Tempest Rising by Diane McKinney-Whetstone

'synopsis' may belong to another edition of this title. Diane McKinney-Whetstone richly evokes the early 1960s in west Philadelphia in this spicy story of loss and healing, redemption and love. As Ramona struggles with Mae's abuse and her own hatred for the foster children, she also tries to keep at bay a powerful attraction she has for her boyfriend's father. Though Mae is filled with syrupy names like 'pudding' and 'doll face' for the foster girls, she is abusive to her own child, Ramona, a twenty-something stunning beauty. The girls are wrenched from their mother, and as the novel opens they are living in foster care in a working-class neighborhood in the home of Mae, a politically connected card shark. Then everything changes with the suddenness of a violent summer thunderstorm. Clarise, Finch, and their three adolescent daughters are living the dream life of the black financially privileged. He disappears and is presumed dead, and their mother suffers an apparent breakdown. Rating details 1,025 ratings 60 reviews It is 1965 in Philadelphia. But their lives quickly unravel as their father's lucrative catering business collapses.

Tempest lacks an emotional core, leaving the characters to flail miserably in a storm of pretty words and good intentions.Set in west Philadelphia in the early sixties, Tempest Rising tells the story of three sisters, Bliss, Victoria, and Shern, budding adolescents raised in a world of financial privilege among the upper-black-class. Wonderfully drawn character descriptions placed in odd predicaments find their way to a fanciful, ridiculous ending. Tempest Rising reads like a well-written summary. Ramona, a buyer for a local department store, often ends up taking care of the foster kids while Mae is out taking care of Mae.Īnd then there are more characters and more story lines and more flowery writing and long-winded prose. In Part II, readers meet Ramona, the “saucer-eyed, butter-toned West Philly head turner.” She is bitter about how her card-playing, booze-guzzling mother, Mae, takes advantage of her. No character, it seems, is too small to have input. Instead, McKinney-Whetstone shares the insights and history of almost every character she names. Yet, the viewpoint rarely swings in their direction. The story promises to share the tale of three sisters, snatched from the bosom of privilege and forced to find their way in a shaky foster home. Too many characters, too many story lines, too much hand-holding. Grating as a tactic, this is forgivable if there is sufficient payoff. The pages read like a long, literary preface. The voice of Part I of the book rumbles with the authority of a distant narrator.

All of this happens in the first 33 pages of the 280-page book.

Tempest Rising by Diane McKinney-Whetstone