The Turner House by
Angela FlournoyMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
The book is about the larger Turner family, Francis and Viola had 13 children, who grew up in Detroit. Through the decades they saw the decline of manufacturing, white flight, drugs, gangs, and the overall decay of their city. Now the family home is falling apart and the house is worth ten percent of the mortgage value.
The book alternates viewpoints with the most time spent on the oldest child, Cha Cha and the youngest Lelah. The oldest is going through what would be a mid-life crisis, except he is older, nearing retirement. The youngest still hasn’t figured out how to take care of herself and is tired of relying on others, her siblings, or even her adult daughter to bail her out. The main plot of the book is the family conversation of what to do with the family home, and their mother is slowly dying.
While the book held together with all these characters, we don’t get a conclusion on much except a glimpse at how the family got started. There’s also the ghost or haint that is bothering Cha Cha, and that has a little resolution. As one may expect with so many people, you don’t get a clear understanding of each Turner, only a few are fully portrayed and others are character stand-ins. The book has a family tree in the front pages, yet many of the people listed there aren’t even mentioned in the book.
Some parts of this book I was interested in -- Lelah, her story kept me going to read to the end, but there was more there that could have been fleshed out. If the book did well it may be something where each of the thirteen could have their own book written about them. Doubtful that will be undertaken by the author, but her world created was believable for the most part.
I received a free copy of this book at a library conference. I was not required to write a review, but felt like it and, of course, the above opinions are my own.
No comments:
Post a Comment