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cgj13 's review for:
No One Is Coming to Save Us
by Stephanie Powell Watts
Meh.
Read more like a chronology of events and thoughts than a compelling novel. Not to say it wasn't interesting, but there wasn't a spark or a pull to make it feel like I was being drawn into the story.
Of course, it has been touted as an updated twist on The Great Gatsby, which I have never read (GASP!), so it might be just as it's supposed to be. And don't be fooled by the inside cover description. Well true, it isn't an accurate representation of the story within.
The story centers around Sylvia and Ava's lives, mother and daughter. Set in Pinewood, NC, where the furniture industry is quickly shuttering its doors and leaving all the shift workers in a poorer state than they were before. They live in the run down parts of town at the base of the hill where the rich white homeowners live, in sight of what they cannot have, and know they will never be able to even desire. Ava, being the next generation, has made her way into a pretty good career in banking, but is stuck in the traditions of marriage that were passed down to her from the generation before. Ava eventually breaks free from this way of living and "saves" herself. To move beyond history repeating itself, and writing her own story.
"But soon and in clearer moments she knew she had made her own choice not to lose him or at least not to lose all of her memories of him. She wanted the past where they lived and struggled and loved each other. A past couldn't and shouldn't be erased. The possibility of the past, if it is a good one, or even if it has good moments, is that it can be alive, if you let it. All of it alive, not just the terror, but the beauty too. And the young encompassing and smothering love she'd felt for her lovely man--all that alive too. Otherwise all those years, her years, her life had not meant a thing.
There is tons of truth in this story.
How you can love someone, even when they change and you change, even when they do things that hurt you.
How all the money in the world can not solve the loneliness in your soul.
How even though you have failed before, you get up and keep trying.
These three things are the biggest lessons I will take from this book.
Read more like a chronology of events and thoughts than a compelling novel. Not to say it wasn't interesting, but there wasn't a spark or a pull to make it feel like I was being drawn into the story.
Of course, it has been touted as an updated twist on The Great Gatsby, which I have never read (GASP!), so it might be just as it's supposed to be. And don't be fooled by the inside cover description. Well true, it isn't an accurate representation of the story within.
The story centers around Sylvia and Ava's lives, mother and daughter. Set in Pinewood, NC, where the furniture industry is quickly shuttering its doors and leaving all the shift workers in a poorer state than they were before. They live in the run down parts of town at the base of the hill where the rich white homeowners live, in sight of what they cannot have, and know they will never be able to even desire. Ava, being the next generation, has made her way into a pretty good career in banking, but is stuck in the traditions of marriage that were passed down to her from the generation before. Ava eventually breaks free from this way of living and "saves" herself. To move beyond history repeating itself, and writing her own story.
"But soon and in clearer moments she knew she had made her own choice not to lose him or at least not to lose all of her memories of him. She wanted the past where they lived and struggled and loved each other. A past couldn't and shouldn't be erased. The possibility of the past, if it is a good one, or even if it has good moments, is that it can be alive, if you let it. All of it alive, not just the terror, but the beauty too. And the young encompassing and smothering love she'd felt for her lovely man--all that alive too. Otherwise all those years, her years, her life had not meant a thing.
There is tons of truth in this story.
How you can love someone, even when they change and you change, even when they do things that hurt you.
How all the money in the world can not solve the loneliness in your soul.
How even though you have failed before, you get up and keep trying.
These three things are the biggest lessons I will take from this book.