Therese Anne Fowler

Like any proper tragedy, this one is told with a Greek chorus, narrated in second person by the neighborhood of Oak Knoll, North Carolina. We know it's a tragedy from the first page, which alludes to the funeral to come - but whose?

On one side of the fence, Valerie Alston-Holt and her 18-year-old biracial son Xavier, who is finishing his senior year and preparing to go to San Francisco to study classical guitar. On the other side of the fence is a new family, the Whitmans: Brad and Julia, show more their daughter Lily, and Julia's daughter Juniper, a junior at a private high school.

Xavier and Juniper are attracted to each other, and find ways to meet and talk, despite the fact that Juniper has taken a purity pledge and her mom and stepdad control and monitor her every move, and that Valerie is about to sue Brad Whitman for killing the massive, beloved oak tree in her backyard.

Brad is a true villain: a succeed-at-all-costs snake who owns an HVAC company, deluded into believing that his stepdaughter Juniper has a crush on him and that he can take her virginity. Brad is furious when served with Valerie's civil suit, and even more furious when he finds Juniper and Xavier together; he presses rape charges, which he later tries to have dropped in exchange for Valerie dropping the civil suit, but the damage has already been done (black 18-year-old, white 17-year-old in the South, etc.).

A ferocious and tragic story of injustice.

See also: An American Marriage by Tayari Jones, Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver, Not So Pure and Simple by Lamar Giles, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Romeo & Juliet

Quotes

...a neighborhood that had come to think of itself as progressive yet was not doing much to demonstrate that character. (15)

...finches and cardinals and chickadees and mockingbirds singing the sun down. (53)

What, [Juniper] wondered, made a neighborhood good? (54)

"Here's adulthood lesson number one: You want something, ask for it....Find out how to get whatever it is you want, and then do whatever it takes to get it." (Brad to Juniper, 100)

She'd tried to hard to be what she thought she ought to be, and where had it gotten her? (Julia, 196)

How unfair that the past was irretrievable and yet impossible to leave behind. (Valerie, 202)

Here's what we wonder: How does a man like Brad become a man like Brad - that is, so assured of his authority and viewpoint that he never bothers to interrogate himself? (212)

They wouldn't say, Here was a young man who was pushed to the wall, a product of our institutional and cultural injustice who sought only to enact real justice where otherwise there would never be any. (Xavier, 301) show less

Turn of the century New York: the city is expanding ever upwards, both geographically and spatially; the royalty of society in the form of the new millionaires, the Astors, the Vanderbilts, the Rockefellers, et al, rule the city as well as contribute to its growth, artistic life, and architectural life. Into this setting, Fowler introduces us to Alva Smith, a young woman who is realistic about her opportunities (and lacks thereof) and is intent on securing her and her family's monetary and show more social position by marrying up. She does that, by marrying the man who will become the second richest American, William Vanderbilt.

This novel is the story of Alva's life, and it is quite a story. At first the reader needs persuasion to stick with this very outdated tale of social climbing and money-grubbing, because the story is told very much in the manner of a fin-de-siècle Wharton tale, which is less than engaging to a 21-st -century reader. However, Alva's story becomes more and more intriguing, and once the reader is engaged in it it's hard to put down.

Alva herself is a wonder of a character. She is brash, forward, speaks her mind, knows what she wants and how to get it, and does what she has to do in a time when women were saddled with disadvantages of fate and social position. Alva is realistic about her life, and knows she is not in a position to, as we say today, "have it all." In fact, one of the things she willingly and knowingly sacrifices is the chance at real love with her spouse. To be honest, it was only the working and lower classes of this time period that had such a luxury to marry one you loved; in the upper echelons of society, matches were made based on social and familial advantages, and the girl (and the boy for that matter) had little say in these things, subject to their parents' machinations. Alva knows this going in, but her decision becomes her bête noir. I quite liked the author's handling of this theme, which was realistic yet sympathetic.

It was a fascinating glimpse into a world in which "society" is the absolute last word in terms of one's station, reputation, and position in life. Loved this book. show less

The Short of It:

Absolutely riveting.

The Rest of It:

I wanted an excellent book to kick-off 2020 and let me tell you, A Good Neighborhood was just that.

The story is set in a North Carolina neighborhood that has some history behind it but is in the midst of modernization. Old, beautiful homes being razed for sparkly new homes, and the types of residents you’d expect with such flashiness. Two homes, next to each other have their own stories. One, old and beloved by Valerie and her son Xavier. show more The other, flashy and new, owned by Brad, his wife Julia and their two children, Juniper and Lily.

One black family. One white. Although one has a little more money than the other due to some opportunistic business dealings, the other is well-educated and well-respected in the community. But when Valerie’s grand oak tree begins to show signs of distress due to all the construction that her neighbor authorized, tensions rise and when Juniper, a white girl, falls in love with Xavier, the tension really ramps up.

This is a timely story of how one thing leads to another and how race can’t help but get in the way. The way the story is told is from an observer’s point of view, so we know early on that something horrible happens to one if these families and although we see hints here and there of how the story will play out, the ending still packs a punch. I finished this book late at night and I was so affected by the storytelling that I had to sit there for many minutes to compose myself.

This is a tragic story and will break your heart in so many ways but it’s so well done. It gives you much to think about. It would make an excellent book club read and I want everyone to read it.

I should note that the book comes out in March, so pre-order it now or request it from your library and once you read it, let me know because you will need to discuss it.

For more reviews, visit my blog: Book Chatter. show less

In the author's notes, Therese Anne Fowler writes that this is 'not a biography, but a novelist's attempt to imagine what it was like to be Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald', inspired by her 'respect and affection for both Scott and Zelda', and I would say she does a pretty fair job of conveying both 'characters'. I have been a casual member of 'Team Zelda' for a while now, since watching Natasha Richardson play her in a film and then reading a couple of biographies, but now I fear I may have been a show more little hard on Scott. He did lift most of his material from his wife's journals and their life together, granted, and then forbid her to use the same references in her own writing, but his own emotional instability probably precluded him from recognising his wife's creative talents. He was a man of his time, that was all. I do wonder what Zelda would have made of her life had she never met Scott, and whether she would have been happier in the long run, however.

I am pleased that Therese Anne Fowler chose to write Zelda's story as a retrospective narrative, acknowledging the faults of both Fitzgeralds, instead of the superficial romance I feared this might be. The pacing flags a little during the middle years spent in Europe, but Zelda's 'voice' never wavers, maintaining a pithy yet poetic turn of phrase which echoes Zelda's own autobiographical novel, Save Me The Waltz. show less