Customer Reviews

The Orange Houses

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(2)

 

 

The writing is deceptively poetic, kind of a mix of street language and savvy narration. It's easy to get wrapped up in and feel and hear the characters in their own words. It felt very real and powerful because of that. I think kids could gain a lot from this story. It touches on things like class and race as well as prejudice.

Why does humanity persist in slaughtering its young?

Set in the West Bronx over the course of a month's time, Paul Griffin's THE ORANGE HOUSES is the tale of three young victims of war, three refugees of sorts who come together to provide each other a path to salvation as the clock ticks down -- chapter by chapter -- to a terrible day of reckoning:

Tamika (Mik):

"Meningitis struck her ten years before, when she was five. Technically her hearing loss was 'moderately severe,' what lawyers looking to sue hospitals pegged 50 percent deficient. Being halfway to sound was like never being able to catch your breath.
"She got by just fine when she kept her hearing aids turned on. She didn't much. The machines were what City Services could give her, old technology that jug handled her ears and rattled her with phone and radio static, a high-pitched whir. They sharpened and dulled everything at the same time the way water will just below the surface. But turned off and plugging up her drums, the aids screened out the world. She lived for this silky silence.

Fatima:

"The women tiptoed onto the deck as if they were treading landmined sands. For nine days they had been hiding in the backup engine room of this oil tanker fit for hauling two million barrels of light sweet crude and, this time around, thirty-four refugees. Each woman's passage cost twenty-five hundred dollars. This blind faith cash had been raised a coin at a time, person by displaced person, family by fractured African family. Those who had endured were sending their best shots at survival, if not by bloodline then heritage, west.
"Of the thirty-four, most were going to Camden, where the Immigration police did not go. Camden was written off as a city lost to drugs, prostitution and the nation's highest teen mortality rate. The rest of these travelers were going to a city somewhat safer yet no less rife with illegal employment, Atlantic City. The rest save Fatima Esperer.
"Her mother had given the young woman her first name, but for her new life Fatima chose the last, a French word meaning hope. She taught herself the language from schoolbooks that somehow escaped burning -- English too. At sixteen she was headed where all told her not to go: New York. She had to visit the Statue of Liberty."

Jimmi:

"He left Bronx West for Basic without knowing he'd knocked up his girlfriend, the love of his life. He didn't find out she was getting heavy till he was overseas. He set the wedding for his next three-day leave. It never happened.
"One morning a five-year-old with an IED strapped to her stomach skipped past Jimmi into the heart of a city market. The bomb malfunctioned. The half explosion tore the girl apart but didn't kill her instantly. Jimmi got to her on her third to last breath. As she died she asked him something in a language he didn't understand. The wounded man next to her coughed up, 'She said, "I know I am going into a coffin, but where will my face live?"'
"PFC James Semprevivo sat in the smoking rubble and closed his eyes. He opened them nineteen days later to find out he was going home. He was eager to get back to the Bronx. His girl hadn't written him since a month before the suicide bomber. He left messages on her machine and her mother's, but neither woman called him back. Thirty feet into Bronx West he got the story. His gal lost the baby late term, then slit her wrists."

Escaping from his stay in the VA hospital and its "happy drugs," desperately trying to outrun the crack pipe, Jimmi is now a street poet, pushing a shopping cart of stuff, and living in cave -- a Depression-era unfinished subway stop that has been his refuge since discovering it as a child -- which is really not all that long ago: Jimmi is still only eighteen.

Tamika, an outstanding student in a hell hole of a school, has artistic ability that few know about. Hiding behind the silence afforded by the hearing aids, she dreams that her talent will be the key to her escape. The motherless Fatima is determined to somehow succeed in New York so that she can spring her sister from the refugee camp in Africa and smuggle her into America. Fatima's ability to bring newspaper to life through her folded paper angels and other creatures has the power to release children from their pain and disarm girl thugs.

Jimmi, who has grown up knowing Tamika and who is floored by encountering Fatima, knows the two young women must meet:

"What those girls could make together. With their gifts, they had a responsibility to do it, to create the beauty that went past paper and pen and sculpture and into the vibe. You can't describe it except to call it something like hope. He prayed Mik and Fatima would hook up until he remembered he was too mad at God to ask for anything."

While, arguably, Tamika experiences the greatest transformation over the course of the story, I am fascinated by how Paul Griffin creates three equally powerful characters who each serve as selfless catalysts in forever altering the lives of the other two. As with his first book, TEN MILE RIVER, I love the counterbalancing here of grit and heart, of predators and nurturers. The love and magic and community and quiet dignity I encountered throughout THE ORANGE HOUSES make me see it being far more akin to the acceptance and humanity of Naomi Shihab Nye's work than it is to typical straight-ahead contemporary YA tales.

"She set aside her sketch and thought If a city sky..."

By sowing hope in a world of hurt and tension, Paul Griffin has me believing in the power of the "If trick" Jimmi teaches the two young women, whereby you think of where you want to be or what you hope to experience, put an "If" in front of it, speak it aloud, and you are there.

15 yr old Tamika (Mik) Sykes is partially deaf. She likes to turn off her hearing aid and shut the world out.

18 yr old Jimmi Sixes is a war veteran, trying to find a reason to live

16 yr old Fatima is a refugee from Africa. All she wants is a new beginning and to see the Statue of Liberty.

I didn't connect with these characters. This disconnection has a lot to do with my not believing the Black characters created by Griffin a white author. A characters believability is subjective. When a Black character doesn't feel right, I lack the vocabulary to say way that is, something is simply not ringing true. So I usually stay clear of Black characters created by White authors that don't hit the mark for me, since I can't put into words what doesn't work. My problem with The Orange Houses goes well beyond the characters. I want to take a moment to point out a few things. Maybe people will think twice about throwing out words like authentic so easily.

Fatima is an African refugee. The author never specifies a country. Last time I checked Africa was still a continent. Griffin not naming a country of origin, like what difference does it make, got me thinking about author Chimamanda Adichie recent talk on the danger of a single story.


I thought Fatima had a lot of money for a refugee.

"Fatima gave the man half of what she had left after the boat ride: five hundred dollars. (pg.13)

She finds are way to the Bronx, and the Orange Houses. While exploring her new neighborhood on the first day, Fatima meets Jimmi. He is impressed by the angels Fatima makes out of newspaper. Jimmi decides to introduce Fatima to Mik. I knew eventually the characters might become acquainted but this was too quick. Rather then allow it to happen naturally, Griffin forces the issue. Fatima and Mik become fast friends. I can't believe in a friendship when I question its beginnings.

The author decides to reveal a pivotal moment in the book before the story even begins, Jimmi's hanging. At the beginning of each chapter there is a countdown.

" Bronx West, a high school classroom, a late October Thursday morning twenty-seven days before the hanging"

The author was probably trying to quickly grab and shock readers with the news of a hanging. The countdown did nothing for me. In order for me to be drawn in by a forthcoming act , I have to believe its possible. Hanging - there is so much pain, and loss in that word for Black people. There isn't an altercation or misunderstanding that would make me believe that a hanging would take place in a Bronx as payback or street justice.

Mik goes to a tough school in The Bronx. A girl, named Shanelle is always harassing Mik. It escalates when the new boy, Jaekwon plays attention to Mik, who does her best to avoid Shanelle. When school ends Fatima is always waiting to walk Mik home. One day Shanelle decides its time that she and her crew gave Mik a beat down. Though Shanelle's crew is so memorized by Fatima's origami that they have a change of heart.

"As Mik stepped through the school doors into the front courtyard a rock zipped past Fatima's head. Crew Shanelle rolled up the sidewalk. "Deaf bitch can't get no real friends, she stuck with a Zulu terrorist." Shanelle got in Fatima's face. "You ain't nothin." Fatima reached into her shawl. Shanelle reached for her back pocket, a bulge that said box cutter. Fatima drew her hand from her scarf. A flock of Day Glo butterflies spun in the breeze. In the afternoon light their sequined wings dazzled Sha's posse. The girls fell on the butterflies as if they were spilled pinata candy. "It's newspaper, one girl said. "Painted newspaper." She drew her phone, keyed it for a new entry. "Yo," she said to Fatime, " I got birthday party coming for my niece. We was gonna get a clown, but y'all gonna work it instead. My sistuh got cash money, yo. What's y'all's numbuh?" (pg.97)

After Shanelle's first attack got thwarted by Day Glo butterflies, she tries again a few days later with a new crew.

"Mik headed for the exit. A girl cut her off, flashed a box cutter. Mik spun back for the principals office. Another girl with a box cutter. The only way out was the back door. She ran for it, blasted into the garbage bay. Between the Dumpsters a third girl waited for her. Mik sprinted for the park woods. When she turned back, the three girls had become thirty. All were new recruits, girls not cool enough to be in Sha's previous crew. They were eager to please her with their chains and broken bottles." (pg.113)

Jimmi comes to Mik's rescue. Shanelle's crew gives chase. Mik rides on Jimmi's back to the safety of the train tunnels. The two hide out underground.

So the author wants me to believe that thirty girls armed with box cutters are chasing one girl in the middle of the afternoon. Why is Jimmi the only one who heard all the noise that Shanelle's crew was making. Where is everyone?

Forty- nine mintues before the hanging Jimmi is charged with abducting Mik, its all over the news. I know its unprofessional to use a certain three letters together when talking about a book, but I've never claimed to be a professional, so WTF really. No one sees 30 girls armed with box cutters but they see Jimmi with Mik. I was floored by this.

The people spot Jimmi and Mik as they try and make it to the hospital.

"They came down on him fast, tens of them, seeming like a hundreds as they ripped Mik from him. Pinned against a truck. He broke free with a pair of punches that jacked the men into a fury. Their hatred stunned him. They were his neighbors, his friends. Why now did they kick him? He called out to them by name, and they struck him harder. Somebody kicked the back of his skull. Numbness spread over and through him. String 'im up," said the lead vigilante, some gang banger. They roped him by his ankles, threw the line over the street lamp's arm and heaved him high." (pgs. 128-129)

Griffin was at least smart enough not to have vigilantes (the author's word) hang, Jimmi, the 18 yr old war veteran by his neck. Though I am still wondering where the rope came from. Streetlamps are pretty high. Where was everyone else while this was going on? No one had a cell phone?

Out of the blue vigilantes is ridiculous. Jimmi and Mik are from the same neighborhood. Black men couldn't so easily beat and hang another Black man they know. They know Jimmi's an 18 year old war veteran is trying to kick a drug habit. They know Jimmi's girlfriend had a late term miscarriage and committed suicide while he was still at war. These men know all this and yet they still attack. Unbelievable.

I could continue but I won't. I am not sure of what angers me more this book or the reviews calling it authentic and real. It scares me to think that someone in small town USA, will read The Orange Houses because of one of these reviews and believe its a good literary representation of teen urban life.

If you like classic-type novels, this one is for you. It has an epic
quality to it, kind of like a fable. The 3 main characters are really cool,
very complex, very imperfect, and I liked them for that. They came across
as real. It's a heartbreaker, though. So get out your tissue box. Just
all the way around a great, great book.

Not many books will tell you the end of the story on the first page. The prelude to this astounding novel tells of the end --- the hanging of Jimmi Sixes, a war veteran from a row of orange houses in New York. After Jimmi received a mandatory discharge from service and returned home, he was hung on the streets of his own neighborhood by a mob. The focus of this rare book is the few spirited inhabitants of the orange houses who endure a darker side of life than most.

The orange houses are in the projects, devoid of prospects and tainted by poverty and human weakness. Three youths --- Jimmi Sixes, Tamika Sykes and Fatima Espérer --- live in the district. Each of them tells his or her own point of view, and the chapters alternate with their stories.

Jimmi is a solitary, suffering soul. His girlfriend committed suicide after her late-term miscarriage of their child while he was away at war. Jimmi didn't know; he was sent home and found out afterwards through the grapevine. He has become a drug addict who is trying to kick the habit but can't find any purpose in life anymore, relishing only rare glimpses of decency and the hopes of others.

Tamika (Mik) is Jimmi's friend. She suffered from meningitis as a child, so is partially deaf and communicates through signing. She has closed herself off to people and rarely talks, but Jimmi looks after her. She goes to a rough high school where she doesn't seem to stand a chance, hiding out alone under the stairwell to eat her lunch just to avoid the cat-calling and brawls that happen daily among the girls there. One nerdy and equally powerless guy who Mik calls "The G" pays her to do his homework and is crazy about her.

Fatima is an illegal immigrant from Africa, a refugee whose family benevolently paid for her to be smuggled to the States, hoping to give her a shot at survival far away from the killings there. When Fatima left her loved ones, she boarded the ship all alone but with a thankful heart, grateful for the chance at freedom that she alone would get. With nothing at all but the clothes on her back, Fatima arrives in New York City, nourishing only her own hope for a better future. She carries a scar of a machete slash across her face, the slash claiming two of her fingers. She works among the orange houses selling newspapers, and here meets Jimmi and Mik. She also teaches immigrant children English and has a singular talent for making treasures from folded paper.

THE ORANGE HOUSES is an uncommon story of human resilience. The strength and composure of these three youths among so much turmoil and despondency is stirring, and all of this within the States. Fatima in particular is subtly heroic; she has a very special spirit about her and becomes a beacon of hope for Jimmi and Mik. She's a rather exceptional soul who truly believes in America and sees it as the land of promise for all who need refuge. When she faces anti-terrorist prejudice in New York, Fatima's story really makes you consider that and the immigration laws here.

In the superbly realistic, matter-of-fact way the book is written, the people of THE ORANGE HOUSES could be real. It is a slim volume, but you never feel short-changed by the story or the writing. This is a compassionate tale that will appeal widely to older teens as well as adults.

--- Reviewed by Melanie Smith

The writing is incredible, the characters are well-developed and the story is intense. Paul Griffin = Pure Genius!! I could not put this one down and absolutely loved this book.

Knowing the ending but not the victim made this book incredibly suspenseful! It took all my self control not to turn to the last page, but I knew if I did I would miss all the excitement in the middle. This was a great read, great characters, and a great book to reflect (predict?) on where our society is going on the issue of immigration. Pretty intense stuff going on toward the end of the book. I loved it and can't wait to talk about it with my book club.

While Paul Griffin is certainly talented in writing prose, his talent as a storyteller leaves much to be wanted. The whole story reads like a soap opera or CW style drama. The only thing more disappointing than the story is the reviews for this story. It's saddening to realize that this is what people consider "Superbly Realistic". This story is nothing more than an assortment of stereotypes and uninspiring characters packaged with skillful writing. In the future I hope to read more from this author, but I hope he sticks closer to home next time.

YA realistic fiction, this book is told in alternating chapters from the point of view of three characters, Mik, Fatima and Jimmy. Mik is a teenage girl trying to deal with her deafness. Fatima is an illegal immigrant who befriends Mik. Jimmy is a young veteran dealing with post-traumatic stress. All three live in the same apartment project--the orange houses. Their lives interconnect in ways that will shock the reader. This book is gritty at times but is a good, quick read. I think both boy and girl readers would enjoy it. I borrowed this book from the public library. It was on the book list for a Young Adult Literature class I am taking.

[...]

This book might be a bit mature for some adolescents, but it deals with topics that are important to them in a sensitive way. Griffin knows and loves his characters, so he is able to deliver what any teen or adolescent requires: authenticity. Themes of friendship, loyalty, alienation, family, achievement, conflict, and love are wrapped in a page-turner of a plot. My 12-year-old and his friend loved this book. They want to know when the movie is coming out!