2 Stars
I’ve been on a bit of a roll with reviews of books I really liked so I thought today would be a good time to go back to my roots . . . .
No, June. My roots of being a wrongreader. Or maybe not so much this time because this book seems to have been a mixed bag for my friends as well.
On the surface, A Good Neighborhood is about an argument between neighbors over a tree. In reality it’s about race relations and socioeconomic status and gender roles and on and on. If you follow me you know that I am hit or miss when it comes to tales of the “tragiporn” variety. Obviously this was not a winner. The problems I had here? Caricatures rather than characters – with the good being soooooooo absolutely squeaky clean they read like wholesome family teens from 1950s family television programs while the bad encompassed every awful trait one could have (stereotypical used car salesman, bigot, pedo, etc.) – with a storyline that featured a multitude of twists designed to bring the feels that instead came off as trying waaaaaay too hard to make the point(s). This just didn’t work for me . . . .
The one thing I did like that many others probably won't? The third person "neighborhood" serving as narrator.
No, June. My roots of being a wrongreader. Or maybe not so much this time because this book seems to have been a mixed bag for my friends as well.
On the surface, A Good Neighborhood is about an argument between neighbors over a tree. In reality it’s about race relations and socioeconomic status and gender roles and on and on. If you follow me you know that I am hit or miss when it comes to tales of the “tragiporn” variety. Obviously this was not a winner. The problems I had here? Caricatures rather than characters – with the good being soooooooo absolutely squeaky clean they read like wholesome family teens from 1950s family television programs while the bad encompassed every awful trait one could have (stereotypical used car salesman, bigot, pedo, etc.) – with a storyline that featured a multitude of twists designed to bring the feels that instead came off as trying waaaaaay too hard to make the point(s). This just didn’t work for me . . . .
The one thing I did like that many others probably won't? The third person "neighborhood" serving as narrator.
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