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Searching... McMinnville Public Library | West, D. | Searching... Unknown |
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Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
The tranquility of a late summer weekend in 1953 is shattered by a tragic accident in this spare, affecting novel by one of the last surviving members of the Harlem Renaissance. The Oval, the exclusive black enclave on Martha's Vineyard, prepares for the marriage of Shelby Coles, daughter of one of the community's most admired couples. Shelby's choice of white jazz musician Meade Wyler awakens dormant but unresolved racial issues in her family, which includes her physician father, enduring a loveless but socially proper union; her mother, confronting a dwindling pool of partners for her discreet affairs, and her great-grandmother, who dreams of escaping her ambivalence by returning to her aristocratic Southern roots. The arrival of black artisan Lute McNeil upsets the precarious equilibrium of the Oval when his aggressive pursuit of Shelby leads to disaster. Through the ancestral histories of the Coles family, West (The Living Is Easy) subtly reveals the ways in which color can burden and codify behavior. The author makes her points with a delicate hand, maneuvering with confidence and ease through a sometimes incendiary subject. Populated by appealing characters who wrestle with the nuances of race at every stage of their lives, West's first novel in 45 years is a triumph. BOMC and QPB featured selection. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Now in her 80s, West--founder of the Harlem Renaissance magazine Challenge and author of a novel and many short stories- -checks in with this pleasant if scattershot tale of the black bourgeoisie in a Martha's Vineyard community called the Oval. It is 1953, and Shelby Coles is preparing to marry a white jazz musician, and the Oval's inhabitants are dismayed that someone ``who could have had her pick of the best of breed in her own race'' would choose to marry outside of it. West then recounts the Coles family history, most of which is palatable but irrelevant. Once Shelby got lost, and, because of her light skin, the people who found her had trouble realizing that she was the child being sought. So one woman asked her point-blank whether she was ``colored,'' and Shelby responded, ``I don't know.'' Shelby's sister, Liz, has married a dark-skinned doctor and given birth to an equally dark daughter, who is spurned by their light-skinned grandmother. Shelby and Liz's father has had an ongoing affair with a woman for many years while keeping up appearances with his wife, but, about to turn 40, his mistress has decided to marry someone else. Another island-dweller, Lute McNeil, who has had three daughters with three different white women, has decided that he should be the one to marry Shelby, although his reasons are never clear beyond a vague desire to be a legitimate part of the Oval. These stories, full of interesting detail, work hard at interpreting racial politics, but they are all cause and no effect. When Shelby finally agrees to meet Lute the night before her wedding, there is little sense that it is a result of earlier being chewed out by her father for not having seriously considered black men as potential partners, and in turn the tragedy that follows seems random. Although written with the sure hand of a practiced short-story writer, this doesn't achieve the resonance of a deeply layered novel. (Book-of-the-Month/Quality Paperback Book clubs featured selections)
Booklist Review
Eighty-seven-year-old West was active in the Harlem Renaissance movement as a teenager. This, her first novel in 45 years, is set on Martha's Vineyard during the 1950s and focuses on the black bourgeois community known as the Oval. Dr. Clark Coles and his wife, Corinne, highly respected Ovalites, are preparing for the wedding of their youngest daughter, Shelby, who, much to their consternation, is marrying a white jazz musician. Lute McNeil, a compulsive womanizer who has recently made a fortune in the furniture business, is determined to stop Shelby's wedding; he is confident that he can convince Shelby to marry him, which would bring him the social acceptance he has always craved. More compelling than the main story are the subplots woven throughout, which echo and expand on West's themes about the restrictions of race and class. In particular, her portrait of Shelby's bitter great-grandmother is as memorable as it is disturbing. ~--Joanne Wilkinson
Library Journal Review
Like a jewel held to the light so that its facets may be viewed from all angles, this novel of life during the summers of the 1950s in a small, wealthy black enclave on Martha's Vineyard reveals the dimensions of generation, color, relationships, and love. The Coles are the hub of an elite community, the embodiment of achievement and stature whose forebears were preachers, teachers, and doctors who rose from slavery by determination and intellect. Yet as preparations for their youngest daughter's wedding unfold, cracks begin to form in the façade of this "perfect" family. Tensions build from many directions, ending in a single tragic event. This first novel from the last surviving member of the Harlem Renaissance, the daughter of a former slave, is a beautifully written and very moving story. West writes not only about race and differences but about the shades of emotion that ebb and flow over the life of a family. Highly recommended. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 9/1/94.]-Susan Clifford, Hughes Aircraft Co. Lib., Los Angeles (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.