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A GOOD NEIGHBORHOOD

by Therese Anne Fowler ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 4, 2020

Traversing topics of love, race, and class, this emotionally complex novel speaks to—and may reverberate beyond—our troubled...

A riveting, potentially redemptive story of modern American suburbia that reads almost like an ancient Greek tragedy.

When the Whitmans, a nouveau riche white family, move into a sprawling, newly built house next door to Valerie Alston-Holt, a black professor of forestry and ecology, and her musically gifted, biracial 18-year-old son, Xavier, in a modest, diverse North Carolina neighborhood of cozy ranch houses on wooded lots, it is clear from the outset things will not end well. The neighborhood itself, which serves as the novel’s narrator and chorus, tells us so. The story begins on “a Sunday afternoon in May when our neighborhood is still maintaining its tenuous peace, a loose balance between old and new , us and them ,” we are informed in the book’s opening paragraph. “Later this summer when the funeral takes place, the media will speculate boldly on who’s to blame.” The exact nature of the tragedy that has been foretold and questions of blame come into focus gradually as a series of events is set inexorably in motion when the Whitmans’ cloistered 17-year-old daughter, Juniper, encounters Xavier. The two teenagers tumble into a furtive, pure-hearted romance even as Xavier’s mom and Juniper’s stepfather, Brad, a slick operator who runs a successful HVAC business and has secrets of his own, lock horns in a legal battle over a dying tree. As the novel builds toward its devastating climax, it nimbly negotiates issues of race and racism, class and gentrification, sex and sexual violence, environmental destruction and other highly charged topics. Fowler ( A Well-Behaved Woman , 2018, etc.) empathetically conjures nuanced characters we won’t soon forget, expertly weaves together their stories, and imbues the plot with a sense of inevitability and urgency. In the end, she offers an opportunity for catharsis as well as a heartfelt, hopeful call to action.

Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-250-23727-9

Page Count: 288

Publisher: St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: Sept. 30, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2019

LITERARY FICTION | FAMILY LIFE & FRIENDSHIP

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by Therese Anne Fowler

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4 Novels to Get You Through February Doldrums

PERSPECTIVES

THE NIGHTINGALE

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 3, 2015

Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.

Hannah’s new novel is an homage to the extraordinary courage and endurance of Frenchwomen during World War II.

In 1995, an elderly unnamed widow is moving into an Oregon nursing home on the urging of her controlling son, Julien, a surgeon. This trajectory is interrupted when she receives an invitation to return to France to attend a ceremony honoring passeurs : people who aided the escape of others during the war. Cut to spring, 1940: Viann has said goodbye to husband Antoine, who's off to hold the Maginot line against invading Germans. She returns to tending her small farm, Le Jardin, in the Loire Valley, teaching at the local school and coping with daughter Sophie’s adolescent rebellion. Soon, that world is upended: The Germans march into Paris and refugees flee south, overrunning Viann’s land. Her long-estranged younger sister, Isabelle, who has been kicked out of multiple convent schools, is sent to Le Jardin by Julien, their father in Paris, a drunken, decidedly unpaternal Great War veteran. As the depredations increase in the occupied zone—food rationing, systematic looting, and the billeting of a German officer, Capt. Beck, at Le Jardin—Isabelle’s outspokenness is a liability. She joins the Resistance, volunteering for dangerous duty: shepherding downed Allied airmen across the Pyrenees to Spain. Code-named the Nightingale, Isabelle will rescue many before she's captured. Meanwhile, Viann’s journey from passive to active resistance is less dramatic but no less wrenching. Hannah vividly demonstrates how the Nazis, through starvation, intimidation and barbarity both casual and calculated, demoralized the French, engineering a community collapse that enabled the deportations and deaths of more than 70,000 Jews. Hannah’s proven storytelling skills are ideally suited to depicting such cataclysmic events, but her tendency to sentimentalize undermines the gravitas of this tale.

Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2015

ISBN: 978-0-312-57722-3

Page Count: 448

Review Posted Online: Nov. 19, 2014

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014

HISTORICAL FICTION | FAMILY LIFE & FRIENDSHIP

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THE LAST LETTER

by Rebecca Yarros ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 26, 2019

A thoughtful and pensive tale with intelligent characters and a satisfying romance.

A promise to his best friend leads an Army serviceman to a family in need and a chance at true love in this novel.

Beckett Gentry is surprised when his Army buddy Ryan MacKenzie gives him a letter from Ryan’s sister, Ella. Abandoned by his mother, Beckett grew up in a series of foster homes. He is wary of attachments until he reads Ella’s letter. A single mother, Ella lives with her twins, Maisie and Colt, at Solitude, the resort she operates in Telluride, Colorado. They begin a correspondence, although Beckett can only identify himself by his call sign, Chaos. After Ryan’s death during a mission, Beckett travels to Telluride as his friend had requested. He bonds with the twins while falling deeply in love with Ella. Reluctant to reveal details of Ryan’s death and risk causing her pain, Beckett declines to disclose to Ella that he is Chaos. Maisie needs treatment for neuroblastoma, and Beckett formally adopts the twins as a sign of his commitment to support Ella and her children. He and Ella pursue a romance, but when an insurance investigator questions the adoption, Beckett is faced with revealing the truth about the letters and Ryan’s death, risking losing the family he loves. Yarros’ ( Wilder , 2016, etc.) novel is a deeply felt and emotionally nuanced contemporary romance bolstered by well-drawn characters and strong, confident storytelling. Beckett and Ella are sympathetic protagonists whose past experiences leave them cautious when it comes to love. Beckett never knew the security of a stable home life. Ella impulsively married her high school boyfriend, but the marriage ended when he discovered she was pregnant. The author is especially adept at developing the characters through subtle but significant details, like Beckett’s aversion to swearing. Beckett and Ella’s romance unfolds slowly in chapters that alternate between their first-person viewpoints. The letters they exchanged are pivotal to their connection, and almost every chapter opens with one. Yarros’ writing is crisp and sharp, with passages that are poetic without being florid. For example, in a letter to Beckett, Ella writes of motherhood: “But I’m not the center of their universe. I’m more like their gravity.” While the love story is the book’s focus, the subplot involving Maisie’s illness is equally well-developed, and the link between Beckett and the twins is heartfelt and sincere.

Pub Date: Feb. 26, 2019

ISBN: 978-1-64063-533-3

Page Count: 432

Publisher: Entangled: Amara

Review Posted Online: Jan. 2, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2019

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

GENERAL ROMANCE | ROMANCE | FAMILY LIFE & FRIENDSHIP | CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE

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Review: A Good Neighborhood by Therese Anne Fowler

Editorial note: I received a copy of A Good Neighborhood in exchange for a review.

A Good Neighborhood by Therese Anne Fowler is one of the most anticipated books of 2020. A very powerful book but it was also deeply unsettling.

Do you read books for pure escapism? Or do you want to learn something and have it be thought-provoking? I like both type of stories—ones that take you to another place but I also really enjoy the more grounded reads that cover real topics people deal with every day.

A Good Neighborhood is one I’ve been looking forward to it and knew it would be a fit for book clubs . The domestic stories tend to be good ones for discussions like Little Fires Everywhere and All We Ever Wanted . A Good Neighborhood definitely falls in line with those stories.

First, the synopsis:

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.

With little in common except a property line, these two families quickly find themselves at odds: first, over an historic oak tree in Valerie’s yard, and soon after, the blossoming romance between their two teenagers.

A Greek Tragedy

So I loved the writing style—the author Therese Anne Fowler tells it in such an interesting way. It’s a modern day Greek Tragedy and it’s told through the Greek chorus, or in this case it seems to be neighbors of the main characters. That writing style is equal parts familiar but also unique. And while no spoilers here, there are some intense events that happen that are hinted at but you just don’t know exactly what they’re warning you about until it happens.

The modern twist of the Greek Tragedy keeps the story fresh as it covers familiar themes: the effects of class, race and young love.

Race and class relations

You can tell the author put much thought and care in how she presented the story. She is upfront with the fact that she’s a white woman who wrote the perspectives of two African American characters. She also wrote the perspective of several Caucasian characters.

It also covers wealth, “new money,” and perceived power. Religion is a focus and how it can be used to manipulate and also provide a mask for ill actions.

But the heart of the story is an interracial relationship between two high schoolers. And while love isn’t blind, they fall for each other, in the way that high schoolers do, completely and without thinking about any potential consequences. And unfortunately, when it comes to their families—there’s a lot of conflict.

A good but hard story

So you can see there’s plenty going on and it’s all weaved together in an interesting way. When the story started, I could tell the story was going in the Greek Tragedy area, I almost put it down. Life is complicated with social distancing and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to dive into an upsetting read. However, the writing is SO good that I kept going.

But when I finished it, I felt deflated a bit. I’m not going to sugarcoat it, this is a hard story and the reason why is because it felt so realistic and that is the most heartbreaking thing of all. Maybe what’s happening in the world will allow us to reset but there’s a lot of injustice that is still happening in the world.

So here’s where I am—this is a very impactful read but it’s a hard one. If you want to read someone lighter, I would put A Good Neighborhood aside for another time. But I know some people can read or watch any subject at any time and if you’re in that category, give this one a try.

Check out my book club questions here .

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Submitting a book for review, write the editor, you are here:, a good neighborhood.

A tragedy has occurred in the lush, tight-knit town of Oak Knoll, North Carolina. Unlike a natural disaster or fateful brush with death, the tragedy at the heart of Therese Anne Fowler’s new novel is the divisive sort --- one that forces friends, families and neighbors to take sides, even when they do not want to do so. Weaving issues of class, race and womanhood with unforgettable characters and a setting as dangerous as it is inviting, Fowler asks readers to consider what it means to be a good neighbor, and how to live alongside those who may be different from you at a time when differences can be seen as flaws or even dangers. In A GOOD NEIGHBORHOOD, we see how a community can be ripped apart by its deepest secrets and fears.

Valerie Alston-Holt is a stalwart member of the Oak Knoll community. A hearty mix of ages, races and socioeconomic backgrounds, Oak Knoll may pride itself on being inclusive, color-blind and progressive, but as Fowler reveals, it is one thing to take pride in something and quite another to actually act on it. Still, with her dark skin and bright eyes, Valerie is a respected if sometimes laughed-about member of Oak Knoll. Her elderly and less progressive neighbors value her eye for botany as much as they tease her for not using animal products or paying extra for storage containers devoid of plastic. Adding to her appeal is her son, Xavier, a biracial teen who gets straight As, doesn’t mess around with girls and has a gift for classical music that feels nearly supernatural.

But the Alston-Holts have watched all season as the lot next to theirs has been deforested, demolished and topped with a giant, hi-tech house with a gorgeous stone patio and in-ground pool behind it. As the elderly residents of Oak Knoll have died off, gentrification has slithered in, and Valerie is heartbroken to see the ecology of her beloved and verdant town suffer. Enter the Whitmans.

"Meticulously developed and painfully moving, A GOOD NEIGHBORHOOD is the perfect book club book. It will leave you speechless, and yet you will find yourself desperate to bring it up, to allow yourself to linger on Fowler’s exquisite prose while pondering the depth of her themes."

Brad Whitman is a pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps kind of guy who knows how to get what he wants --- and rarely fails in achieving it. From his gorgeous, always-dressed-for-yoga wife, Julia, to his angelic stepdaughter Juniper and his bright and peppy daughter Lily, Brad really seems to have it all. His arrival in Oak Knoll is somewhat of a highlight; he runs his own HVAC company, and there isn’t a person in town who hasn’t seen his commercials, the ones that make each and every viewer feel like Brad’s favorite customer. As pure and wholesome as he seems on TV, the citizens of Oak Knoll are eager to see him and his family up close. What are they really like? they wonder.

As much as they represent two very different backgrounds, tax brackets and, quite literally, sides of the fence, it is not Valerie and Brad who are the stars of A GOOD NEIGHBORHOOD, but rather Xavier and Juniper. From their first meeting at the side of the Whitmans’ pool, the two seem fated for one another in the way that only high school romances can feel. Their attraction is immediate, yet familiar, and though Juniper is known for her commitment to purity --- yes, she even went through with a public ceremony dedicating her virginity to God and, in God’s absence, Brad --- the two strike up a careful friendship that quickly turns into something more, a puppy love backed by real, all-consuming, star-crossed love.

Beyond the obvious disadvantages to Xavier and Juniper’s pairing --- Xavier is black (half-white, but we all know what people see first), and Juniper is white; Xavier is a scholarship student, and Juniper is the daughter of a millionaire --- a historic tree in Valerie and Xavier’s backyard soon thrusts itself between them as well. Valerie, who has deep, emotional ties to the tree, has been watching it closely since construction began on the Whitmans’ property. Because the builder did not disclose its existence, he was able to secure permits that are beginning to kill it. Valerie responds by consulting a lawyer. When she finds out that her lawyer is willing to take on Brad, the builder and even the town to stand up for what is right, she grows starry-eyed with the possibilities. Her intentions are pure, but as the residents of Oak Knoll are eager to tell you, intentions are only half of the story.

With the two families at odds, and their Romeo and Juliet-inspired teens raising the tension, deep-seated secrets and fears among not only the neighbors but also the neighborhood begin to rear their ugly faces. Fowler employs the “we” of the neighborhood to tell the story of what follows, explaining how easily sides are created, destroyed, rebuilt and bolstered as neighbors team up with, deceive and ultimately betray one another in a battle that, while initially centered on a tree, becomes symbolic of so much more. The tree in and of itself is obviously a metaphor for life, particularly the quiet wholesome life people lead in Oak Knoll, but in Fowler’s careful hands it becomes so much more --- a beacon of memory, a statement of pride, and an unwavering faith in the goodness of others and the necessity for community.

What is most impressive about A GOOD NEIGHBORHOOD is the sheer amount of research and sensitivity Fowler has taken on to carefully and properly develop her black and biracial characters. She writes microaggressions so carefully you just might miss them --- unless you already have begun picking up on them in real life --- and her portrayal of the prejudices and assumptions Valerie and Xavier face on a day-to-day basis is so precise and detailed that it is sure to open eyes and start some very necessary conversations. But at the same time, Fowler is careful not to turn them into caricatures or tropes --- a near-impossible balance to strike and yet one that she does with such grace that it seems nearly easy (an illusion, of course, but one beautifully maintained).

Meticulously developed and painfully moving, A GOOD NEIGHBORHOOD is the perfect book club book. It will leave you speechless, and yet you will find yourself desperate to bring it up, to allow yourself to linger on Fowler’s exquisite prose while pondering the depth of her themes. Although it begins with the knowledge that tragedy is afoot, it is so carefully plotted and unfolded that you will still find yourself shocked by its inevitable end and, more so, that one person could have created a fictional community so full of life, love, fear and hate. Fowler is at the height of her powers here, and she just might ruin you for anyone else.

Reviewed by Rebecca Munro on March 13, 2020

A Good Neighborhood by Therese Anne Fowler

Publication Date: March 2, 2021
Genres: Fiction
Paperback: 336 pages
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
ISBN-10: 1250237297
ISBN-13: 9781250237293

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BookBrowse Reviews A Good Neighborhood by Therese Anne Fowler

A Good Neighborhood

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First Published:
Feb 4, 2020, 320 pages
Mar 2021, 384 pages

Literary Fiction
N & S Carolina
Contemporary
Parenting & Families
Nature & Environment
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In Therese Anne Fowler's sixth novel, issues of race and privilege undermine a teen romance and lead to tragedy in a North Carolina neighborhood.

After fictionalized biographies of Zelda Fitzgerald ( Z , 2013) and Alva Vanderbilt ( A Well-Behaved Woman , 2018), Therese Anne Fowler has returned to the kind of contemporary setting that characterized her first three novels. A Good Neighborhood is an up-to-the-minute story packed with complex issues including celebrity culture, casual racism, sexual exploitation and environmental degradation. If you loved Tayari Jones's An American Marriage , this needs to be next on your to-read list. North Carolina's Oak Knoll community is home to people of a variety of ages, races and backgrounds. It appears to be an idyllic neighborhood: Everyone knows everyone else, and the women get together once a month for book club at Valerie Alston-Holt's house. Valerie, an African American ecology professor, is a single mother to 18-year-old Xavier. Her husband Tom, a white sociology professor, died when Xavier was a baby. With the help of a partial scholarship, Xavier will be off to San Francisco in the fall to study classical guitar. Even before they moved in, Valerie was predisposed to dislike her new neighbors, the Whitmans. They had the woods behind her property clear-cut to build an ostentatious house and swimming pool. Brad Whitman, an HVAC entrepreneur, has become a minor celebrity through his TV commercials, and it seems like he's showing off the $2 million he earned from the gadget he invented. Though turned off by this nouveau riche display and irked by Brad's initial assumption that the mixed-race Xavier was a lawn maintenance worker, Valerie is more distressed by the Whitmans' disregard for the local ecosystem. All told, she's far from thrilled when Xavier starts to show interest in Brad's stepdaughter, 17-year-old Juniper. The families' dealings soon become even more problematic, and it all starts with a tree. Valerie notices that the venerable oak on her property—so old that a freed slave is buried under it—is dying. She's sure that digging the foundations for the Whitmans' house and pool disturbed the tree's root system. An environmental lawyer (see Beyond the Book ) takes on her case and sues for the safe removal of the tree, the restoration of the landscape and emotional damages: $400,000 from the builder plus a cool $100,000 from the Whitmans. It's just a tree, right? There may be hard feelings over the lawsuit, but surely all will quiet down and go back to normal? And what harm could Xavier and Juniper's Romeo and Juliet-style sneaking around do? The novel's unhurried willingness to delve into backstories might lull readers into a sense of safety, but there's no mistaking the foreshadowing. The first page mentions a funeral, and early on this story is branded a "slow tragedy." In fact, the novel is narrated in a first-person plural voice, much like the Greek chorus of a classical tragedy. The neighborhood as a whole ("We, with our collective wisdom but imperfect knowledge") reflects on how things went from bad to worse within a few months. This narrative choice is highly effective because the neighbors, like readers, only gradually piece together what happens over this tumultuous summer. Gossip becomes theory becomes fact. There are also clear factions within the book's "us" that take different sides in the conflict, which creates a sense of varying viewpoints—an acknowledgment that, even when presented with the same scenario, we all interpret things differently. Fowler is careful to give each character, even the potentially repugnant ones, a history that helps to account for the decisions they make. For instance, Brad's wife, Julia, grew up in a trailer and helped her mother on cleaning jobs. One of their employers molested Julia when she was a girl. The poverty of her upbringing explains why she's clung to Brad for financial security, while her experience of sexual abuse led her to push Juniper into making a purity pledge as a young teenager. This question of purity—both sexual and racial—becomes a central one, joining consent and privilege as a major, timely theme. A Good Neighborhood makes for a compelling, though ultimately sobering, read. A feeling of dread only intensifies as you approach its last few chapters. Fowler may not be subtle with her message, but everything that happens is realistic in the context of recent American history, and she's right to imply that the post-racial society we might like to think we live in is still mostly a myth. This is a book that will make you think, and a book that will make you angry. I recommend it to socially engaged readers and book clubs alike.

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Book details

A Good Neighborhood

Author: Therese Anne Fowler

Amazon.com Best Books of the Year
NPR Best Book of the Year

1 An upscale new house in a simple old neighborhood. A girl on a chaise beside a swimming pool, who wants to be left alone. We begin our story here, in the minutes before the small event that will change everything. A Sunday afternoon in May when our neighborhood is still maintaining its tenuous peace, a loose balance between old and new, us and them. Later this summer when the funeral takes place, the media will speculate boldly about who’s to blame. They’ll challenge attendees to say on-camera whose side they’re on. For the record: we never wanted to take sides. * * * Juniper Whitman, the poolside girl, was seventeen. A difficult age, no question, even if you have everything going for you—which it seemed to us she did. It’s trite to say appearances can be deceiving, so we won’t say that. We’ll say no one can be known by only what’s visible. We’ll say most of us hide what troubles and confuses us, displaying instead the facets we hope others will approve of, the parts we hope others will like. Juniper was hiding something, and she didn’t know whether to be ashamed or angry or just exactly what. This new home’s yard was much smaller than Juniper’s old one—not even a third of an acre, when before she’d had three. Where was she supposed to go when she needed to get away but wasn’t allowed to leave? There was hardly any space here that was not taken up by the house and the pool, and what space there was had no cover. There was no privacy at all. At her previous address, Juniper had liked to sit among the tall longleaf pines at the back of the property, far enough from the house that she felt like she could breathe and think. She liked to be amid the biota, as the scientists call it. It made her feel better. Always had. But the builder of this big, gleaming white house had cleared the lot of the stately hardwoods that shaded the little house that had been here, the house that had been demolished without ceremony and removed like so much storm or earthquake debris. Except there had been no storm, no earthquake. There was just this desirable neighborhood in the middle of a desirable North Carolina city, and buyers with ready money to spend. Just that, and now this great big house with its small but expensive naked yard and its pool and its chaise and its girl and her book. Juniper thought the rustling noises she heard in the yard behind hers, a yard that still contained a small forest of dogwood, hickory, pecan, chestnut, pine, and a tremendous oak that had been there for longer than anyone in the neighborhood had been alive, came from squirrels. She wasn’t fond of squirrels. They were cute, sure, but you couldn’t trust them not to run straight under the wheels of your car when they saw you coming. And they were forever getting into people’s bird feeders and stealing all the seed. Juniper had a novel in her lap and steered her attention back to that. The story was good, and she’d become skillful at escaping into stories. “Hey,” said a voice that was not a squirrel’s. Juniper looked up, saw a teenage boy standing at the edge of her backyard with a rake in one hand, the other hand raised in greeting. He said, “You must be our new neighbor. I’m about to clear out some leaves and saw you there, so, you know, I figured I’d say hey.” His appearance was a surprise in two ways. Juniper hadn’t known anyone was nearby, so there was that. But even if she had suspected there was a person, a boy, a teen like herself, she would have expected him to look like her—that is, white. Everyone in her old neighborhood was white. Instead, he was black, she was pretty sure. Light-skinned, with corkscrew hair the darkest possible shade of gold. “Hey,” she said. “Yeah. We moved in yesterday—my little sister and my parents and me.” “You all from out of town?” “No, just farther out in this town.” He smiled. “Cool. Well, I didn’t mean to bother you. Just, you know, welcome.” “No bother. Thanks.” If this had been the extent of it, if they’d been able to greet each other and then leave it at that—well, everything would have been a lot simpler for everyone. To say the least. 2 North Carolina has a temperate climate. That’s a big part of its draw. Winter is mild. Spring arrives early. Yes, summers are hot, but fall brings relief and lasts a long time. The oaks keep their leaves well into December, and sometimes, when winter is especially gentle, some of the varieties—the live oak being one, with its slim, feather-shaped, delicate-seeming leaves—stay leafed throughout winter as well. The boy who greeted Juniper that first day, Xavier Alston-Holt, knew a lot about trees. They weren’t a special interest of his; he was far more interested in music, and in particular, music made using acoustic guitars. Guitars, though, are made from wood, so when his mother talked to him in endless detail about various trees, their habitats, their residents, their qualities, their vulnerabilities (greedy homebuilders topping that list), he mostly paid attention. When his mother stood in their backyard taking video and crying the day the lot behind theirs was cleared, the day men with chainsaws and grinders started at dawn and continued until dusk and his ears rang for the rest of the night, he stayed there in the yard with his arm around her shoulders because that was what he could do for her. She’d done so much for him. And so Xavier was not surprised, nor were any of us, that his mother was not eager to meet the new neighbors who’d bought the freshly built house behind theirs. Valerie Alston-Holt was not sure how to be friendly with the kind of people who would put up the money to tear down the old house and cut down the trees. All of the trees. “People like that,” she’d said more than once—for this kind of thing was happening throughout Oak Knoll now in varying degrees—“people like that have no conscience. It’s like they’re raping the landscape. Murdering it. Trees are life. Not just my life,” she would add, since her fields were forestry and ecology, “but life, period. They literally make oxygen. We need to keep at least seven trees for every human on the planet, or else people are going to start suffocating. Think of that.” Xavier walked around to the wooded front yard where his mother was clipping peonies for display on a sick neighbor’s bedside table. The plant beds around their modest brick ranch, a house that had been built in 1952 and had hardly been updated since, were Valerie’s favorite things, second only to her son, and one tree, the massive old eighty-foot oak that dominated their backyard. You might not think a tree could mean so much to a person. This tree, though, was more than a magnificent piece of arboreal history; for Valerie Alston-Holt, it was a witness and companion. Its wide trunk was the first thing she noticed each time she looked out the windows into the backyard. It recalled to her many moments from the years they’d lived here, not the least of which was the summer night she had stood and pressed her forehead against its nubby gray-brown bark and cried while Xavier slept in his crib, the boy too young to know that God had just robbed them blind. Six varieties of irises. Peonies in four different colors. Azalea, phlox, snowdrop, camellia, rhododendron, clematis, honeysuckle, jasmine—you name the plant, if it grew in this state, Valerie Holt had installed it somewhere on their plot. Tending her plants was her therapy, she liked to say, her way of shutting out the stresses that came with teaching undergraduates at the university—or more often, the stresses that came from dealing with the department head or the dean. The kids were actually pretty great. Curious. Smart. Political in ways she approved of—useful ways, ways that helped protect natural habitats, or tried to, anyway, and that was worth a lot. Young people were going to save the world from itself, and she was going to encourage them in every way she could. Now Xavier said to her, “The time has come.” “What time is that? Are you going somewhere?” She laid the flowers and clippers in her basket and then stood upright. “I thought you were going to clear out those dead leaves for me.” “I am. We have new neighbors.” “Oh, that. I know. It was inevitable. Like death,” Valerie added with a rueful smile. Xavier said, “I met one of them just now. She says it’s her and one sister and their parents.” “Only four people in that huge house?” Xavier shrugged. “Guess so.” “How old?” “The girl? My age, I think, give or take. And a little sister, she said. I didn’t ask about her.” His mother nodded. “Okay. Thanks for the intel.” “Do you want me to find you if the parents come outside?” “No. Yes. Of course. I am going to be a good neighbor.” “You always are.” “Thanks, Zay.” “Just telling it like it is.” “That’s what we have to do, as much as we can.” Xavier returned to the backyard and got to work raking the leaves from an area where his mother intended to put a koi pond. With him going off to the San Francisco Conservatory of Music for school in the fall, she’d said she needed new beings to keep her occupied so that she didn’t call him every day to make sure he could survive on the opposite side of the country without her. He knew she was joking; she wouldn’t call daily regardless. She’d want to, but she wouldn’t. He understood. They’d been a pretty exclusive duo for a long time. He’d said, “Make the pond, and maybe date someone local .” “Oh, look who’s talking about dating.” He gave her that crooked smile of his that had made him so popular with all the older ladies here in Oak Knoll, as well as with, we were sure, the girls at his school. He said, “I’m too busy to have a girlfriend.” “Too picky, it seems to me.” “I know you are, but what am I?” he said. The fact is, Xavier was both picky and busy—but mostly picky. He hadn’t met anyone who made him feel like he ought to change any of his priorities. He had plenty of female friends and, among them, girls who would have dated him if he’d pursued their interest. He hadn’t pursued it, though, because he knew himself well enough to understand he was an all-or-nothing kind of guy. Always had been. He’d hooked up with a couple of girls in the past year mainly due to lust and opportunity, but a relationship was not workable for him right now. His music was his love. Now he glanced at the poolside girl, the new neighbor, the girl he’d sort of met. What’s her name? he thought. Why do you care? he also thought. Just do your work. Xavier had been six years old when he first strummed a guitar, at a birthday party for the daughter of one of his mom’s colleagues. Several of the adults had brought instruments—guitars, mandolins, bongos, a harmonica—and after the cake and presents, everyone gathered on the uneven brick patio in plastic lawn chairs to play and sing. First it was Raffi songs, for the kids, then a lot of Neil Young and the Beatles and some James Taylor. Xavier thought the music was fine, but it was one particular guitar that snagged his curiosity. He liked the look of it, and its clear, bright tone. He’d asked its owner, a history professor named Sean, if he could try it. Sean sat him down and put the guitar on Xavier’s lap. The instrument was huge in comparison to the boy’s skinny little self. Xavier held the neck and reached over the top and strummed, and that was it, he was gone. A week later he took his first lesson. By ten, he was fixed on classical music exclusively; of all the genres, classical was the one that made him feel beauty, and he needed that feeling to help him get through all the emotional noise in his world. Then early this year, now eighteen years old, he’d auditioned for a coveted spot at SFCM and got it. Xavier raked the leaves into a pile and began stuffing them into the biodegradable bags Valerie bought from a shop where every item cost four times as much as its cheaper but usually toxic (in one way or another) alternative. Most of their cleaning, bathing, storage, and clothing products came from there. Between this expense and the gardening and Xavier’s music lessons, it was little wonder there wasn’t much money for updating the house, had Valerie been inclined to bother. We made fun of her sometimes—the way we did with our friend who’d gone so far with the Paleo Diet that he wouldn’t even eat food made with grains unless that grain had been milled by hand with a stone. Valerie took our ribbing in the spirit with which it was given: affection, since we couldn’t help but love a woman as caring as she was, and respect the way she stuck to her guns. The new neighbor was still on the chaise by the glittering blue in-ground pool, still reading. Xavier liked the sight (of the girl, mainly, though the pool looked really nice). Though he hadn’t yet had a chance to study her features, his initial impression was favorable. White girl. Really long brown hair. Pretty face. Plaid shirt tied at the waist, sleeves rolled up. Cutoff denim shorts. No shoes. Dark toenail polish—green, maybe? He kept an eye on her as he worked, and had the odd but pleasing sense that she stayed deliberately aware of him as she read. “Sunscreen, Juniper,” a woman’s voice said. Xavier looked up from his work to see a woman coming outside through tall French doors to the covered porch, a bottle of sunscreen in hand. Juniper. The woman’s hair was blond and long, but not as long as Juniper’s. She wore it in a high ponytail above gold hoop earrings, which did not, in Xavier’s opinion, go with the tight fitness tank top and shorts and tennis shoes, all of it in trendy patterns and colors that, if he had known about fitness fashion, he’d have recognized came from Ultracor’s spring collection. She looked like a catalogue ad. Watching the woman, Xavier thought well-kept, the term he’d heard some of the women use when his mother had her friends over for book club. While they always did eventually get around to discussing the book, whatever it might be, first they had the “graze and gossip” part of the evening. Lately that term, well-kept, was in the gossip part of the evening a lot, in correspondence with the increasing number of high-end houses being built nearby. The women tried to make it simply an observation, but Xavier could tell that it was a judgment, too. These women were all professionals: some were teachers or professors, like his mother; some were in public health or social work or ran a small business. None of them were kept. Xavier liked to hang out with them, not to gossip (their business was their business) but to avail himself of the appetizers and salads they brought. They brought wine, too. Plenty of wine. He was eighteen now, old enough to die for his country and therefore old enough to have a glass of wine with his hummus and olives, his chèvre-stuffed figs, his lentil-arugula salad, et cetera, that’s what they all liked to say. Xavier wasn’t much for wine, but he would never say no to the so-called crack dip, a hot cream cheese, Ro-Tel, spicy crumbled sausage extravaganza, as far as he was concerned. He planned to buy a Crock-Pot for his dorm room so that he could make the dip himself and basically live on the stuff. “ Juniper, ” the well-kept woman said again, this time with annoyance. “Juniper,” Xavier said to himself softly, trying it out. Then he thought, Idiot. You got no time for this. “Seriously, Mom?” said Juniper. “On your face? Absolutely. Arms and legs, too. You have to take care of your skin now, or you’ll end up spending way too much money treating sun damage later. Do you want to end up looking like Grandma Lottie? I wish I’d had a mom as smart as I am.” “If you do say so yourself,” said Juniper, taking the sunscreen. “By the way, do not tell Grandma I said that.” Next came a shirtless man with a golf tan, wearing coral-colored flowered shorts below the protruding belly common to so many middle-aged men. He left the tall door open behind him. “Is this the life or what?” he said. He carried a bottle of beer in one hand and a pitcher of something pink in the other. Setting the pitcher on a teak dining table, he added, “Who’s ready for a swim?” “I am!” said a little girl, skipping outside behind him. The woman said, “Are you sure the water’s warm enough? They just filled it yesterday.” The little girl, maybe seven years old, fuchsia bikini, big yellow sunglasses, put her hands on her hips and answered, “Mommy, are you a man or a mouse?” Xavier, realizing that he was staring, finished stuffing a bag and then put down his rake and turned to go find his mother. Might as well get the introductions over with. Before he got more than a few steps, though, the man called to him. “Hey there, son.” Xavier turned around. The man was waving and walking toward him. “Listen,” he said, coming into the yard, “I’m wondering if I might hire you to do some work for me when you’re done here. We just moved in and I’ve got boxes to haul out and break down, some furniture to move around—my wife, she couldn’t make up her mind with the movers, so…” He chuckled. “Fifty bucks sound fair? I don’t need you for but an hour or so—pretty good pay, right?” “Oh, I … That is, I’m just helping out my mom.” Xavier pointed toward the house. “I’m Xavier Alston-Holt. Most people call me Zay,” he said, extending his hand. “Ah,” the man said, and shook Xavier’s hand. “Brad Whitman, Whitman HVAC. You’ve probably seen my commercials, right?” “Maybe?” Xavier said. “We don’t have TV.” “I’m on the internet, and radio, too.” “Okay, sure.” Brad Whitman leaned in and tapped Xavier’s shoulder with his fist, saying, “Heh, I thought you were hired by the old lady who lives here.” Xavier smiled politely. “I don’t think my mom would appreciate being called ‘the old lady.’” “No, right? What woman would?” “She’s only forty-eight.” “That so? Guess my Realtor got it wrong,” Brad Whitman said. “But there are lots of old ladies in the neighborhood, isn’t that a fact?” Xavier nodded. “And some old men. Everything, really.” “Sure,” Brad said. “That’s what we want, right?” Xavier nodded. “So, I was just about to get my mom. She wants to say hello.” “Sure, good. Bring her over.” Brad pointed toward his house. “Julia just made some pink lemonade. The girls love it. I’ll offer you a beer if you’ve got ID saying you’re twenty-one.” “Not yet, but thanks. Be right back.” Xavier was almost to the house when Brad Whitman called, “Bring your dad, too, if he’s home. I’ve got a cold one for him, at least.” Xavier raised his hand to acknowledge he’d heard. Bring his father? He wished he could. He had always wished he could. Copyright © 2020 by Therese Anne Fowler.

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INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * One of NPR's Best Books of 2020 "A provocative, absorbing read." — People “A feast of a read... I finished A Good Neighborhood in a single sitting. Yes, it’s that good.” —Jodi Picoult, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Small Great Things and A Spark of Light 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. With little in common except a property line, these two families quickly find themselves at odds: first, over an historic oak tree in Valerie's yard, and soon after, the blossoming romance between their two teenagers. A Good Neighborhood asks big questions about life in America today—what does it mean to be a good neighbor? How do we live alongside each other when we don't see eye to eye?—as it explores the effects of class, race, and heartrending love in a story that’s as provocative as it is powerful.

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Praise for Therese Anne Fowler: "A provocative, absorbing read." — People “ Thought-provoking and fast-paced ” —Good Morning America "A story of race, class, region and, yes, tragic love... the result is Shakespearean. " —NPR " Riveting...Fowler empathetically conjures nuanced characters we won't soon forget, expertly weaves together their stories, and imbues the plot with a sense of inevitability and urgency. In the end, she offers an opportunity for catharsis as well as a heartfelt, hopeful call to action.Traversing topics of love, race, and class, this emotionally complex novel speaks to—and may reverberate beyond—our troubled times." — Kirkus, on A Good Neighborhood ( starred review) “ Searing ...Fowler skillfully renders her characters and their experiences into an unforgettable, heartbreaking story .” — Library Journal ( starred review) " Fowler's fascinating plot is skillfully executed , delving into each character's complexities fully enough that their choices make perfect sense. This page-turner delivers a thoughtful exploration of prejudice, preconceived notions, and what it means to be innocent ." — Publishers Weekly " A rippling story for fans of suspenseful domestic dramas" — Booklist “It’s a timely story about what happens when we fail to consider how our actions affect others and the tragedy that can befall us if we can’t coexist with those whose values are different from our own." -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution "Fowler has crafted one of the most precise and timely novels of the year. The daughter of a local businessman starts dating the biracial son of a professor in a leafy North Carolina suburb, boiling toward an inevitable and wrenching conclusion ."— Newsweek " Fowler’s novel culminates with injustices that are painfully easy to imagine because they continue to be a part of our contemporary lived experience." — The Washington Post “ A readable saga nodding toward a bevy of social issues" — Entertainment Weekly "For fans of slow-burn mysteries that explore the tenuous, fragile nature of neighborhoods — think Big Little Lies or Little Fires Everywhere — this book is what you’ve been waiting for this year ." — BookBub “Therese Anne Fowler has..concocted a feast of a read: compelling, heartbreaking, and inevitable. I finished A Good Neighborhood in a single sitting. Yes, it’s that good.” —Jodi Picoult, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Small Great Things and A Spark of Light “Relentlessly paced, stylishly written, and perfectly timed, Therese Anne Fowler’s latest is a sharp, moving portrait of an American neighborhood on the brink of change. You’ll be thinking about A Good Neighborhood long after you've left it.”—Christina Baker Kline, New York Times bestselling author of Orphan Train "Compelling and captivating, A Good Neighborhood left me speechless yet wanting to discuss. This is a story that will stick with you for a long time." —Emily Giffin, #1 New York Times bestselling author of All We Ever Wanted "A provocative, timely page-turner about the crucial issues of our time. I gulped it down, and the stunning conclusion left me both heartbroken and hopeful.” —Meg Waite Clayton, New York Times bestselling author of The Last Train to London "A gripping modern morality tale ...Familiar elements - two families, two young lovers, a legal dispute - frame a story that feels both classic and inevitable. But Fowler makes the book her own with smart dialogue, compelling characters and a communal “we” narrator that implicates us all in the wrenching conclusion." —Tara Conklin, New York Times bestselling author of The Last Romantics " A Good Neighborhood is my favorite kind of novel — compelling, complicated, timely, and smart. With great humanity, Therese Anne Fowler imparts a full-hearted, unflinching indictment of a broken system and in so doing tells a story hard to put down and hard to forget." —Laurie Frankel, bestselling author of This is How it Always Is "Nothing short of mesmerizing." — Kirkus , on A Well-Behaved Woman (starred review) "Genius ....Fowler's exploration of the way powerful women are simultaneously devalued and rewarded resonates powerfully." — Publishers Weekly, on A Well-Behaved Woman (starred review)

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A Good Neighborhood by Therese Anne Fowler

Publication Date: March 2, 2021
Genres: Fiction
Paperback: 336 pages
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
ISBN-10: 1250237297
ISBN-13: 9781250237293
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A Good Neighborhood – Book Review

A Good Neighborhood by Therese Anne Fowler Published by: St. Martin’s Press Publish Date: 2020 Genre(s): Fiction, Contemporary Fiction HB&W Rating: 4 View on Goodreads Buy on Amazon : Barnes & Noble , Book Depository

It’s trite to say appearances can be deceiving, so we won’t say that. We’ll say no one can be known by only what’s visible. We’ll say most of us hide what troubles and confuses us, displaying instead the facets we hope others will approve of, the parts we hope others will like.

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 is headed to college in the fall, and after years of single parenting, Valerie is facing the prospect of an empty nest. All is well until the Whitmans move in next door?an apparently traditional family with new money, ambition, and a secretly troubled teenaged daughter.

Thanks to his thriving local business, Brad Whitman is something of a celebrity around town, and he’s made a small fortune on his customer service and charm, while his wife, Julia, escaped her trailer park upbringing for the security of marriage and homemaking. Their new house is more than she ever imagined for herself, and who wouldn’t want to live in Oak Knoll? With little in common except a property line, these two very different families quickly find themselves at odds: first, over an historic oak tree in Valerie’s yard, and soon after, the blossoming romance between their two teenagers.

Told from multiple points of view, A Good Neighborhood asks big questions about life in America today?What does it mean to be a good neighbor? How do we live alongside each other when we don’t see eye to eye??as it explores the effects of class, race, and heartrending star-crossed love in a story that’s as provocative as it is powerful.

Synopsis source: Goodreads

In her experience, some men–well-off white men in particular–were so accustomed to their authority and privelege that they perceived it as a right.

Wow. This book. Just, wow.

I was able to get my hands on an ARC of this book from a friend who’d won it on a Goodreads giveaway. When I saw her review and read the synopsis, I knew I would have to read it, and she so graciously allowed me to borrow it.

This book hit a little too close to home for me in some unexpected ways. The primary theme through the book centers on prejudice on the basis of race and, to some extent, gender. What I didn’t expect was that it would also focus on the undesired sexual attention of a man in a position of power over a girl/woman. It makes sense to the story, in that it further substantiates the sense of entitlement and the authority of this character, but I mention it in case this is a trigger for anyone, like it was for me. Reader beware.

This novel explores the disparity between whites and BIPOC, between socioeconomic classes, and, to a lesser extent, between the genders that is still so relevant today in the wake of the unjustified police brutality against people of color, the #metoo movement, and the power imbalance associated with these things, as well as the very real fear that exists for the victims in each of these scenarios. More specifically, it explores the entitlement and hubris of the wealthy white male in society today, a society which hasn’t come as far as we would have hoped by this point in time.

Those kinds of people are all about keeping their girls and their bloodlines ‘pure.’ Forty-fifty years ago his kind would Lynch you just for looking at her. Maybe they’re not stringing boys up anymore, but the attitudes haven’t gone away.

I don’t think I have ever noted so many passages and quotes in a story as I have in this one. To list them all here would be excessive and likely give away much of the story, but it goes to show just how well-written and thought-provoking this book is.

Why did the church treat sex like a commodity–like the only commodity and in fact the only thing of any real value young women had to offer their future mates? In all those youth group meetings she’d attended, never once did anyone assert that young men who had premarital sex cheapened themselves. Boys and men might get ‘confused’ by lust and its satisfaction, the kids were told. They might make some questionable choices in their confusion. Never, though, were they considered to be at risk of diminishing their value to future prospective spouses.

The author does such a great job of putting us into the characters’ heads, for better or worse as the case may be. It was a very astute portrayal of rich white male entitlement, and how a man might perceive others’ behavior in such a way that it justifies his own behaviors and intentions.

But it wasn’t as if he’d be forcing himself on her. She wanted him, too. He knew she was struggling with it, same as he was.

And as a woman, I found myself nodding along with some of the thoughts and feelings expressed by the female characters in this story, particularly when reflecting on whether or not something was their fault.

She wanted Brad to admire her. She didn’t want to provoke a sleeping wolf, didn’t even know that a wolf was there.

One other thing this book touches on is the complicit silence that enables the perpetuation of these injustices. Whether it is good ole boys cronyism or the ease with which we allow the people in power to control the narrative, not questioning, not speaking up is the fear we need to overcome if we are to put a stop to further injustices. We need to hold people in power accountable for their actions and teach our children to own up to their mistakes and learn from them. What we need to do is simple, but that doesn’t mean easy, and sadly, that is why it has gone on as long as it has.

It was so much easier to demonize the black boy.

If I had to pick at anything, it would be a slightly more uplifting ending, but NOT how you would think. The story, which is both tragic and heart-breaking, could not have ended any other way and still been effective. I just wish that the epilogue would have been developed a bit more. After the in-depth character analysis we had been given throughout the rest of the story, I felt a bit robbed with the epilogue.

All in all, the book, at just under 300 pages, is a quick read, but a heavy and very compelling one. It’s perfect for fans of Celeste Ng and Little Fires Everywhere. There is a lot of discussion that could be made around this book, making it an excellent choice for a book club pick as well.

A Good Neighborhood comes out February 4, 2020 and is available now for pre-order at all your favorite booksellers.

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“A Good Neighborhood” Was Inspired by Therese Anne Fowler’s Anxiety

C harlotte. Greensboro. Winston-Salem. Raleigh. North Carolina is full of cities where gentrification has forced communities of color out of their neighbhorhoods and into less desirable zip codes. After two bestselling historical novels about Zelda Fitzgerald and Alva Vanderbilt, Therese Anne Fowler ‘s new book, A Good Neighborhood , is set in the present day, where an affluent white family, the Whitmans, moves into a diverse neighborhood that’s immensely proud of its trees.

The Whitman family’s first move: tearing down the house — and the trees — on its new lot, which is potentially lethal to their neighbor Valerie’s cherished, ancient oak tree.

Fowler grew up in the Midwest, but moved to North Carolina in 1995 for BA in sociology and cultural anthropology and an MFA in creative writing from NC State University in Raleigh. I spoke with her via email about A Good Neighborhood, gentrification, and writing across differences like race.

You’ve said A Good Neighborhood is a response story. What specifically were you responding to when you started writing, and have your feelings toward it changed since?

The novel is a response to the way our country is backsliding in so many areas that I’d (foolishly) believed had been resolved by the civil rights and equal rights and environmental movements of the ‘60s and ‘70s.

Specifically, I was — and am — distressed by the newly overt racism and sexism that’s being exhibited and encouraged at the highest levels of government. I’m disgusted by phony religiosity, and the winner-take-all mentality of so many people. I’m horrified by the rollback of environmental regulations. (You see I feel strongly about all of this!)

These are hard times for people who value progressive causes and social justice.

Were you nervous about writing a novel set in the present day again, after the success of your last two historical novels? If so, why?

Your question is a good one. Few of us who write fiction full time can afford to ignore the business side of the publishing equation. Just the same, in order for me to pursue an idea all the way through from inspiration to finished novel, I have to be completely overtaken by it. This time, that idea was one with a present-day setting.

I was not especially nervous about pursuing it. Readers who enjoyed my last two novels aren’t a monolithic group who read historical exclusively. And I was comfortable with the fact that while it was possible I’d be disappointing a few hardcore historical readers, I’d also be gaining new readers who prefer contemporary stories. In the end, what readers want most is a good story, so my focus was (and will always be) to do my best to deliver that, whatever the setting.

Why set A Good Neighborhood in North Carolina? Was Oak Knoll inspired by any real-life neighborhoods?

The story arose from my anxiety about the oak tree in my own backyard. Its health had been compromised by the construction of a new house next door. That, however, is where the similarities end. The house next to mine was a spec house, not a pre-sale (as it is in the book), and Oak Knoll is not my neighborhood or any specific one; rather, it’s a composite of many North Carolina communities that are undergoing the kinds of social, economic, and racial alterations that come with gentrification.

But, interestingly, as I’ve been talking with booksellers and librarians who read the novel ahead of publication, I’ve heard accounts of how the same changes are happening in California and Texas and New York and Ohio and Georgia and — well, basically, all over the country. As specific as the story in A Good Neighborhood is, much about it is universal, too.

What do you enjoy about being a novelist in North Carolina, so far from the traditional publishing and literary epicenters like New York, Chicago, Minneapolis, etc? And alternatively, do you find anything challenging about it?

I’m amused by this question, because before I was published, it never occurred to me that authors did or should live any place in particular. I had no idea there was a literary “scene,” and now that I do know there’s such a thing, I’m glad to not live where I might feel I should try to be a part of it. My background is all wrong; I’d never fit in.

If there’s any challenge to not being a part of it (and I say this for many authors I know, not only for myself), it’s in gaining recognition and legitimacy from those who are — because they control most of the levers of publicity and review coverage for fiction.

Writing across differences remains a hot topic in 2020 thanks to American Dirt . When writing the character of Valerie, what steps did you take to ensure the novel avoided some of the highly publicized perils of writing across differences?

It has become fraught territory, for sure. And not without cause. So I tried hard to follow the advice and was mindful of the complaints I’d heard or read from people of color regarding the mistakes white authors have made in the past.

That meant ensuring that Valerie (who is African American) and Xavier (who is biracial) both were in every way as authentic as my white characters, which meant doing extensive research into the reported experiences of Black people in contemporary America — direct accounts, not summaries from research articles, say.

Also, I wrote about my own culture, versus attempting to represent a culture I hadn’t experienced at length. Valerie is a college-educated middle-aged middle-class professor and mother from a Midwestern background living in a suburban North Carolina neighborhood, and I am (or have been) all of those things, too — which is to say that she and I have more in common than we have differences.

The novelist’s job is always to imagine and represent “the other,” no matter the sex or age or ethnicity or race or nationality of the character. The trick is to do so genuinely.

I ensured that I was not creating some kind of white savior storyline, which is so rightfully offensive. It is possible, I suppose, that someone might say that a white author writing about Black trauma in the hope of affecting change is itself a white savior act.

But I think that view would be misguided. As journalist Renee Graham (who is Black) wrote in the Boston Globe not long ago, “it’s not up to Black people to cure white racism.” White people have to do that. This means there is no way to cure it if those who are white don’t compel others who are white to engage with the issues.

Finally, to ensure that my story was, in fact, authentic in its representations, I gave the finished draft to a sensitivity reader, who judged it carefully and said it was done well.

Is it too early to ask what’s next for you?

I’m at work on a new novel — also contemporary, but that’s all I want to say about it for now.

A Good Neighborhood By Therese Anne Fowler St. Martin’s Press Published March 10, 2020

Posted by: Adam Morgan

Adam Morgan is the founding editor of the Chicago Review of Books and the Southern Review of Books. His essays and criticism have appeared in The Paris Review, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Chicago magazine, and elsewhere.

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A Good Neighborhood

59 pages • 1 hour read

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1, Chapters 1-4

Part 1, Chapters 5-10

Part 1, Chapters 11-14

Part 1, Chapters 15-18

Part 2, Chapters 19-21

Part 2, Chapters 22-24

Part 2, Chapters 25-30

Part 2, Chapters 31-35

Part 3, Chapters 36-39

Part 3, Chapters 40-46

Part 3, Chapter 47-Epilogue

Character Analysis

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Summary and Study Guide

A Good Neighborhood , published in 2020, is a multi-genre novel written by Therese Ann Fowler. Fowler is best known for her 2013 novel, Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald , a famous historical fiction book that has been adapted for television. A Good Neighborhood strays from Fowler’s usual genre of biographical historical fiction, and she wrote the novel as a response to “the direction our country is moving” (319). The text serves as a call to action, and it is a piece of activism that speaks out against implicit and explicit racism , sexism, sexual assault, the sexualization of children, gentrification, environmental destruction, and several other ethical dilemmas.

This guide uses the Kindle version of A Good Neighborhood , published in 2020 by St. Martin’s Press.

Content Warning: The source material features depictions of sexual assault, sexual assault of children, the death of children, violence, and suicide. Additionally, the source material uses racist and sexist terms, and racist and/or sexist terms might appear in this guide in direct quotes of the source material.

Plot Summary

The Whitman family, consisting of Brad and Julia Whitman and their daughters, Juniper and Lily, moves into a recently constructed house in Oak Knoll, North Carolina. Brad previously purchased the property, had the existing house and all the lot’s trees torn down, and built a large new house with a pool and landscaped backyard. The disruption from the construction has damaged the roots of an old, 80-foot oak tree in a neighboring yard, which belongs to Valerie Alston-Holt and her 18-year-old son, Xavier. Xavier is first to meet the Whitman family, and he is instantly attracted to Juniper, who is 17. Valerie is conflicted because she does not like that she has prejudged Brad, but she cannot respect him because of his careless, entitled attitude. When the oak tree in Valerie’s yard continues to deteriorate, she starts the process of filing a lawsuit against Brad and his builder, both of whom she believes skirted regulations during the new house’s construction.

Juniper, Brad’s stepdaughter, took a purity pledge when she was 14 years old after the Whitmans joined the New Hope church. She has been taught to follow traditional gender roles, and her parents intend for her to marry and live as a housewife and mother.

Juniper, however, has lofty education and career goals and wants to pursue a field in the natural sciences. She applies and is hired at the local grocery store where Xavier works, and she asks Brad and Julia to loan her money to buy a car so she can drive to and from work. Brad is upset at first because he wants Juniper to work for his company, Whitman HVAC. They strike a deal, and Juniper agrees to work three days a week at Whitman HVAC; in return, he buys her a Land Rover so she can drive to work and to the park where she runs. Juniper and Xavier begin a secret relationship, and Juniper intends to talk to her mother about it until Brad is served with the lawsuit. The teenagers continue seeing each other, although Valerie warns Xavier to stay away from Juniper because of the lawsuit.

While Juniper secretly dates Xavier, Brad, who has had a sexual attraction to his stepdaughter for years, convinces himself that she has feelings for him. He thinks that Juniper’s shyness and discomfort around him are proof of her attraction, as well as proof that she is conforming to traditional gender roles.

Xavier and Juniper make plans to have sex. When the day arrives, they meet in the state park and spend time talking, hiking, eating, and drinking wine before having sex in a small cabin. Meanwhile, Brad finds Juniper’s missing phone at work, and he decides to track her car to find her. He uses the excuse that he is delivering the phone, but his plan is to find Juniper so he can have sex with her. He arrives at the state park and enters the cabin, where he finds Xavier and Juniper having sex. He threatens Xavier and throws him out, and Xavier drives away, stopping briefly to get dressed and to contemplate calling the police. He is multiracial and identifies as Black, and he feels that the police will not take his side, so he doesn’t bother.

Brad, upset that Xavier has taken what he perceived as belonging to him, takes pictures inside the cabin. Then, he calls the police and tells them Xavier raped Juniper. The police believe Brad because he is a respected and successful white man and because Juniper is underage and had taken a purity vow. Xavier is arrested and subjected to harsh treatment in jail before being released on bond.

Concerned about Xavier’s chances with a jury, his lawyer recommends that he plead guilty to a lower-level rape charge, but Xavier does not want to follow the advice because he is innocent. While out on bond, Xavier is attacked by a group of white men who had been hearing information about him on conservative media outlets. They hit Xavier in the hand with a pole while driving past, and Xavier’s hand is damaged to the point where he will not be able to follow his dreams of studying and performing classical guitar .

Brad’s lawyer calls Valerie’s lawyer with an offer that he will drop the charges against Xavier if Valerie drops the lawsuit over her oak tree. Brad, however, does not have the power to drop the charges. He tries to get his friend Tony, the district attorney, to drop the charges against Xavier, but Tony refuses. Juniper, meanwhile, has been taken to her paternal grandparents’ house, where she is being kept in the dark about the charges against Xavier. While her grandfather is getting dental work, she runs to the library in town, where she looks up Xavier on the internet and discovers he was charged with kidnapping and raping her. She calls Tony and explains that Xavier did not rape her, but Tony has his own agenda. Like others in Juniper’s life, Tony gaslights her and says that Xavier raped her and that she just doesn’t know any better. Juniper leaves on her own to get back to Oak Knoll and talk to Xavier.

Xavier buys a gun, and he waits outside of Brad’s office. He chooses not to kill Brad because he does not want to become a negative stereotype . Instead, he drives to the cabin where he had sex with Juniper. On the drive, he notices something sticking out from under his car’s hood, and he finds a note from Juniper that says she knows he is innocent and that she loves him. He gets to the cabin and records a message for his mother and leaves a haiku for Juniper. Then, he goes to the river, where he dies by suicide.

After Xavier’s death, Juniper tells her mother about Brad kissing her, and Julia leaves Brad. Juniper changes her college plans, and she decides to study sociology so she can make a difference by becoming a district attorney. Valerie leaves her home in Oak Knoll and moves to a farm with her boyfriend, Chris, where she plants 18 oak trees in honor of Xavier’s life. She wins the lawsuit against Brad, who was forced to sell his company and who went bankrupt after his divorce.

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AT WAR WITH OURSELVES: My Tour of Duty in the Trump White House , by H.R. McMaster

Recently on the campaign trail, Donald Trump has talked up his aggressive stance on China, positioning himself as a tough negotiator in a brutal trade war . But a new memoir by Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, one of Trump’s national security advisers, throws that narrative, and many other stories that Trump tells about his time in office, into stark relief.

As McMaster writes in “At War With Ourselves,” the president could sometimes be kept on the straight and narrow with a clever dose of reverse psychology (Xi Jinping wants you to say this, Xi Jinping wants you to say that). But just as often, McMaster shows Trump to have been an unpredictable waffler who undermined himself to the advantage of his competitors on the world stage.

In November 2017, President Trump visited China on the third leg of a 13-day trip around Asia. It was his “most consequential” destination, McMaster explains. As they flew to Beijing, he warned Trump that Xi would try to trick him into saying something that was good for China, but bad for the United States and its allies. “The C.C.P.’s favorite phrase, ‘win-win,’” he recalls telling his boss at one point, “actually meant that China won twice.”

Trump seemed to hear him, but in the Great Hall of the People, the president strayed from his talking points. He agreed with Xi that military exercises in South Korea were “provocative” and a “waste of money” and suggested that China might have a legitimate claim to Japan’s Senkaku Islands. McMaster, his stomach sinking, passed a note to Gen. John Kelly, the chief of staff: Xi “ate our lunch,” it read.

“At War With Ourselves” is intended to be a companion to “ Battlegrounds ,” McMaster’s 2020 assessment of U.S. foreign policy backsliding since the Cold War, but it works well as a stand-alone and serves as essential reading for anyone countenancing a potential second round of Trump as a global leader. The general shows how, despite his best efforts to help the president, the supposed master of the “art of the deal” was treated like a “chump” by a roster of the world’s top authoritarians.

Flattery and pomp from leaders like Xi, Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the Russian president Vladimir V. Putin seem to have been all that was required to get in Trump’s good graces. In 2018, McMaster found Trump in the Oval Office scrawling a cheerful note to Putin across a New York Post article reporting that the Russian president had denigrated the American political system but called Trump a good listener. Like a child with his Christmas wish list, the leader of the free world asked McMaster to send it to the Kremlin. It was especially bad timing: Evidence was coming to light that Putin had directed an assassination on British soil. McMaster did not forward the note, later explaining to an infuriated Trump that his letter would “reinforce the narrative that you are somehow in the Kremlin’s pocket.”

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A Good Neighborhood: A Novel Audio CD – Unabridged, March 10, 2020

“A feast of a read... I finished A Good Neighborhood in a single sitting. Yes, it’s that good.” ―Jodi Picoult, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Small Great Things and A Spark of Light 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―an apparently traditional family with new money and a secretly troubled teenaged daughter―raze the house and trees next door to build themselves a showplace. With little in common except a property line, these two very different families quickly find themselves at odds: first, over an historic oak tree in Valerie's yard, and soon after, the blossoming romance between their two teenagers. A Good Neighborhood asks big questions about life in America today―what does it mean to be a good neighbor? How do we live alongside each other when we don't see eye to eye?―as it explores the effects of class, race, and heartrending love in a story that’s as provocative as it is powerful. A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin's Press “While Faulkner’s story veers off into the traditional grotesquerie of Southern Gothic literature, Fowler’s culminates with injustices that are painfully easy to imagine because they continue to be a part of our contemporary lived experience.” ― Washington Post “A timely story about what happens when we fail to consider how our actions affect others and the tragedy that can befall us if we can’t coexist with those whose values are different from our own.” ― Atlanta Journal

Print length 11 pages
Language English
Publisher Macmillan Audio
Publication date March 10, 2020
Dimensions 5.09 x 1.06 x 5.95 inches
ISBN-10 1250260108
ISBN-13 978-1250260109
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Publisher ‏ : ‎ Macmillan Audio; Unabridged edition (March 10, 2020)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Audio CD ‏ : ‎ 11 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1250260108
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1250260109
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.09 x 1.06 x 5.95 inches
#18,752 in Books on CD
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COMMENTS

A Good Neighborhood by Therese Anne Fowler
Read 7,934 reviews from the world's largest community for readers. In Oak Knoll, a verdant, tight-knit North Carolina neighborhood, professor of forestry a…
A GOOD NEIGHBORHOOD
The neighborhood itself, which serves as the novel's narrator and chorus, tells us so. The story begins on "a Sunday afternoon in May when our neighborhood is still maintaining its tenuous peace, a loose balance between old and new, us and them ," we are informed in the book's opening paragraph.
When You Hate Your Neighbor, and Then Your Kids Start Dating
Therese Anne Fowler's new novel, "A Good Neighborhood," explores volatile issues of race and class in a Southern community.
Review: A Good Neighborhood by Therese Anne Fowler
A Good Neighborhood by Therese Anne Fowler is an impactful and unsettling novel about race, class and privilege.
A Good Neighborhood by Therese Anne Fowler: Summary and reviews
Reviews of A Good Neighborhood by Therese Anne Fowler, plus links to a book excerpt from A Good Neighborhood and author biography of Therese Anne Fowler.
A Godd Neighborhood, by Therese Anne Fowler book review
Therese Anne Fowler's new novel, "A Good Neighborhood," travels the same intersections as Faulkner's story, but in present-day North Carolina. It also begins with the mention of a funeral ...
A Good Neighborhood
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. With ...
Book review: 'A Good Neighborhood'
Book review: 'A Good Neighborhood'. 'When Miss Emily Grierson died, our whole town went to her funeral.". So begins William Faulkner's 1930 short story, 'A Rose for Miss Emily," a Southern ...
Review of A Good Neighborhood by Therese Anne Fowler
A Good Neighborhood: Review of A Good Neighborhood by Therese Anne Fowler, plus back-story and other interesting facts about the book.
A Good Neighborhood: A Novel
A Good Neighborhood: A Novel Hardcover - March 10, 2020 by Therese Anne Fowler (Author) 4.2 6,310 ratings Editors' pick Best Literature & Fiction See all formats and editions INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * One of NPR's Best Books of 2020 "A provocative, absorbing read." ― People "A feast of a read...
Amazon.com: Customer reviews: A Good Neighborhood: A Novel
Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for A Good Neighborhood: A Novel at Amazon.com. Read honest and unbiased product reviews from our users.
A Good Neighborhood
Yes, it's that good." —Jodi Picoult, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Small Great Things and A Spark of Light. 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.
A Good Neighborhood
A Good Neighborhood. by Therese Anne Fowler. Publication Date: March 2, 2021. Genres: Fiction. Paperback: 336 pages. Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin. ISBN-10: 1250237297. ISBN-13: 9781250237293. A GOOD NEIGHBORHOOD asks big questions about life in America today as it explores the effects of class, race and heartrending love in a story that's ...
A Good Neighborhood by Therese Anne Fowler
A site dedicated to book lovers providing a forum to discover and share commentary about the books and authors they enjoy. Author interviews, book reviews and lively book commentary are found here. Content includes books from bestselling, midlist and debut authors.
A Good Neighborhood: A Novel|Paperback
About the Author. THERESE ANNE FOWLER is the New York Times bestselling author of A Good Neighborhood, A Well-Behaved Woman, and Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald. Raised in the Midwest, she migrated to North Carolina in 1995. She holds a B.A. in sociology/cultural anthropology and an MFA in creative writing from North Carolina State University.
A Good Neighbourhood: Fowler Therese Anne: 9781472269362: Amazon.com: Books
A Good Neighbourhood. Paperback - October 30, 2020. by Fowler Therese Anne (Author) 4.3 684 ratings. See all formats and editions. THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER. 'There's no doubting this novel's power' Daily Mail. 'A feast of a read: compelling, heartbreaking, and inevitable. I finished A Good Neighbourhood in a single sitting.
A Good Neighborhood
A Good Neighborhood - Book Review. December 30, 2019 / No Comments. A Good Neighborhood by Therese Anne Fowler. Published by: St. Martin's Press. Publish Date: 2020. Genre (s): Fiction, Contemporary Fiction. HB&W Rating: 4. View on Goodreads. Buy on Amazon: Barnes & Noble, Book Depository.
"A Good Neighborhood" Was Inspired by Therese Anne Fowler's Anxiety
After two bestselling historical novels about Zelda Fitzgerald and Alva Vanderbilt, Therese Anne Fowler 's new book, A Good Neighborhood, is set in the present day, where an affluent white family, the Whitmans, moves into a diverse neighborhood that's immensely proud of its trees. The Whitman family's first move: tearing down the house ...
A Good Neighborhood Summary and Study Guide
A Good Neighborhood, published in 2020, is a multi-genre novel written by Therese Ann Fowler. Fowler is best known for her 2013 novel, Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald, a famous historical fiction book that has been adapted for television. A Good Neighborhood strays from Fowler's usual genre of biographical historical fiction, and she wrote the ...
A Good Neighborhood : A Novel
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.
All Book Marks reviews for A Good Neighborhood by Therese Anne Fowler
Here, in this good neighborhood, it is not a tragedy that violence happens to black men, but rather, that it can happen to one of the good ones. If America is a house on fire, A Good Neighborhood is mostly concerned with exiting quietly, in a single-file line. Read Full Review >> Rave Melissa DeWild, Library Journal
A Good Neighborhood: A Novel Kindle Edition
A Good Neighborhood: A Novel - Kindle edition by Fowler, Therese Anne. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading A Good Neighborhood: A Novel.
Book Review: 'At War With Ourselves,' by H.R. McMaster
100 Best Books of the 21st Century: As voted on by 503 novelists, nonfiction writers, poets, critics and other book lovers — with a little help from the staff of The New York Times Book Review.
A Good Neighborhood: A Novel
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―an apparently traditional family with new money and a secretly troubled teenaged daughter―raze ...

A GOOD NEIGHBORHOOD

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Review: A Good Neighborhood by Therese Anne Fowler

First, the synopsis:

A Greek Tragedy

Race and class relations

A good but hard story

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A Good Neighborhood

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In Therese Anne Fowler's sixth novel, issues of race and privilege undermine a teen romance and lead to tragedy in a North Carolina neighborhood.

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