishing which is an imprint of Harper Collins, could you not afford to, at a minimum, run this manuscript through Microsoft Word? Periods in the middle of sentences, entire words omitted, and the dearth of commas were enough to make me stop reading this book. Chapter 14, in its entirety, is a hot mess- continuity errors and unrecognizable grammar. The number of run-on sentences in this book are too numerous to count. I found myself reading and saying in my head "and comma" or "and conjunction" so often, I wanted to scream. The glaring examples of a lack of simple proofreading definitely diminished my enjoyment of this book.
2. Note to the American Library Association Book Club Central: if you are going to promote a book that is going to have a high likelihood of being read by librarians, read the damn book yourselves to avoid the situation noted in BAD NEWS #1 above. As a whole, we librarians are pretty much sticklers for grammar (uh, duh).
3. The author includes a poem from her husband on the dedication page. Ugh. Girl, this is YOUR moment, stand in the light of it and shine. Fine if your husband has been supportive and you want to dedicate the book to him, but it is gauche to piggyback his work on your accomplishment. I almost put this book down after reading the dedication page (definitely elicited a huge eye roll from me).
4. To the reviewers and again hey, Ecco Publishing, Stephanie Powell Watts IS NOT F. Scott Fitzgerald. This book IS NOT Great Gatsbyesque. Stop it with this stupid comparison. #SitDown.
In the immortal words of Forrest Gump, "That's all I have to say about that".
This is a good news/bad news book, I will start with the
GOOD NEWS:
1. Excellent character development. The characters were believable and jumped off the page. I was invested in them right from the start.
2. Great storytelling. The interconnectedness of the characters both with one another and their small town was well done. Descriptors executed in a manner to create a meis en scene akin to a film rather than a book that made me feel like I was transported to Pinewood, North Carolina.
3. At times, truly beautiful writing and compulsively readable.
Now, the
BAD NEWS:
1. My kingdom for a copy editor. For goodness sake, Ecco Publishing which is an imprint of Harper Collins, could you not afford to, at a minimum, run this manuscript through Microsoft Word? Periods in the middle of sentences, entire words omitted, and the dearth of commas were enough to make me stop reading this book. Chapter 14, in its entirety, is a hot mess- continuity errors and unrecognizable grammar. The number of run-on sentences in this book are too numerous to count. I found myself reading and saying in my head "and comma" or "and conjunction" so often, I wanted to scream. The glaring examples of a lack of simple proofreading definitely diminished my enjoyment of this book.
2. Note to the American Library Association Book Club Central: if you are going to promote a book that is going to have a high likelihood of being read by librarians, read the damn book yourselves to avoid the situation noted in BAD NEWS #1 above. As a whole, we librarians are pretty much sticklers for grammar (uh, duh).
3. The author includes a poem from her husband on the dedication page. Ugh. Girl, this is YOUR moment, stand in the light of it and shine. Fine if your husband has been supportive and you want to dedicate the book to him, but it is gauche to piggyback his work on your accomplishment. I almost put this book down after reading the dedication page (definitely elicited a huge eye roll from me).
4. To the reviewers and again hey, Ecco Publishing, Stephanie Powell Watts IS NOT F. Scott Fitzgerald. This book IS NOT Great Gatsbyesque. Stop it with this stupid comparison. #SitDown.
In the immortal words of Forrest Gump, "That's all I have to say about that".
May 13, 2017
Review now posted on
In a small town in North Carolina an African American family is reaching for the American Dream. Life is hard and full of disappointments as it seems like a black cloud is over them. Ava is desperate for a baby yet she battles infertility and secretly reaches out to an online community for support and advise. Her husband Henry is upset about the decline in the furniture industry where he works, is cheating on Ava and feels disappointed in himself. Ava’s mother Sylvia’s life is stunted; she has never gotten over losing her son Devon and is married to Don, a man she doesn’t trust. JJ Ferguson, Ava’s old boyfriend is back in town, wealthy and living large on top of the hill. He has built a house overlooking the town and is hoping to get back together with Ava as he searches for the feeling of being home.
“We all get disappointed. ....We want what's missing. Everybody wants what's missing. � Wealth, trust, fidelity, love…they all are searching for something to make them feel whole yet no one is spared of life’s challenges.
As Ava, JJ, Henry and Sylvia struggle to find happiness the occasional glimmers of light are not enough to make all their dreams come true.
“They could pretend they had the power to fix their lives. The trick was making themselves believe it. That's what joy is, isn't it? Belief for a little while that you have the power to mend everything?�
Stephanie Powell Watts has written an impressive debut as she skillfully weaves thoughts from the characters' pasts with current goings ons - a true glimpse into how they physically experience life while recalling old memories. She gives us a snapshot of real life where little is perfect and few are satisfied. It is reminiscent of the fact that life can be challenging and making the most out of it gives us the biggest reward.
“If you can't get what you want, want something else. �
I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and look forward to more from Stephanie Powell Watts.
In a small town in North Carolina an African American family is reaching for the American Dream. Life is hard and full of disappointments as it seems like a black cloud is over them. Ava is desperate for a baby yet she battles infertility and secretly reaches out to an online community for support and advise. Her husband Henry is upset about the decline in the furniture industry where he works, is cheating on Ava and feels disappointed in himself. Ava’s mother Sylvia’s life is stunted; she has never gotten over losing her son Devon and is married to Don, a man she doesn’t trust. JJ Ferguson, Ava’s old boyfriend is back in town, wealthy and living large on top of the hill. He has built a house overlooking the town and is hoping to get back together with Ava as he searches for the feeling of being home.
“We all get disappointed. ....We want what's missing. Everybody wants what's missing. � Wealth, trust, fidelity, love…they all are searching for something to make them feel whole yet no one is spared of life’s challenges.
As Ava, JJ, Henry and Sylvia struggle to find happiness the occasional glimmers of light are not enough to make all their dreams come true.
“They could pretend they had the power to fix their lives. The trick was making themselves believe it. That's what joy is, isn't it? Belief for a little while that you have the power to mend everything?�
Stephanie Powell Watts has written an impressive debut as she skillfully weaves thoughts from the characters' pasts with current goings ons - a true glimpse into how they physically experience life while recalling old memories. She gives us a snapshot of real life where little is perfect and few are satisfied. It is reminiscent of the fact that life can be challenging and making the most out of it gives us the biggest reward.
“If you can't get what you want, want something else. �
I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and look forward to more from Stephanie Powell Watts.
May 26, 2017
gosh... i found this one a bit of a slog. i wish the publisher had not decided to take the 'great gatsby recast' approach in marketing this book. i feel like that did a disservice to the story and the author... as well as messing with readers' expectations. (or, this particular reader, anyway.) having the gatsby comparison in my mind while reading was hugely distracting, and i truly don't know that this novel actually merits the comparison, beyond local boy makes good, returns home to try and woo back the girl he loves, who is in a complicated relationship. (aren't all relationships complicated?)
powell watts has a good style, quieter than f.scott fitzgerald's, and perhaps more inward looking. (if that makes sense.) and i believe her story could have stood on its own, without the gatsby hook. i do feel there were some wobbles in the editing, things that made the flow seem clunky or where prose could have been tidier/tighter.
so... yeah. feeling let down by this one, and fully aware my own expectations clouded my experience with this story.
powell watts has a good style, quieter than f.scott fitzgerald's, and perhaps more inward looking. (if that makes sense.) and i believe her story could have stood on its own, without the gatsby hook. i do feel there were some wobbles in the editing, things that made the flow seem clunky or where prose could have been tidier/tighter.
so... yeah. feeling let down by this one, and fully aware my own expectations clouded my experience with this story.
May 24, 2017
Enjoyable read but being compared to the Great Gatsby really isn't fair assessment. I would just forget the comparison and get to know the characters for who they are individually.
May 18, 2019
This novel portrays life within an African American community set in an economically struggling town in North Carolina. The book’s characters are self conscious about relative wealth status, but their perceptions are unexpectedly stretched when a man returns to his childhood hometown to build an expensive mansion on a hill overlooking the town. This man had been raised as an orphan and left the town with minimal prospects, but returns now years later apparently wealthy from sources not fully explained.
It is soon apparent that a motive for this man's return is to court a long-ago high school sweetheart. But this woman is now married and obsessed with bearing a child—her efforts meeting with repeated miscarriages. Her focus on pregnancies has prompted her to endure a faithless husband who has fathered a child with another woman.
From this narrative setup it would appear that that the wealthy guy on the hill has a chance to make his dreams come true. However, twists and turns in the story from this point make the conclusion not so obvious in spite of some parallels with The Great Gatsby.
The quality of writing in this book is obviously skilled and creative with individual chapters that could pass for short stories on their own. The transitions between chapters often have no apparent connection, but the sum of all the chapters in the end fit together to complete the story.
There are moments within the book when characters are allowed to be introspective about the human condition. The following excerpt caught my eye as being appropriate for Mother's Day. It's an example of the bittersweet being combined with the sentimental:
It is soon apparent that a motive for this man's return is to court a long-ago high school sweetheart. But this woman is now married and obsessed with bearing a child—her efforts meeting with repeated miscarriages. Her focus on pregnancies has prompted her to endure a faithless husband who has fathered a child with another woman.
From this narrative setup it would appear that that the wealthy guy on the hill has a chance to make his dreams come true. However, twists and turns in the story from this point make the conclusion not so obvious in spite of some parallels with The Great Gatsby.
The quality of writing in this book is obviously skilled and creative with individual chapters that could pass for short stories on their own. The transitions between chapters often have no apparent connection, but the sum of all the chapters in the end fit together to complete the story.
There are moments within the book when characters are allowed to be introspective about the human condition. The following excerpt caught my eye as being appropriate for Mother's Day. It's an example of the bittersweet being combined with the sentimental:
The past had started erasing behind Sylvia like in a cartoon. Her life as a girl; the lives of her parents; her son; all disappearing as if they had never been. Giving up the pain and the exclusion meant also giving up the years of her life. The trick was cutting out the bad like a tumor, hoping the nasty had not spread into the rest of your thinking. Cutting it out, but somehow managing to survive. Isn’t that always the trick? � In a small town your dead mother haunts nearly every corner, turning up in a thousand places that you don’t expect. At first she scared you, her face, her smell, a memory of her at the laundromat, at the post office. But soon you delighted in her presence. You remembered her kind moments and her happiness. But in time, as the years progressed you recalled her in the meat of life, in her ordinary days, the ways she normally existed. You remembered her anger, ever-ready, as she gripped like a lifeline. You remembered her ability to ignore you, her pleading child, ignore you and your pleading pain completely. (p252-253)Though most of the characters are African Americans, race relations are not the primary focus of this book. There are scattered allusions to black-white differences, and there are several white persons written into the story. However, most of the concerns and problems dealt with in the book’s narrative could be equally applied to a white community on the lower fringes of the middle class.
July 11, 2018
A retelling of the Great Gatsby? HAH!
The only reason I read this book was because the Great Gatsby is my all time favorite book. Any and all things alike I must devour. This book had nothing in common with the classic and to call it a retelling feels like false advertising. It's certainly a novel all on its own, but no need to try to compare it to something it could never be.
This takes place in Pinewood, NC. JJ Ferguson builds a mansion and wants so bad for Ava to be with him (these might be the only similarities). Ava's mother Sylvia is a major character and she strikes up a relationship with Marcus- an inmate. Ava's husband is cheating on her and Ava is desperate for a baby. I think there were some interesting threads, but none of them amounted to anything worth investing in. Somehow, none of the characters managed to grab my heart either.
The only reason I read this book was because the Great Gatsby is my all time favorite book. Any and all things alike I must devour. This book had nothing in common with the classic and to call it a retelling feels like false advertising. It's certainly a novel all on its own, but no need to try to compare it to something it could never be.
This takes place in Pinewood, NC. JJ Ferguson builds a mansion and wants so bad for Ava to be with him (these might be the only similarities). Ava's mother Sylvia is a major character and she strikes up a relationship with Marcus- an inmate. Ava's husband is cheating on her and Ava is desperate for a baby. I think there were some interesting threads, but none of them amounted to anything worth investing in. Somehow, none of the characters managed to grab my heart either.
June 27, 2017
I am so disappointed to give this book two stars as certain passages and dialogue were incredible.
However, the characters and plot were poorly developed. I had trouble following the story - mainly because there was WAY too much happening with scant development over the 300 pages. Plus, I don't think I've read a book with so many typos???
On a positive note - I liked Watt's voice. And the story had real potential. It could have benefitted from better editing.
However, the characters and plot were poorly developed. I had trouble following the story - mainly because there was WAY too much happening with scant development over the 300 pages. Plus, I don't think I've read a book with so many typos???
On a positive note - I liked Watt's voice. And the story had real potential. It could have benefitted from better editing.
May 7, 2020
At the end of reading this novel, I was left with a strong sense of unrealised potential. Unfortunately; I think this story is done a disservice by being billed as a retelling of The Great Gatsby. As a reader, I was distracted from the narrative being told, by trying to spot the parallels (some of which were weak and inconsistent). Actually, I felt there was a good story at the heart of this novel, and characters which had interesting and important things to say. But perhaps in an effort to replicate the emptiness of Gatsby, this story wound up flat, distant, and unmoving.
August 19, 2017
I'm not sure why this book was compared to The Great Gatsby. I'm not sure at all. Between the typos and the pages that just seemed to drag on, found it an absolute chore to get through this book. I'm glad it was a library book. I would have been mad if I'd spent money on this one.
July 5, 2017
I would rather read The Great Gatsby. This book did not hold my interest at all. Shame.
April 30, 2023
I found this book to be underrated here on goodreads. Powell Watts is a talented writer with some wonderful word flourishes and intellectual dialogue. On the whole this was a Southern novel where the main characters were more erudite than their life station would indicate. The characters somehow don't fit. Overly long, but not terrible. I was entertained and interested in the outcome. The novel is deep, but the characters don't fit in the world built here. It's odd, but good.
3.5 Stars
Listened to the audiobook. Janina Edwards was good.
3.5 Stars
Listened to the audiobook. Janina Edwards was good.
May 22, 2017
I've never read a book with so many typos. The comma placements may have been typos or may have been outright mistakes; either way, I was distracted. I wanted to love this book because it was hyped as the African American Gatsby, but that's an inaccurate assessment. The story itself was all over the place. Very disappointed.
December 29, 2017
Usually I am in the minority when I don't like a book but everyone else does. In this case, most people gave this book 2 or 3 stars. Shame, too many people bothered to unfairly look for comparison of the Great Gatsby! Don't bother, it will ruin your reading experience!
Instead treasure the rich descriptions, the flawed characters, full of hope but disappointments, the southern language, the stereotypes and some great quotes (I personally love "You get what you deserve") This is about an African-American neighborhood in South Carolina, where Sylvia is the center character that connects them all.
I would read more from this author!
Instead treasure the rich descriptions, the flawed characters, full of hope but disappointments, the southern language, the stereotypes and some great quotes (I personally love "You get what you deserve") This is about an African-American neighborhood in South Carolina, where Sylvia is the center character that connects them all.
I would read more from this author!
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May 2, 2018The first ALA Book Club Central selection! Visit bookclubcentral.org for more information.
October 9, 2017
3.5 stars, rounded up. The Gatsby comparison seems to be sending readers all kinds of weird expectations around this book. So to start I feel it's noteworthy to say that the Gatsby reframing here is minimal, and you shouldn't spend much time thinking about it as you read. You should not look for plot similarities. You should just think to yourself that if you started with the idea of a Gatsby-esque story in a modern day setting, in a very different setting, with race as a central element, what would you do with those elements? What would you wind it into? Beyond that, just sit back and enjoy Watts' story.
This is mostly very real realism, the kinds of every day stories and people that aren't going to involve giant plot points but where the stakes, however small, mean everything to the characters. The rhythm and stagnancy of the everyday rings through these pages and these stories. To me the central element seemed to be hope and how it contorts and how it dies. The danger of our own hopes, but also just how crucial hope is and what it means when you have so little or you have everything you ever wanted.
Near the end the threads of the book didn't quite hold together the way they had early on, but I still liked it very much.
This is mostly very real realism, the kinds of every day stories and people that aren't going to involve giant plot points but where the stakes, however small, mean everything to the characters. The rhythm and stagnancy of the everyday rings through these pages and these stories. To me the central element seemed to be hope and how it contorts and how it dies. The danger of our own hopes, but also just how crucial hope is and what it means when you have so little or you have everything you ever wanted.
Near the end the threads of the book didn't quite hold together the way they had early on, but I still liked it very much.
July 30, 2017
Throughout my reading of Stephanie Powell Watts' No One Is Coming To Save Us, I felt myself wanting to connect with the characters, but never quite getting there. Part of that might have been because I was constantly paging back and forth trying to figure out who was connected to who and how and why it was important for the story. The book felt ambitious in its undertaking of several different relationships and themes, but I wish there had been a narrower focus to fully grapple with a few rather than lightly touching on so many.
The dynamic between mother and daughter, Sylvia and Ava, was probably the highlight of the novel for me. However, to get to that point, the reader has to page through quite a bit of the book. This is a sentiment I felt several times as much of the story seemed formed before the reader engaged with it. What I mean by that is a lot of the plot and the characters' plights were things the reader learned about from the perspective of whoever's voice was present in that chapter rather than seeing it unfold as the story went on. This type of storytelling lessens as the reader gets further into the book and the characters actually start engaging in the present rather than staying in the past. It's possible that this was an intentional decision by the author. It could play as an effort to show the progression of each character moving beyond the past and actively choosing to live in the present, but it made it hard for me to feel connected to the story.
The beauty of the later chapters of the book where I was the most engaged make it abundantly clear that Stephanie Powell Watts is incredibly talented. For this reason, I will likely go back and read her short stories as I feel this form is where the character connection I didn't feel here is less vital to enjoyment.
The dynamic between mother and daughter, Sylvia and Ava, was probably the highlight of the novel for me. However, to get to that point, the reader has to page through quite a bit of the book. This is a sentiment I felt several times as much of the story seemed formed before the reader engaged with it. What I mean by that is a lot of the plot and the characters' plights were things the reader learned about from the perspective of whoever's voice was present in that chapter rather than seeing it unfold as the story went on. This type of storytelling lessens as the reader gets further into the book and the characters actually start engaging in the present rather than staying in the past. It's possible that this was an intentional decision by the author. It could play as an effort to show the progression of each character moving beyond the past and actively choosing to live in the present, but it made it hard for me to feel connected to the story.
The beauty of the later chapters of the book where I was the most engaged make it abundantly clear that Stephanie Powell Watts is incredibly talented. For this reason, I will likely go back and read her short stories as I feel this form is where the character connection I didn't feel here is less vital to enjoyment.
July 16, 2017
I've posted a lot of quotes from this as I've been reading it and I could go back and do it again, find more, share some more of my highlights but I don't think I will. Ultimately, I thought the writing in this was completely entrancing: I love the turns of phrase, I love the imagery, I love how emotionally affecting it was.
This is not a very quick read. The pacing is slow and almost languid, but I found I wanted to read more and, for me, it encouraged me to take some time with the prose and feel it. Mostly, I think this is an emotional book and by that I mean it's profoundly concerned with them, especially with those in a specific family unit. Please don't go into this thinking it's akin to The Great Gatsby, though there are some fun parallels. This is a very different book. There's a mounting sense of loss throughout and even when the reveals happen (they're not so much reveals: I don't think they're that surprising) it's more crushing, because of it. I was genuinely moved!
I want to say this is a slow book, but I don't mean that as an insult. It's slow and it builds, with a purpose. I think it's deliberate and I loved reading it. I'd like to read a lot more by this author, so I hope I will! This hasn't been a good year of reading for me, but it's probably been my favourite book, and I think I'm going to remember it a lot.
This is not a very quick read. The pacing is slow and almost languid, but I found I wanted to read more and, for me, it encouraged me to take some time with the prose and feel it. Mostly, I think this is an emotional book and by that I mean it's profoundly concerned with them, especially with those in a specific family unit. Please don't go into this thinking it's akin to The Great Gatsby, though there are some fun parallels. This is a very different book. There's a mounting sense of loss throughout and even when the reveals happen (they're not so much reveals: I don't think they're that surprising) it's more crushing, because of it. I was genuinely moved!
I want to say this is a slow book, but I don't mean that as an insult. It's slow and it builds, with a purpose. I think it's deliberate and I loved reading it. I'd like to read a lot more by this author, so I hope I will! This hasn't been a good year of reading for me, but it's probably been my favourite book, and I think I'm going to remember it a lot.
April 15, 2017
When you love somebody you decide what you can take and what will kill you and work backward from what will kill you. It’s as simple as that. At least this is what she told herself.
***
Was thrilled to interview Stephanie for two events in NC on her tour...this book is deeply felt and really, really wise. Tons of great lines and cutting dialogue that work like jabs... The Gatsby stuff is present but not overbearing or even that noticeable and there is certainly no prerequisite Gatsby knowledge needed to get the full scope of the story.
The tension is expertly crafted...its found in a series of loaded moments at the Wal-Mart and the burger joint and the kitchen table...complex lives being lived by likable characters who are smart, earnest, and never too impressed by their own struggles or moments of transcendence.
Its a book about romantic love, maternal love, and small Southern towns, among other things. And its so honest and such a cool premise to begin with...Gatsby through the lived experience of a working class Black family in rural North Carolina. I'm going to buy a copy for my mom for Mother's Day.
***
Was thrilled to interview Stephanie for two events in NC on her tour...this book is deeply felt and really, really wise. Tons of great lines and cutting dialogue that work like jabs... The Gatsby stuff is present but not overbearing or even that noticeable and there is certainly no prerequisite Gatsby knowledge needed to get the full scope of the story.
The tension is expertly crafted...its found in a series of loaded moments at the Wal-Mart and the burger joint and the kitchen table...complex lives being lived by likable characters who are smart, earnest, and never too impressed by their own struggles or moments of transcendence.
Its a book about romantic love, maternal love, and small Southern towns, among other things. And its so honest and such a cool premise to begin with...Gatsby through the lived experience of a working class Black family in rural North Carolina. I'm going to buy a copy for my mom for Mother's Day.
April 10, 2017
(Nearly 3.5) The residents of Pinewood, N.C., the primarily African-American community at the heart of Watts’s debut novel, know what it is to have deferred dreams dry up like Langston Hughes� raisins in the sun. The book has a vibrant ensemble cast, starting with the plural first-person voice of the opening chapter. There’s an obsession here with progeny and property as two vital signs of success. The novel is infused with haunting lines about the persistence of the past and the danger of hope. The Great Gatsby might be the clearest touchpoint, but it’s oversimplifying to label this a Gatsby remake. There aren’t that many one-to-one correspondences with Fitzgerald’s characters and incidents, and Sylvia, easily the most compelling character, falls outside the framework entirely.
See my full review on the website.
See my full review on the website.
March 24, 2018
I’m not sure what I expected from this book, I didn’t read any reviews before reading it. There were some good parts that I enjoyed but not very many.
Shelved as 'owned-but-not-read'
November 29, 2017Wow... You know what's missing from the blurb on the physical book???
This:
So, like, the two major selling points?
It showed up and I read the blurb and was wondering why I would have requested this book, or why they would be promoting it, and it wasn't until I logged onto ŷ that I remembered reading about it. That's not going to help in bookstores...
This:
The Great Gatsby brilliantly recast in the contemporary South: a powerful first novel about an extended African-American family and their colliding visions of the American Dream.So it's without ANYTHING (besides a very brief mention of Jim Crow) to suggest the the African-American characters or Great Gatsby retelling.
So, like, the two major selling points?
It showed up and I read the blurb and was wondering why I would have requested this book, or why they would be promoting it, and it wasn't until I logged onto ŷ that I remembered reading about it. That's not going to help in bookstores...
December 10, 2017
This was a heart wrenching book. Tears near the end. I had a little trouble with the way it was written, sentence structure wise, causing me to read some passages more than once to make sure I understood what was being conveyed. I do recommend this. I do and do not understand the comparisons to The Great Gatsby. Read and decide for yourself. If you like books about people and their flawed natures, as I do, you will like this.
July 6, 2017
I really wanted to like this more, perhaps because Sarah Jessica Parker recommended it so highly, but overall I found it to be a boorish and depressing read.
January 17, 2021
An excellent Black Family Drama....highly recommend!!! I did the audiobook 🎧 the narration was flawless
September 18, 2017
I feel compelled to explain myself. 2 Stars? Well 2 is OK. 3 Is I liked it. I liked that it is a literal book. Well written and engaging. I understand that its modeled after the much more famous novel The Great Gatsby which unfortunately I have not read. So I imagine that is my personal disconnect. I can't understand why the characters speak in a language I'd never expect from folks in the places and situations of these. If the character are not "authentic" I'm lost. Race, place, and circumstance are what the novel is about. I struggled to bring its literary ambitions into play with the real stories of real folk in the NC Piedmont's. No folks that I know of in that part of the country would walk up to a gas station quick e mart, announce that " I'm sad" and then engage in a philosophical, existential conversation. It may make for a serious intellectual discussion but it does nothing to make me think it could ever take place.
The decline of the small NC town that was dependent on furniture and other small industry rang true. An uncle worked for Broyhill a factory mentioned in the novel and he saw all of the transformations listed in the book.
The final blow/criticism for me is that the author's use of a conceit that I dislike. A dislike not shared by others given that the esteemed Toni Morrison also uses it and is lauded for it. (think Beloved) But for me it sours.
Truly it was a rather odd book in that passages with dialog and the introduction of new characters popped and I looked forward to what came next. But some characters quickly became stale and depressing. . So if you like good writing and transportation to a small town and place you'll like this book. I liked it most of the time but not always..ie..2 stars..it was ok.
The decline of the small NC town that was dependent on furniture and other small industry rang true. An uncle worked for Broyhill a factory mentioned in the novel and he saw all of the transformations listed in the book.
The final blow/criticism for me is that the author's use of a conceit that I dislike. A dislike not shared by others given that the esteemed Toni Morrison also uses it and is lauded for it. (think Beloved) But for me it sours.
Truly it was a rather odd book in that passages with dialog and the introduction of new characters popped and I looked forward to what came next. But some characters quickly became stale and depressing. . So if you like good writing and transportation to a small town and place you'll like this book. I liked it most of the time but not always..ie..2 stars..it was ok.
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