The Turner House by Angela Flournoy
The Turner House by
Angela Flournoy
The
Turner family has owned the house on Yarrow for decades. Cha-Cha was seven when
they moved in and all of the thirteen Turner children grew up within those
walls. But it’s been a while since Francis, the patriarch of the Turner family,
has passed. Viola, the matriarch well into her eighties, now lives in Cha-Cha’s home
and the Yarrow house has been abandoned. Furniture “borrowed” by different
family members has left most of the house bare. The “Big Room” where all of the
children have once called their own, and where Cha-Cha, once fought a haunt has
nothing but a twin bed and bare walls. What to do with the house that holds
their memories when it is worth nothing more than the past it holds?
The Turner House is a really well
written novel that centers around what it means to be a family, to struggle
with addiction, to contemplate ghosts and to move toward the present. Flournoy
did an amazing job flushing out her main characters and in doing so, allowing
us to appreciate not only the scope of this large family, but how complicated
it can be to manage. Maintaining relationships isn’t easy and yet you love your
family and people are flawed. Learning to accept people for who they are is a
constant struggle as is dealing with past indignities. I loved that this book dealt
with all of these issues and continued to draw back on how the story began with
Viola and Francis.
I am
recommending this novel. It was easy to read and touched on so many different
aspects of life. Flournoy did a great job of making this novel feel genuine. I
could recognize some of these characters from people I’ve met and loved in my
own life. I also appreciated how Flournoy discussed Detroit and its racial and poverty-stricken
background. The house became its own characters and in doing so it revealed its
own history. I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. Well worth the read.
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