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The Good House
Tananarive Due
Atria Books / Trade Paperback
ISBN: 0743449002
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When Angela Marie
Toussaint, her husband Tariq, and son Corey return to her childhood home for
a "family reunion" and a Fourth of July BBQ, all seems right with the world
for a change. The reader is immediately clued into the fact that Angela and
her husband have been estranged for sometime and this disconnect has had an
effect on their son Corey. A seemingly sensitive child, Corey's erratic
behavior catches his mother off guard but not so much so that she believes
anything besides growing pains are affecting her son.
In fact, for Angela,
the world seems a little brighter when her high school boyfriend and first
love Myles pays her a surprise visit. His presence stimulates a wave of
emotion that briefly distracts her from her seemingly perfect reconnection
with her estranged husband. She quickly recalls the first time they made
love at The Spot and how no man, including her husband had ever been so
tender and loving towards her. She is filled with fond memories and silent
lust until a popping sound, which Angela initially thinks is the sound of
firecrackers, interrupts the festivities, shatters the family, and unleashes
a frantic search for answers.
The
novel relies heavily on the concept that things are not quite as they seem.
In fact, the title of the novel and the name of Angela's grandmother's home,
The Good House, are ironic given the home holds anything but good memories
for Angela. This point immediately sticks out when you learn of the tragic
death of Angela's own mother in the kitchen of the home some decades prior
to Corey's suicide there on July 4th. Angela's marriage is also a casualty
of the house, as the pair suffers an irreparable rift upon Corey's death
using a handgun Tariq supposedly sold at a pawnbroker sometime before the
incident. Later in the novel, you learn of her grandmother's loss of two
husbands, not to mention neighbors and friends who suffer once they've come
in contact with the house.
Constructed through a
series of flashbacks and present day account, the reader gets a glimpse into
the minds of the central characters before and after Corey's suicide.
In essence, the
reader is told the why of Corey's death and the murder of others, which
Angela so desperately looks for before finding out. This knowledge incites
the reader to want to save Angela from her fate. Much like patrons in a
horror movie theater, the reader is given a complete picture and wants to
yell out, "Don't go in there," or "Run, girl, get out of there," before
anything can happen to Angela. And, much like in the movie experience, the
reader must continue page after page, helpless to change Angela's actions.
One voice that rises
above all others in the novel, which echoes the sentiment of readers, is
Naomi Price’s. Naomi, a starlet on the rise and client of Angela's, is
silenced by the curse before she can convince Angela that the Good House is
not good at all. Suffering a fate of like that of Dorothy Strattan and
Rebecca Schaeffer, Naomi's star is halted at her peek and she will forever
be "beautiful for prosperity."
A cross between the
Exorcist and Eve's Bayou, the combination voodoo magic and possession will
keep viewers flipping the 480 pages until the very end to see how Angela can
rise from the curse of her ancestors. Although the house in this novel may
not truly be good, there is good character development, a good plot and a
good conclusion that add to the flow in The Good House.
MTamanika (Nika) C. Beamon
Currently, she is Writer/Producer for WABC-TV Eyewitness News in New York.
In June 2000, she published her first novel, Dark Recesses. In November
2002, she published her second novel, Eyewitness. |
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