The Gettin Place [Paperback]

Susan Straight (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 14, 1997

Susan Straight's most powerful novel yet is framed by two race riots: the little known Tulsa riots of the 1920s, in which white Tulsa burned down the town's black enclave; and the notorious L. A. riots of the 1990s.

Straight's brilliant story of the effects of violence in America on three generations of a family is told through the lives of the Thompsons, a large clan who live in Treetown, above downtown Rio Seco, California, and operate a car towing and repair business. Patriarch Hosea is a proud man, and a hardened one, whose father was killed in the violence that erupted in Tulsa many years earlier. All Hosea's memories come flooding black with ferocious force when the bodies of two white women are found engulfed in flames in an abandoned car on his property. These are the first signs that someone wants Hosea off his land; it is up to his son Marcus, the only one of the six children of Hosea and his half-Mexican wife who can negotiate with the white world, to help the family hold on to their home and their livelihood.

But it is only when Marcus' nephew Motrice-a young man infatuated with guns and the power that they bring- comes back to Rio Seco from gang-ridden Los Angeles that the real secrets of the bodies found on Thompson land are revealed, as Rio Seco erupts in the same wave of trashing and looting that has engulfed the nearby metropolis.

The Gettin Place is a powerful portrait of a family struggling to defend its turf in a changing world, to hold on to the gettin place, the source from which they derive the tools for survival.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Susan Straight's third novel begins with remembered violence, as 76-year-old Hosea Thompson awakes from a dream of the Oklahoma riots in which whites destroyed black Tulsa, and his father was killed. But now, in the present, violence still stalks Hosea. Two white women are burned in a car on his property in Rio Seco, Calif., and the police accuse Hosea and his sons. Straight tells the story of the Thompson family's fight to prove their innocence and hold onto their land in taut, compelling prose that is absolutely faithful to the black experience. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Straight's third novel is a continuation of her impassioned chronicling of the tough, embattled, hardscrabble life faced by many black Americans. As with Darker than a Thousand Midnights and I Been in Sorrow's Kitchen and Licked Out All the Pots, the principal setting is Rio Seco, a fictional California city outside of L.A. The "gettin place" of the title is a parcel of land along an old canal where the extended Thompson clan has its adobe homes and the family businesses-a garage and towing yard, a rib joint and a small olive orchard. When the bodies of two white women are found burned in a dilapidated car in the lot, and when the body of a man dressed in drag is discovered nearby, the Thompsons become the focus of law enforcement attentions while the video of the Rodney King beating plays incessantly on TV. Marcus Thompson, the youngest of eight boys of Hosea and Alma Thompson, has apparently escaped the clutches of Rio Seco life: he teaches history, works out in a fitness club, prefers sushi to chitlins and counts many "sherberts" (white yuppies) among his friends. But Marcus is drawn by his family loyalties into an armed defense against the powers that be-not only cops but also politicians and land developers. As usual, Straight paints a remarkably detailed picture of the moral, economic and historical web in which black families can be caught, and the way in which fear and honor contend in men's souls. Although The Gettin Place does suffer from a surplus of characters and plot twists as Straight attempts to reveal a land-grab conspiracy, her imagined Rio Seco is surely among the richest soils worked by an American novelist today. Author tour.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 496 pages
• Publisher: Anchor (July 14, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385486596
• ISBN-13: 978-0385486590
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 1.1 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,849,873 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Susan Straight was born in Riverside, California, where she still lives with her three daughters, nephew, extended family of over 200, and chickens. She has published seven novels - Aquaboogie (1990), I Been in Sorrow's Kitchen and Licked Out All the Pots (1992), Blacker Than a Thousand Midnights (1994), The Gettin Place (1996), Highwire Moon (2001), A Million Nightingales (2006), and her latest, Take One Candle Light A Room (2010). Her short stories have been published in Zoetrope All-Story, McSweeneys, The Sun, Oxford American, O Henry Prize Stories, Best American Short Stories, and other places. Her story "The Golden Gopher," published in Los Angeles Noir, won the Edgar Award in 2007. Her essays have appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Harpers, The Believer, Reader's Digest, Family Circle and other magazines. Her website is www.susanstraight.com, featuring An American Family, with ties to ancestors from Switzerland, Africa, Canada, Oklahoma, Colorado, and California.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars AN IMPORTANT, BEAUTIFUL, DISTURBING BOOK, November 19, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Gettin Place (Paperback)

Straight give us an utterly new set of insights into the racial dynamics of Southern California. Her characters are brave, complicated, and we care deeply for them. Moreover, she gives readers an unprecedented understanding of the deadly and yet not uncreative and sometimes brilliant workings of gang-banging in African American communities. This complex story of multiple subjectivities is rendered with a style whose beauty is so fierce, it will make you weep.

AN UNFORGETTABLE READING EXPERIENCE.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars this fiction has more truth in it than most newspapers, January 15, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (tracy, california) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Gettin Place (Hardcover)

This is Susan Straight's best work so far. It is a crime/mystery story, a richly populated family drama, and a revelation of contemporary social ills and their deep roots in history. It educates the reader without being pedantic, through the diverse voices who tell tales that are not available anywhere else in print. No clear solutions are given for the racial and economic tensions explored in the book, since the "One World" philosophy promoted by a few characters appears to be little more than a slogan and consumer lifestyle favoring exoticism. The depth of the characters' self-exploration, the richness of their histories, and their intimate connection to the land are what prevent the reader from falling into utter despair and vacant horror over the many atrocities in the novel. This book has left me wondering about many issues, including: why do I never hear or see anything about this author? (I discovered her first novel by chance in the library and have been a fan ever since). Miscellaneous observation: this book contains the word "whorl" more times than any book I've read.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It is all about survival, July 10, 2003

By 

Mary E. Sibley (Carneys Point, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Gettin Place (Hardcover)

The book is magnificent. The plot weaves in and out highlighting issues of supreme importance. Hosea and Oscar Thompson are shadow men. Maybe they killed in the past, Hosea a guard, Oscar a man who bothered his wife. Hosea has an auto yard and towing service and Oscar a barbecue joint in Treetown on the edge of Rio Seco, a seemingly fictitious city east of Los Angeles. The novel includes a sort of coming of age tale of Hosea's youngest son, Marcus, even though Marcus is thirty already. Marcus teaches history at the local high school. Unlike his brothers who work in the car yard and attended the neighborhood school before it was closed when district lines were abolished to achieve integration, he attended college, at least in spurts. Hosea's wife cares for three grandchildren. There is a fire in the yard and two dead white women are discovered in an immovable car on the premises, notwithstanding the fact that the gate was locked. Hosea is shot because he fails to drop his own rifle quickly enough to suit the police, and he is held in the hospital in the jail ward. As the strands of the story develop it becomes apparent that the family is the focus of actions to remove them from their land in the name of progress and aesthetics, aesthetics that is from a white perspective. The circumstances are particularly poignant since Hosea and Oscar moved from Greenwood driven out by the riot and fire in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1921. Thank you Susan Straight. What a joy it is to read your book.