A Good Neighborhood by Therese Anne FowlerMy rating: 1 of 5 stars
I am a retired librarian and I love books - usually ALL books, but not this one. I so rarely give a negative review that I fear this may be more of a rant than a review.
I took issue with so much about this book. The characters were very one dimensional. For a book about race and to an extent manhood, there were hardly any black men in the book. The one good white man was dead and the remaining white men were racists and/or pedophiles. We have the strong, ethical single woman raising a son, the money grubbing slut looking for a man to save her, a trailer park trash momma, and a teenager who is "saved" at age 11 and signs a creepy as hell 'purity pledge'. ALL the women have been sexually abused.
Everything AND the kitchen sink seemed to be the theme of this book - or maybe the author thought she could preach against all evils and maybe one would hit home. Too much skimming off the top of important issues, not any diving deep into them. The book would have been better if it had examined one issue - race, maybe - in a thoughtful and nuanced way. I knew how this book would end almost before finishing the first chapter.
Everything AND the kitchen sink seemed to be the theme of this book - or maybe the author thought she could preach against all evils and maybe one would hit home. Too much skimming off the top of important issues, not any diving deep into them. The book would have been better if it had examined one issue - race, maybe - in a thoughtful and nuanced way. I knew how this book would end almost before finishing the first chapter.
The Greek chorus narration seemed interesting at first, but became very annoying, very quickly. There was way too much heavy handed foreshadowing - as though the author didn't trust the reader to pick up the hints through the plot. As the book progressed and the repercussions for the characters became more dire, the flip tone of the narration didn't seem to match the gravity of the situation.
The first half of the book was very slow, and then everything happened in the second half of the book - every bad thing that could happen, did happen. It felt too rushed almost as though the author reached a required number of pages or had a due date looming and needed to finish the book.
I read Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by the same author and didn't dislike that (I gave it 3 stars). I wonder if having real people and events helped the author with her character development, plot, and pacing - All of which were lacking in this book. There are so many other better books that deal with race and privilege - off the top of my head I can think of Little Fires Everywhere, The Vanishing Half, and The Hate U Give.
I read Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by the same author and didn't dislike that (I gave it 3 stars). I wonder if having real people and events helped the author with her character development, plot, and pacing - All of which were lacking in this book. There are so many other better books that deal with race and privilege - off the top of my head I can think of Little Fires Everywhere, The Vanishing Half, and The Hate U Give.
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