Showing posts with label quarantine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label quarantine. Show all posts

Saturday, March 28, 2020

A Good Neighborhood

I have been under a two week quarantine because a student at Hunter High tested positive for Covid-19 and, while some aspects have been difficult, I have really enjoyed the opportunity to read without feeling like I am neglecting other obligations. I actually read A Good Neighborhood by Therese Anne Fowler in one day because it is absolutely riveting! The modest suburban neighborhood of Oak Knoll, North Carolina is slowly becoming gentrified as developers tear down the existing houses and cut down trees that are hundreds of years old to build extravagant mansions. The narrative revolves around Valerie Alston-Holt, a black professor of ecology and forestry, and the Whitmans, a nouveau-riche white family who moves into a mansion next door to her. They judge each other before they even meet but soon their uneasy rapprochement is tested by a series of events. Valerie decides to sue Brad Whitman for damages caused to an oak tree in her yard. She contends that building such a large house and an in-ground pool has damaged the root system of the tree causing it to die. The Whitmans are enraged when Valerie's son Xavier begins a relationship with their sheltered teenage daughter Juniper. This reads like a Greek tragedy with the neighborhood itself acting as the chorus foreshadowing the events to come. The narration provided by this chorus reveals background information about all of the main characters and offers commentary on the action taking place.  This is an incredibly effective device because the slow accretion of details makes the tragic events seem inexorable. I read this book in one sitting because there is such a sense of urgency and I had to know what happened! While I found the final resolution to be deeply upsetting on a personal level, this is a very thought-provoking look at race in America right now and I really appreciated the fact that multiple perspectives of people who think of themselves as "good" are explored. Even though A Good Neighborhood is ultimately heartbreaking, there is a redemption of sorts and I highly recommend this cautionary tale.

Note: A Good Neighborhood was this month's Barnes & Noble Book Club selection but, sadly, the meeting was canceled. Even though there was an interesting Facebook Live chat with the author, I would have really enjoyed discussing it with my group!
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...