As Stephanie Powell Watts' novel descends toward its hard earned conclusion, Ava observes 'The possibility of the past . . . is that it can be alive if you let it. All of it alive, not just the terror and the beauty, too.' The observation seems to directly address Gatsby's illusion that 'Of course you can (repeat the past).' The novel seems to address the Fitzgerald classic but not copy -- it is the American dream if that dream arises from the poorer communities between East and West Egg, and the people who were only glimpsed in haphazard drives to the city emerge with complex, if imperfect, lives. In some ways, the story opposes Gatsby by featuring characters surrounded by tragedy and rising out of it rather than having their dreams dashed by one climactic event.

Whereas the earlier novel addresses the American dream of a small, insular world, Watts expands the dream to those who come from less privileged circumstances who still dare to want to improve their lot. The realism saves the characters from being brittle when their bright shining light in the distance turns out to be tarnished or unobtainable.

Watts weaves characters who don't have the luxury of letting handlers clean up their messes. And yet the strength displayed in living with the consequences of their messes make each sympathetic. Perhaps what made the book most successful is the author's ability to look into the past at the same time the action is moving forward. Watts does not lay out the tragedies that haunt Sylvia, Ava, JJ, or Henry at the beginning - only showing that they are affected by those tragedies. When the events are finally revealed the result is a deepening of sympathy and hard-earned wisdom for the characters.
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This one really just didn't land for me. Right off the bat, the prose was really halting, and I had such a hard time easing into the book. This may've been by design and the fault mine, but nevertheless, it was just a really unpleasant read for me.

I've read snippets suggesting that the book is kin to The Great Gatsby, which I suppose I can see. For what it's worth, I didn't like that book either. ( )

Set in modern day North Carolina, Powell Watts tells the story of Ava and Sylvia, mother and daughter navigating family, change and the future. Ava’s lackluster marriage to underachiever Henry is falling apart as she makes what may be a final, desperate attempt to have a child. Then her first love moves back to town in a flashy mansion on a hill. Sylvia’s troubles are with the past and present, too, and with her troubled daughter. This is a moving, engrossing and character-driven story about family- the one you’re given and the one you choose, even when life doesn’t go as expected. It’s a lovely and honest look at being a woman, a wife and a mother and making peace with what is and what can be. ( )

This novel centers on an African-American family in a small town in North Carolina, and primarily on the aging Sylvia and her daughter Ava, who is dealing with infertility, a philandering husband, and the return to town of her childhood best friend/old flame after a long absence.

My feelings about this one are so mixed that it's actually kind of hard to articulate them. There is certainly quite a bit here to like. Sylvia is a good character, complex and interesting. Ava was less so to me, but there were times when Watts made me feel for her pretty effectively. And there are some genuinely insightful moments, about all kinds of things: family relationships and those between men and women, aging, regrets, class and race and sex, the human experience in general and that of black women in particular.

And yet, there was just something about the writing here that I struggled with, and I can't even entirely put my finger on what it is. Or rather, I can identify some of it: The way it sometimes randomly changes POV for a few sentences or a few pages (a style some people can pull off, but which usually just really irritates me, and mostly did here). The way it also sometimes slips into flashback without warning in a way that can be briefly confusing. The way the characters sometimes slip out of realistic-sounding dialog and start speaking more in Meaningful Abstractions.

Actually, now that I look at that list, maybe that's explanation enough. I don't know. What I do know is that for a while in the middle, I was absorbed enough in these people's lives to be reasonably happy with it, anyway, but by the end I was feeling impatient and a little unsatisfied. ( )

It isn't too often that I can't get through a book, but this is one that I gave up on. I found nothing compelling about the plot or characters. ( )