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27 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Awesome book for a discussion..., October 27, 2007
I read Mr. McCall's 'Makes me Wanna Holler' when I was a younger and still not yet a man. I read it and throughout the book I was saying "yeah", "that's right", and "exactly". It was very good for me to read something from someone who knew EXACTLY how I felt. When I saw he had a fictional book coming out I knew I had to read it.
This book is an awesome novel about "them". The question is who is "them"? Are you a "them"? Is your neighboor a "them"? Is your boss a "them"? Well, it all depends on who YOU are. Unlike other books on race relations this one gives us a view from both sides while slightly favoring one side. Entertaining, a little political, at times gritty, eye-opening, very well written, and a great book to read for your book club, to/with your kids, and discuss with co-workers.
Hopefully this won't be this authors last work of fiction.
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20 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
There Goes the Neighborhood, November 2, 2007
Nathan McCall's novel, Them, depicts the gentrification of Atlanta's Old Fourth Ward neighborhood. Barlowe Reed, a single, middle-aged loner, and his nephew Tyrone, have been residents of the Old Fourth Ward for several years. Barlowe is wary of Caesar in all forms: government, bureaucracy, law enforcement, even flags. His feelings of distrust are deepened with the influx of new, white residents into their neighborhood which is rich with the history of the Civil Rights Movement and the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The racial tension in the neighborhood escalates, pitting black residents against white residents.
One white couple, Sean and Sandy Gilmore, buy the house right next door to Barlowe. Sandy and Barlowe hesitantly begin chatting over the backyard fence attempting to find understanding and common ground amidst the growing confusion and resentment building in the neighborhood.
McCall pulls no punches in Them as he excavates the multiple layers of struggle, history, pride, and hope that the neighborhood holds for its' residents. Them poses many questions about the gentrification process, yet offers little in the way of concrete answers. McCall's use of dialect, well-developed characters and detailed setting encourages readers to become invested in the residents of the Old Fourth Ward. Them is an excellent choice for individuals looking for a thought-provoking read and a great catalyst for book club discussions.
Reviewed by M. P. McKinney
APOOO BookClub
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14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
The perspective of the gentrified, December 29, 2007
McCall's book interested me because I used to live in another gentrified Atlanta neighborhood, Kirkwood and unlike previous accounts of gentrification, the emphasis was on the gentrified. I'd also read and liked McCall's "Makes Me Wanna Holler". When I first looked at houses, my broker had suggested looking at the Old Fourth Ward, which then was just beginning to see redevelopment. The area didn't appeal to me because it lacked "amenities"--the rapid transit was inconvenient to most of the neighborhood and the shopping didn't amount to much beyond neighborhood mini-marts, plus it would have meant an even more inconvenient commute than the one I already had. Basically, like much of intown Atlanta, it was carbound and not very "urban" even though the "urban" location was supposed to be the appeal. Over the next 7 years, I frequently drove through the Old Fourth Ward on my way to other places and watched its rapid evolution.
McCall is at his best when he takes the perspective of Barlowe, a middle aged African-American man who finds himself with two not-always-well-meaning White gentrifiers next door. The changes in the neighborhood are reflected in Barlowe. He considers home ownership, deals with the puzzling motives and behavior of his neighbors and grapples with change. The couple next door are less well drawn. The wife is characterized as a former campus activist who works for a social service agency in Atlanta, yet has no experience with people like her neighbors. One would have expected her to seek out neighbors like her Black middle class colleagues or to show the naive, sometimes condescending attitude of many junior people in the helping professions. Instead, she comes across as good natured but unable to draw on her activist or occupational background. The motives and personality of her husband are put together even less well. The two of them are somehow short of money, but able to afford contractors to do expensive renovations.
Some events in the book draw from real life. For example, the rather unfocused effort by a clergyman to organize against gentrification seems to be based on an effort that had taken place in Kirkwood before I moved there. That effort failed mostly because the clergyman was an outsider and had made no effort to engage local people. In the book, it's less clear why things failed. Atlanta is a place with little history of collective action (beyond isolated examples such as lynchings and the rally against the Klan mentioned in the book), so this is not surprising. Unfortunately, it would be more understandable if McCall provided more context. He does mention the social changes in the city, the lack of middle class African-American interest in inner city communities, but doesn't really hit on the essentially neo-feudal social structure of the city and the surprising lack of real civil rights (or other activist) history, even though Dr. King and his lieutenants used Atlanta as their base. While McCall highlights the role of White realtors' solicitations in the Old Fourth Ward, it's likely that many more early houses came on the market because of a law that allowed people to take title to houses if the taxes have been delinquent for a particular period of time. The middle men who took advantage of this and turned houses over to realtors in my area were mostly African-American. Atlanta has plenty of sleazy would-be Donald Trumps, but unlike the realtor in the book they don't drive Cadillacs and they don't make house calls.
In general, the motives and personalities of the gentrifiers tend to be rather sketchy and the range of people who gentrify is not well reflected. Most people who'd gone into neighborhoods like the Old Fourth Ward had been priced out of already gentrified areas like Midtown and Virginia Highland, but had had little incentive or desire to commute from newer, far out suburbs. People like me wanted some semblence of city living, how ever meager. Many early gentrifiers were artists, gay, or otherwise outside the mainstream. Many of the people I encountered were as cringe-worthy as those in the book; people who frankly had no understanding of their surroundings or how to build a functional urban environment. In Kirkwood, there was much interest in attracting the kind of overpriced, mediocre restaurants that typify Atlanta's walking neighborhoods and less concern with attracting a bank or a pharmacy (businesses that everyone in the area needed and could use) or with improving mass transit. OTOH, many people approached their new neighborhoods with much more sensitivity and engaged neighbors in a more hospitable way. Even Barlowe's motivations seem murky at times. It's not always clear how he's reading his new neighbors and when he votes against local rabble rousing, the reasoning isn't entirely convincing.
Despite the drawbacks, McCall picks up on the knowing details of living in a gentrified neighborhood: the disappearance of useful businesses, the sudden appearance of joggers and bikers, and the willingness of children to engage new neighbors in a way that adults often don't. He misses, though, the ways in which people slowly establish a place in the community--for me, it was the waves hello when I sat on my front porch or the editorial commentaries I received when I painted my porch or fence.
The book ends on a tragic note for Barlowe's neighbors and, to some extent, for Barlowe, himself. I found it a bit overwrought, especially in relation to the experience of most people I'd known in areas like the Old Fourth Ward. Shortly before I left Kirkwood and Atlanta, I spoke to a new neighbor who had over-reacted to the kind of vandalism one would easily encounter with a new house in the suburbs. They seemed more annoyed than re-assured that little "bad" had happened to people during my time in the area and that my experience with neighbors had been positive. I was tempted to tell them that the shoddy construction of their infill mini-mansion was a going to cause more grief than anything else. Isolated petty crime and encounters like mine with these neighbors are more typical than the melodrama that ends this book.
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