Knee-Deep in Wonder : A Novel

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Riveting!
Review: Absolutely Riveting!
In 1976 Helene returns home to Arkansas to bury her Aunt Annie B the woman who raised her. Longing for a mothers love and the answers to all those bits and pieces she overheard over the years about her family. Helene visits her mother Queen Ester (who always refused to see her) determined to find the truth she questions her mother. As Queen Ester opens up and the story unfolds it reveals the pain and hardship of three generations of women who are woven together and torn apart. Reynolds gift of story telling makes this debut absolutely riveting! The language- a melody of old Southern blues that leaves a chill.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing denouement
Review: April Reynolds is an excellent writer. She can spin a wonderful tale and create rich and engaging characters that suck you into this story of three generations of Southern women. What I found lacking and a bit disappointing was the plot. It was a bit thin and a quarter of the way in (once I got all the characters straight) I pretty much had the plot figured out. The denouement was very anti-climatic and I found she failed to fully explain WHY? Why did Liberty put Chess before Queen Ester? Why didn't we learn more about Helene and Auntie b? Why did Queen Ester go crazy? What did Chess say to Helene? Maybe I fell asleep halfway through. Reynolds hints at all of these things and more but I felt the story could have been deeper and richer if she expounded on these questions or made the characters more dimensional. An entertaining read but overall disappointing. Reynolds is a promising writer and possibly her next novel will be richer. I look forwards to that.

Rating:
Summary: Ghosts of the past
Review: Helene Strickland travels from her new home in Washington, DC to her childhood home in the Deep South after her Uncle Ed informs her that the aunt who raised her has passed away. Upon her arrival, she comes face to face with some old demons that have haunted her her entire life. What happened to her father? Why did her mother give her away? These are just a few of the questions that are left burning in her mind.

Since Helene knows she wouldn't be able to get Ed to reveal the past to her, she decides to take a day trip to her mother's house in the small Arkansas town of Lafayette. What Helene finds there is the spirit of a six-year-old girl trapped in her middle-aged mother's body, the legend of her grandmother Liberty, and the remnants of the life of a man named Chess. Still, Helene is determined to find out why things transpired the way they did. She's determined to find her roots.

KNEE DEEP IN WONDER is a tragic novel about a family and the skeletons that most families harbor in their closets. The writing is fluid and beautiful, yet poignant. The story of the Strickland family is staggering, and Reynolds demonstrates in her book that some things are better left buried.

Reviewed by CandaceK
of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers

Rating:
Summary: National Book Award, please.
Review: I first read this book in manuscript form (I don't work in publishing; I simply borrowed it), which means I read hundreds of unbound, unwieldy pages. I started sitting on a bench in Central Park, killing time before an appointment; I finished hours later, sitting on that same bench, reading by streetlight (parklight?), my appointment rescheduled. I bought the hardcover, but I'm saving my copy of the manuscript -- Knee Deep in Wonder is one of the first great novels of the century. No kidding. It's that good.

Rating:
Summary: Cheers! To a Fine Southern Debut
Review: Ms. Reynolds shapes Knee-Deep in Wonder around three generations and one man. As the youngest generation--and one might even call her a Northerner, "You hear that? I did it again. I sound like Mama. I sound southern,"--Helene's curiosity about her familial roots blossoms like fire. She is desperate to know who her father is as well as to assuage the burden of why her mother gave her away as a young child. Helene's wonder and quest begins when she returns to the South for her Auntie's funeral. It is this homecoming that begins the opening of the Strickland family secrets. A bulk of the story is told between Liberty and Queen Ester, while other parts of the story we see through Queen Ester and Helene. At the center of these generations is a man: Chess. His movement through the novel touches literally everyone and we find he too has his own family skeletons to walk with. Ms. Reynolds does a magnificent job in capturing Southern vernacular and setting. I'm not sold that the mesh in the final chapters is so much as Morrisonian than it is Ms. Reynolds struggling to do what all new authors must do: end. And while some passages do tend to dawdle, perhaps striving for heft, I find the language, the dialogue and the characters highly faithful to the story line. At times, some expressions and scenes are humorous: the fight at Chess's funeral; the moment Liberty reaches over a table and slaps her daughter who then simply tips her chair, falls to floor, enjoys the cool of it, then continues to chew on an apple. Surely this must have phased Queen Ester---I don't know; it just made me laugh. Ms. Reynolds has done a fine job in this debut. I look forward to more titles!

Also try, Eden by Olympia Vernon--another up and coming new artist.

Rating:
Summary: Cheers! To a Fine Southern Debut
Review: Ms. Reynolds shapes Knee-Deep in Wonder around three generations and one man. As the youngest generation--and one might even call her a Northerner, "You hear that? I did it again. I sound like Mama. I sound southern,"--Helene's curiosity about her familial roots blossoms like fire. She is desperate to know who her father is as well as to assuage the burden of why her mother gave her away as a young child. Helene's wonder and quest begins when she returns to the South for her Auntie's funeral. It is this homecoming that begins the opening of the Strickland family secrets. A bulk of the story is told between Liberty and Queen Ester, while other parts of the story we see through Queen Ester and Helene. At the center of these generations is a man: Chess. His movement through the novel touches literally everyone and we find he too has his own family skeletons to walk with. Ms. Reynolds does a magnificent job in capturing Southern vernacular and setting. I'm not sold that the mesh in the final chapters is so much as Morrisonian than it is Ms. Reynolds struggling to do what all new authors must do: end. And while some passages do tend to dawdle, perhaps striving for heft, I find the language, the dialogue and the characters highly faithful to the story line. At times, some expressions and scenes are humorous: the fight at Chess's funeral; the moment Liberty reaches over a table and slaps her daughter who then simply tips her chair, falls to floor, enjoys the cool of it, then continues to chew on an apple. Surely this must have phased Queen Ester---I don't know; it just made me laugh. Ms. Reynolds has done a fine job in this debut. I look forward to more titles!

Also try, Eden by Olympia Vernon--another up and coming new artist.

Rating:
Summary: Knee Deep in Secrets, Lies and Family Drama
Review: This is a southern tale full of drama, family strife and secrets set in Arkansas from the early century to the 1980s. Liberty, Queen Ester, Chess and Helene are the key players in a quagmire of events. Reynolds takes us through the lives and loves of these people. Helene at twenty-six years comes back from Chicago to Helena, Arkansas to bury her aunt and find out why her mother, Queen Ester gave her up as a baby. She was raised by Aunt Annie b and Uncle Ed but they never supplied the answers to her questions.

We are privy to the idiosyncrasies of Liberty who believes a family is comprised of three. When her husband leaves after a fight one day, leaving her with some money and their daughter Queen Ester, she feels incomplete. She is forever trying to find that third person to make the circle complete. Enter Chess, a young man, who saw his father killed by hateful white folks over a jar of peaches. Having survived a flood, he finds himself in Liberty's restaurant. She tries to make him a son. He does not want to be in that family but every time he leaves, Liberty goes out and finds him. He eventually marries Halle and their life is full of strife and violence. Chess has his mistress, Morning, move in to help raise his children after Halle dies. There are other characters on the fringe who become integral elements in the story. For example, there is all-seeing Other, who does not speak.

I eagerly awaited the release of this book. Reading novels with settings in the south is a passion of mine; that this story was set in Arkansas, my birth state, made it more anticipated. But this was a novel that had to grow on me. Scenes were extended and at times drawn out. I labored over several passages that had to be re-read several times, reminiscent of the convoluted writing of Morrison and Walker. However, I cannot overlook the superb writing skills with its flowering language and superfluous metaphors. It was after discussing this book with my daughter that I was able to delve further into the symbolism and the license the author took with literary devices---- so much so that one could get lost. This was indeed a family drama with secrets; most are revealed satisfactorily but I admit I was left scratching my head by the bizarre ending. Nevertheless, I continue to seek and enjoy writers who step outside of the box and challenge readers. Reynolds, a Hurston-Wright award winner, has a great future; it will be interesting to see what she does next.

Dera Williams
APOOO BookClub