Blurb
A TOWN DIVIDED BY RACE IS HIDING A MIRACLE AMONG ITS SECRETS
Travel seventy years through the secrets of the white Thanos family and the black Taylor family, twisted like strands of yarn woven together on a loom. The wealthy, powerful Nikkos Thanos owns a woolen mill and almost everything else on the north side of Delphi, Missouri, and is the overseer of a fractured society. The brave, judicious Thaddeus “Cousin” Taylor owns a grocery store and a tavern on the south side and carries a past hauntingly shrouded in tragedy. Each man tries to shepherd his part of town through the turmoil of racism, the depression, and war. With the passage of time, those caretaker roles are filled by Evangelina, Nikkos’ beautiful and strong-willed daughter, and T.J., the grandson who worshipped Cousin. Forty-five years after high school, two friends, Ab and Grady, return for the funeral of their mentor, T.J., and walk into the middle of a mystery. They unweave the black and white threads that are the town’s concealed, troubled past, revealing an extraordinary tapestry of life and death, revenge and triumph.
My Perspective
I downloaded this eBook for free on Amazon awhile back.
The story follows the history of two families, the Thanos family and the Taylor family. The Thanos family are white and live on the north side of town, a town that has basically been built by Nikkos, the father of the Thanos family. The Taylor family are black and live on the south side of town and Cousin, the father of the Taylor family, is basically the unofficial leader of the south side. The story is set from 1939 through to 2010 and spans around three generations of the families. It deeply explores the racial tension between whites and blacks in America through a story filled with mystery, intrigue, sadness and redemption.
I had really high hopes for this book because the premise sounded so interesting however i felt it fell a bit flat. It started out really strong and then got a bit lost on the way.
The characters were really interesting however some of them could have been developed a lot more. Even though some of them had a lot of “air time”, i still felt like i barely knew them.
Most of the book was slow paced with a lot of content, the kind of book that doesn’t have you turning the pages as fast as you can, more the kind of book that you slowly digest and can even put down for awhile to process before picking it back up again. The pace wasn’t very consistent though, with big jumps in time and disconnect between chapters where you weren’t really sure what was going on.
I wasn’t sure whether the mystery of the story was meant to be obvious to the reader or not, because i found it was a bit predictable. If that was the intention of the author then it worked well because you wondered whether the characters would be able to figure it out or not and how the story would end – them living the rest of their lives never knowing or them being fully aware of their history and moving forward from it.
Overall it was a good story with a lot of depth and richness however I think it could have benefited from a lot more editing. I would probably still recommend it, especially if you like historical fiction, in particular novels about the racial tension in the USA.
Reading For The Masses 