Customer Reviews

Until That Good Day: A Novel

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

 

 

This wonderful book is about John Washington, a man who does not fit any preconception, any pigeonhole. He is hero and anti-hero, he drives headlong through life, yet somehow sustains two separate lives. As he leads his fragmenting family into riches and ignores it into ruin, the story sinks and rises, sinks then rises again. A musical theme, Madame Butterfly, runs through the narrative. The structure is operatic, tragic. There are arias, duets, trios--asides are spoken in low voices. Memorable people and places, and stirring events flow in and out of story, yet the author's skill is such that the thread of the tale is never lost. You cannot wait to turn the page. I've recommended this amazing novel to everyone I know. I recommend it to you.

John Washington travels the entire Lower Mississippi Valley selling wares to small stores and is away from his Myrtle, Louisiana home most of the time. Thus, it is not surprising that he is on the road when his wife dies leaving him with two daughters, eight years old Clara and five years old Vivian.

About a year later, over the objection of his children especially the younger one, he remarries Antoinette Malone. His older child goes to a New Orleans school and his younger one moves in with his in-laws. Meanwhile, John continues traveling not just to make money but to see the love of his life Odessa, a black woman. However, she is not the only secret John keeps as he passes in white society by acting accordingly.

UNTIL THAT GOOD DAY is an intriguing period piece that enables the audience to visualize life in the Lower Mississippi during the Depression. The tale is told from different perspectives so that the audience gains a wider vision of the times. The characters are deep and John's dark secret is interesting as he hides it from most of his customers and his family. Only his beloved Odessa knows the truth. Though there is little action, Marjorie Kemper provides a deep character study that shines on a way of life that feels almost ancient though it is only seven decades ago.

Harriet Klausner

Marjorie Kemper captures a sense of place, a sense of time, a sense of humor, and gives you unforgettable characters who will be with you the rest of your life, like it or not. Until That Good Day moves with a voice as original, as constant, and as strong as the Mississippi. Not only the perfect vacation read, it is the one book you will recommend and give for the rest of the year. I can hardly wait for her next novel!

Until That Good Day by Marjorie Kemper is another sorrowful tale of the "tragic mulatto" set in the depression-era South. In this story, we meet John Osceola Washington, a handsome, dashing traveling salesman, who is a seemingly devoted husband and father in the eyes of the residents of Myrtle, Louisiana. However, John, as his family before him, are light-skinned blacks who have lived as white citizens since Reconstruction. John has intentionally married white at the urging of his mother to keep their secret safe. The psychological pressure and societal restraints prevent him from pursuing his true love, a black woman, Odessa, whom he met on his trade route and has romanced for years. Odessa and a few other suspecting blacks see through John's façade and accept him unconditionally. The author forebodes that John's luck will hold until that good day when the proverbial dam of lies will break.

True to the formula, tragedy strikes John's home and his white wife, Della, dies leaving the care of his two daughters to John. He relies on support from his aged mother to care for the girls. Both she and the girls are miserable under this arrangement. Then when she passes unexpectedly, he quickly remarries a spoiled, selfish, young socialite with "ghost white" skin, Antoinette, who despises children and black people. More tragedy ensues and the truth eventually reveals itself (on that good day) in such an obvious event, and it is here we learn the proverbial lesson that people see what they want to see. The author blends this recurring theme of "turning a blind eye to the truth" in numerous storylines throughout the novel.

This novel is told from varying viewpoints including the two daughter's, Odessa's, Antoinette's, Emmy (the black maid), Gilbert (the gardener) and Antoinette's mother. Everyone has both comedic and humbling tales that encourages the reader to continue; however, this is not an action-filled novel and its pace slowed to a lull several times. Ms. Kemper's story ultimately conveys the strong sense of Southern family values, honor, duty, and racism that was present in John's world and the harsh realities of the time that kept a man from peace and happiness. A worthwhile read for a hazy Autumn afternoon.

Reviewed by Phyllis
APOOO BookClub, The Nubian Circle Book Club
September 1, 2003

This is one of the best books I have ever read. Great characters that made the story, an era that is captured in beautiful prose: 'Clara looked like the pictures of Mother the aunts kept on their crowded mantel...from the home place in Mississippi where they'd come from. A place that wasn't there anymore. Had it burned down?...It was lost...sometimes in this life you unaccountably lost things. She, after all, had lost her mother.'

...would have been about right. An intriguing premise, but not fully realized. I think my main problem with the book was with the characterizations. They really didn't ring quite true. Five year old Vivian was unbelievably precocious, new wife Antoinette unbelievably unlikable, lover Odessa unbelievably noble, etc. etc. John Washington, the focus of the novel almost seemed cardboard. It was hard to care one way or the other what happened to him. The ending was also a disappointment. Suddenly the book just ended. The "minor" characters that we followed through the book were suddenly disposed of one by one in a few lines apiece while John and Odessa were granted a couple of unsatisfying pages. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't a terrible book. I just didn't think it lived up to what it could have been.
(By the way, for anyone concerned about profanity, there was no shortage of it in this book.)

Marjorie Kemper captures a sense of place, a sense of time, a sense of humor, and gives you unforgettable characters who will be with you the rest of your life, like it or not. Until That Good Day moves with a voice as original, as constant, and as strong as the Mississippi. Not only the perfect vacation read, it is the one book you will recommend and give for the rest of the year. I can hardly wait for her next novel!