Only Twice I've Wished for Heaven [Hardcover]

Dawn Turner Trice (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 14, 1997

Eleven-year-old girl Tempestt and her family are given what is considered the chance of a lifetime: to move on up to Lakeland.  It's a chance to leave behind the gritty neighborhood Tempestt has known throughout her entire life for one square mile of pristine beauty carved out of a Chicago ghetto and secured by a 10-foot-tall, ivy-covered, wrought iron fence.  

Tempestt is quickly drawn to the streets beyond the fence, to a place of colorful, often dangerous, characters: 35th Street.  Here the saved and the sinners are both so "done-up" you can't tell one from the other: Alfred Mayes, the oily preacher and connoisseur of "fine young thangs," whose line is as smooth as honey and whose looks are twice as sweet; and Miss Jonetta, a former lady of the evening who knows everyone's stories, and whose own history is as long and dark as 35th Street itself.  Barely a month after moving to Lakeland, Tempestt will witness the death of friend, cause the arrest of a preacher, and start a chain of events that will send 35th Street up in flames.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

A secret lies at the heart of Only Twice I've Wished for Heaven, a coming-of-age story by first-time novelist Dawn Turner Trice. Set in Chicago in the mid-1970s, Ms. Trice's novel details several months in the life of Tempestt Rose Saville, an 11-year-old girl transplanted from her beloved southside neighborhood to Lakeland, an upscale oasis surrounded by urban wasteland. The price one pays to live in this "one square mile of ivory towers, emerald green grass, and pruned oaks and willows," is to join the black bourgeoisie, a class Ms. Turner describes as making "the Stepford Wives look like the rainbow coalition," and "about as individual as curds in white milk."

Tempestt may be young, but she's no fool; she hates the place from day one and soon escapes outside the fence that separates Lakeside from 35th Street, the unreclaimed ghetto outside her window. It is on 35th Street that she meets the novel's second narrator, Miss Jonetta Goode, a woman with a past. The street is also where the seminal event in young Tempestt's life occurs: the death of her school friend Valerie, a girl with one foot on 35th Street and the other in Lakeside. Ms. Turner's novel is well-written and from the heart, but many of its characters and situations seem familiar--the stock inventory of coming-of-age novels. Even the novel's secret fails to resonate--perhaps because the reader has guessed it long before Tempestt herself does.

From Publishers Weekly

Narrated from a distance of 20 years, this powerful debut novel re-creates the month that changed the life of a sheltered African American girl, 11-year-old Tempestt "Temmy" Saville, initiating her into the violence and rage her middle-class family thought they had escaped. In Chicago in 1975, Temmy witnesses the death of her best friend. Narrating the tale along with grown-up Temmy is 60-ish Miss Jonetta Goode, a big-hearted former prostitute who keeps watch over the fragile souls on Thirty-fifth Street from behind her counter in O'Cala Food and Drug. Temmy encounters Miss Jonetta and the hellishly fascinating Thirty-fifth Street by escaping Lakeland, the fenced-in enclave of black professionals where her family lives. Sensing that something is bothering her friend, Valerie, who lives part-time in Lakeland with her father and stays the rest of the week with her mother in the projects, Temmy inspires Jonetta to deputize two O'Cala regulars to observe Valerie and her mother. They discover that Ruth has been selling Valerie to men to finance her drug habit. The information comes too late to save Valerie. Temmy, the only witness to her friend's death, is frozen into silence, unable to speak up when a disreputable street preacher is accused and convicted of the girl's murder. Trice creates vibrant characters via the counterpointed voices of Temmie and Jonetta. As each interprets events within the range of her knowledge and expectations, Trice obliquely provides insight into the crucial social issues that help shape the lives of African Americans.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Crown; 1st edition (January 14, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0517704285
• ISBN-13: 978-0517704288
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,151,144 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully Written Debut Novel, August 30, 2000

By 

D. LEE "dml48221" (Palo Alto, California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Only Twice I've Wished for Heaven (Paperback)

This debut novel is written with the literary maturity of the likes of Gloria Naylor and there is something about the story which reminds me of the novel "The Woemn Of Brewster Place".

This is the story about a 12 year old girl, Tempset and her life once the family moves from the place where she has grown up, to a new, better home and enviornment called Lakeland. Lakeland represents where Chicago's "up and coming and just arrived" black folks live. Just across the gate however, is 35th Street which is a neighborhood that is the complete opposite of Lakeland. Seperating the 2 communities is a fence however that fence does not prevent Tempest from exploring all that life has to offer on the other side of the gate, good and bad.

Tempest periodically ventures over the gate and onto the infamous 35th street where she is introduced to a wonderful, powerful, soulful and rich cast of characters. She is also esposed to the tragedies of life including, but not limited to, drug addiction, prostitution and suicide. Although her father moves the family to the Lakeland community so they could have a better life, Tempest learns most of her lessons when she is on 35th street.

The novel is told from the wonderful perspective of both a 12 year old child and a 50 something year old adult who come to love and depend on each other as the novel progresses.

The writing in this novel was absolutely exquisite. However, I think the fact the the reader knew what was going to happen to the other young character, Valerie, from the outset of the novel, made the story incredibly touching and sad.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Her first book is so good, can't wait for the next., September 15, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Only Twice I've Wished for Heaven (Hardcover)

"Only twice I've wished for heaven" is a superb first effort by Ms. Trice. I won't gush because it would sound phony but she deserves a little gushing. In black vernacular, "she has put her foot into it." Which simply means she has put some heart and soul into this novel and it shows. Thankfully, this is not another "McMillan look-alike." We are getting a fresh and real life story. The setting is Chicago but it is the essence of so many neighborhoods in so many cities. She accutely captures the mindset of African-Americans setting themselves apart in the name of upward mobility and those of the people on the other side of the fence. To tell the story in two voices, representing both sides is a good touch. The reader will be drawn into the lives of the main characters, Tempestt and Ms Johnetta and see their worlds through their eyes. Don't blame me if you stay up all night just to finish this book. Just have a few extra cups of coffee at work.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Only Twice I've Wished for Heaven, June 3, 2000

By 

Nicole Sharpe (Alabama) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Only Twice I've Wished for Heaven (Paperback)

It is not often that a book moves me to tears. The way Trice told this story stirred emotions that made me feel a part of each character's life. Thank you for the wonderful and sometimes sad journey.