Book Review: The Turner House by Angela Flournoy - Entrepreneur Generations

My grandparents immigrated to Detroit from Europe after World War II, and my dad and uncles were born and raised there, with many working in the auto industry (some still). When my dad was transferred to Detroit in 1986, our family lived there for nearly four years, so my important formative middle school years were spent going to Coney Islands and Tiger Stadium. Detroit runs through my veins and is even literally tattooed on my arm.

Unbelievably, however, I don't think I've ever read a great Detroit novel before. An Elmore Leonard book years ago that I enjoyed, but that is about it. With my love of Baltimore literature, this was something missing in my life that I didn't even know -- until I read The Turner House by Angela Flournoy.

Baltimore County Librarian and Dan Rodricks podcast book critic Paula Gallagher, who I'm lucky to call my friend, passed along a personally autographed copy of The Turner House back in April, when BCPL hosted Ms. Flournoy for their "BC Reads" series. I couldn't attend the series in the midst of baseball coaching season, but once the school year calmed down, I've been slowly making my way through the novel, savoring every page. I've been on the go this summer a lot, but my scant time to sit down and read did not hinder my enjoyment of it, which, despite jumping in time between the 1940s and 2008, and a huge cast of characters, was easy to fall back into.

The Turner House was a finalist for the National Book Award last year, and it is easy to see why: reading it, you feel like you are in the hands of a master. I often like the flourishes that young writers make in debut novels, but Flournoy is so mature and assured in her writing that it never felt a debut novel. Indeed, the novel it reminded me the most of was Song of Solomon: besides a poignant urination scene, Flournoy has some of Morrison's gift of moving between the past and present seamlessly, of meshing fantastical elements with realism, of ably focusing individually on a large cast of characters, of insightfully examining African American journeys from the south to the north.

But this is a thoroughly modern and unique novel, as well. Flournoy's novel examines the housing crash of 2007/2008, and, at least obliquely, critiques the segregationist real estate practices that lead cities like Detroit and Baltimore to be so segregated and unequal. The titular Turner House is located on the east side of Detroit, on the fictional Yarrow Street, which is right off Gratiot in the novel. The area is blighted, and, the matriarch of the family, Viola Turner, is 82 and ill, and cannot take care of the house she raised her 13 kids in anymore; her husband has died a few years back. Much of the conflict of the novel surrounds what should happen to the house, which is deteriorating as the neighborhood gets more and more sketchy; some of the thirteen Turner children remain in the Detroit area, while others are in different states, but they all have opinions about what to do with the house.

The protagonist is probably Charles, or "Cha-Cha," the oldest, who, at the age of 64, is having a crisis of sorts. But, then, so is the youngest, Lelah, and the second-youngest, Troy. And these are three siblings that get the most page time, and all vivid and authentically wounded characters, characters that you root for, sometimes want to grab and shake, and other times, just hug. Other siblings show up for just a line or two, while others, including wives and romantic partners and a psychiatrist, are well-dileanated even without much time devoted to them in the novel. We also get significant portions looking at the Turner parents, Frances and Viola, as they embark on their personal Great Migrations from Arkansas to Detroit in the 1940s.
Angela Flournoy
I loved Flournoy's unfussy narration of her characters thoughts, which feels specific and credible throughout: These are the thoughts of a character who asks for more pain pills from the doctor that I put a star by: "She was proud of speaking up for herself and claiming what little say-so she could about what happened to our body. For saying no more of this, but I do need more of that. The only drawback was the fog. When she felt the least amount of pain her thoughts became the most jumbled. Following a single through to its logical end was like trying to catch a fish with the bare hands. But when the drugs subsided, and the hurt hammered down, her mind was as clear as ever. Right now she could feel every part of herself. The pain had yanked her awake" (314).

And, as a Detroit fan, I thought Flournoy's use of details was especially accurate, from ordering pizzas from Buddy's (our family at there all the time!) to referring to the sugary carbonated drinks as "pop" to larger details, like how beautiful Southfield looked in the 1970s. There's even a brief section about "haints" being at the corner of Seneca and Medbury after two boys were killed at the intersection, and description of a shrine there, and I did a Google Map search and, sure enough, there's a little shrine at the corner there. Coincidence? Or Flournoy's research was that thorough? (She didn't grow up in Detroit, but her father is from there.)

"'They killed two boys on Seneca and Medbury and I don't wanna pass that corner. It's like there's haints over there now. It don't feel right.'.. "A couple days later I was driving to the store by myself and I took Seneca. Sure enough, right on the corner in front of the light pole somebody had set up one of those shrines..."
If I had to offer any critique, it's that the conclusion of the novel was quite moving to me, but I wanted just a little more resolution. I can't give away much more, but am definitely interested in talking about it with others, whether they found the ending to be satisfying or not. Maybe i just didn't want the book to end. It was certainly touching and thought-provoking, though, in that Flournoy's moving back and forth between time periods comes to full fruition with the first few pages.

Overall, this is one of best novels I've read in years, though, and I can't wait to see what Flournoy can comes up with next. 




from Epiphany in Baltimore http://ift.tt/2arTv6D Book Review: The Turner House by Angela Flournoy - Entrepreneur Generations

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