Tumbling (Paperback)

by Diane Mckinney-whetstone (Author) "The black predawn air was filled with movement..." (more)
Key Phrases: red high heels, Reverend Schell, Willie Mann, Tom Moore (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Sunday morning in South Philly, according to McKinney-Whetstone, is "like buttermilk," with "a quiet smoothness to it." The same can be said of this remarkable first novel. A gentle portrait of an African American community in South Philadelphia in the 1940s and '50s, the story probes beneath its residents' lives to tell a powerful tale of damage and healing. Noon is a Florida preacher's daughter too scarred from a secret childhood incident to let a man touch her; her husband, Herbie, is a redcap who met her when he was a hepcat jazz drummer touring with fiery singer Ethel. When newborn Fannie and, five years later, Ethel's five-year-old orphan niece, Liz, are abandoned on Noon and Herbie's doorstep, the embrace of community allows the creation of a family. Many women struggle in private against pain-especially Liz, who hides in the closet and eats plaster to deal with what she knows about Herbie and Ethel. Fannie's prescient visions and her wish to stave off the inevitable underscore an ambivalent view of the power of change. As the threat looms of a highway to be built through the church-centered neighborhood, individual characters find their fates, and the delicately passionate narrative coalesces around a soul-galvanizing metaphor of bricks and mortar and spirit. Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club selection. Author tour.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal
It's been almost a year since Herbie and Noon were married, and still they've had no sexual contact. When Herbie finds a baby on their porch steps one night, he hopes things will change. When nothing happens, he continues to stay out late into the night and takes up with a local club singer. The club singer suddenly leaves to pursue another job, leaving her five-year-old niece in Herbie's care. Thus, Herbie and Noon now must raise two children, one who seems to have the ability to see into the future and another who enjoys eating the plaster off their closet walls. This is an intelligently written first novel set in Philadelphia during the 1940s. The author captures the time, emotions, and lives of the characters well, even if the novel slows down around the midway point. All in all, this will do well in large fiction collections.?Shenise Ross, New York
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: 352 pages
• Publisher: Touchstone; 1st Scribner Paperback Fiction Ed edition (April 9, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684837242
• ISBN-13: 978-0684837246
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (85 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #125,398 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars TUMBLING IS WORTH READING, November 23, 1999

By	Nicole Halsey (new york) - See all my reviews

Tumbling was a little hard to get into I will admit. But by the end of the third chapter I couldn't put it down. There was a down to earthness about the characters and a realness to the prose that I haven't seen in a while. I am tired of African-American contemporary writers who write about frivolous relationships and broken families. Tumbling is literature, I was not only introduced to memorable characters but a united community where the spiritual was almost more powerful than the natural. If you're tired of reading about ghettos and dysfunction in the black community pick up Tumbling. You'll be glad you did.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars changes the face of two, March 26, 2001

By	angela powers (Texas) - See all my reviews

Wow!!!!!! First I'll speak on the book then I'll speak about the author. The book is absolutel OFF THE HOOK! Talking about inquiring minds. This book made me think so much and imagine so much until it was unbeleivable. At first I had to keep going back reading certain passages over and over again trying to be sure of what I previously read. I felt like I was right there with them. I was wound up in each and every character I could barely put the book down.. My favorite character would have to be Fannie. Her commitment to family. Her dedication to Herbie and Noon. How she got so attached to Herbie the first time they laid eyes on each other made me figure right from the beginning she was his. It was something about those eyes. I just couldn't figure who from seeming as though the only two women in his life (that he slept with) were Ethel and Noon. Yea, yea, yea, I know he didn't intimately sleep with noon, but physically he did. For warmth. I couldn't figure that part out. How she got so damaged. Then when I read it I still didn't understand why it took her so long to get healed. I know she was hurt, but my goodness. And to think she was always in church so you would have thought it didn't take all that for restoration. I liked her spirit though, the way she always thought about everybody else. She kept busy in the church. THAT WAS NOON'S CHURCH. She cooked for others weddings, funerals, she served, she sewed. She took care of everybody else but Herbie. Though Herbie wasn't perfect and he had his shortcoming, he was a hard working man who truly loved his wife. I guess I can understand his situation. I don't condone it. I don't want to sound like a heathen, but I guess I understand why he decided to handle it and stick it the way he did. And then the baby didn't make matters any better. To me it just brought more of a commitment to be in a family way. It makes me wonder how many men today would stay married in a situation like that. It most definitely wasn't common or natural for a such an unusual situation to go on in a marriage as long at it did.

This book is so awesome. Not the mention the mind of the author. My friends and I discuss the intellect of the author. I thought it was so untouchable of the imagination to put the character Liz to have such a mental disturbance of "EATING THE WALL." This is beyond me. I have a wild imagination and wonder just interesting she really is. I am truly facinated. This is one book I'll never forget. I love it. This is truly art. Over the past 3 month' I've probably read about 45 to 50 books and out of all the books I read this one probably stands in mind in the top 3. It's is most exciting, easy to read. I highly recommend it. I'm telling I can't say enough about the authors intellect.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars --Oh What A Tangled Web We Weave....--, August 25, 2001

By	Grace Moredock "ebonydiva40" (Indiana, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This novel is set in Philly in the 40's and 50's when the civil right movement was just getting underway keeping secrets were a way of life. Herbie and Noon have been married for a year and haven't "mixed pleasures" because Noon was gang raped at age 12 by devil worshippers in back woods of her Florida home, but by the insistance of her mother hasn't told her husband why she is horrified to have sex with him. Herbie in turn seeks his pleasure mixing with a jazz singing vixen named Ethel who is harboring her own secrets stemming from her childhood. Herbie and Noon come to raise two daughters, one, Fannie, found on their steps one morning as Herbie was coming from the club, and Ethel's five year old niece, Liz, whom she left on the steps one afternoon. Fannie, Liz, Herbie, Ethel, and Noon are entangle forever tumbling through life trying to overcome all the secrets that binds them but will keep you on the edge of your seat waiting to see who finds out what first.