A Good Neighborhood by Therese Anne Fowler | Review

A Good Neighborhood by Therese Anne Fowler
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Release Date: March 10, 2020
Length: 320 pages
Amazon

{A Bit of Backstory}

Single Sentence Summary

The delicate balance of a close, long established North Carolina neighborhood is thrown off kilter as a new family moves in and gentrification begins.

From the Publisher

“In Oak Knoll, a verdant, tight-knit North Carolina neighborhood, professor of forestry and ecology Valerie Alston-Holt is raising her bright and talented biracial son, Xavier, who’s headed to college in the fall. All is well until the Whitmans―a family with new money and a secretly troubled teenage daughter―raze the house and trees next door to build themselves a showplace…”

The Draw

• Loved Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald.
• Curious about Fowler’s shift away from historical fiction.
• Tensions around class, race and love.

{My Thoughts}

Here in the middle of March it’s a little hard to believe, but A Good Neighborhood was actually the first book I read in 2020. I was eager to see what Fowler would do with a story so different from her last two, Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald and A Well Behaved Woman, featuring Alva Vanderbilt (my review). I’m happy to say that her contemporary story of an entire neighborhood thrown off balance when a wealthy family moves in started my reading year off right! Much of the book is told in the collective voice of the people living in this neighborhood, and I’m coming to see that I really appreciate that group voice.

“She wanted to keep the peace and continue to be everyone’s favorite neighbor (our words, not hers). She wanted to see whether Julia Whitman might became a friend. The Tree, however, insisted on its own agenda, dropping leaves ever more rapidly as if to challenge Valarie’s integrity and test her commitment.”

It’s a classic story of good meets evil, in this case an African American widow, Valerie, whose beloved oak tree is slowly dying thanks to the enormous new house built on the property just behind her. Of course, Brad, the man who built the house has little concern for the tree or Valerie’s feelings about it. Tension grows as Valerie’s college-bound son, Xavier, and Brad’s innocent step-daughter, Juniper, grow close. The set up was ,honestly, quite usual, and yet I became completely immersed in their stories.

From the start Fowler delivered characters I felt I really knew and cared about. Much of this was accomplished from hearing how the people of the neighborhood felt about these people living amongst them. Collectively they gave great insight and also foreshadowed impending doom. They were my favorite part of A Good Neighborhood. What fell a flat for me was just how extreme Fowler made her characters. I think she could have ended her story in the same way, and still added a little more gray area for some of the characters. I particularly disliked the extremes she went to with Brad and thought the book would have been better if he wasn’t quite THAT bad. Despite those critiques, I thoroughly enjoyed my time with A Good Neighborhood and I hope you will, too! Grade: B+

If you liked this book you might also enjoy:

• Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng – The story of a community thrown into disarray when a white couple tries to adopt a Chinese baby. (my review)
• We Wish You Luck by Caroline Zancan – If you enjoy the collective voice, this is a book you need to read. Zancan used the “we” perfectly! (my review)

Note: I received a copy of this book from St. Martin’s Press (via NetGalley) in exchange for my honest review.