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Stephanie Powell Watts

Auteur van No One Is Coming to Save Us

2+ Werken 464 Leden 19 Besprekingen

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Fotografie: Author Stephanie Powell Watts at the 2017 Texas Book Festival. By Larry D. Moore, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=63927431

Werken van Stephanie Powell Watts

No One Is Coming to Save Us (2017) 396 exemplaren

Gerelateerde werken

The Best American Essays 2020 (2020) — Medewerker — 91 exemplaren
New Stories from the South 2007: The Year's Best (2007) — Medewerker — 55 exemplaren
New Stories from the South 2009: The Year's Best (2009) — Medewerker — 39 exemplaren

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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.
… (meer)
 
Gemarkeerd
DAGray08 | 17 andere besprekingen | Jan 1, 2024 |
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.
 
Gemarkeerd
dllh | 17 andere besprekingen | Jan 6, 2021 |
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.… (meer)
 
Gemarkeerd
bostonbibliophile | 17 andere besprekingen | Jun 26, 2020 |
The author's life really plays into all of her stories. I love that.
 
Gemarkeerd
amandanan | Jun 6, 2020 |

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Werken
2
Ook door
4
Leden
464
Populariteit
#53,001
Waardering
½ 3.7
Besprekingen
19
ISBNs
21

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