What do you think?
Rate this book
We Are All Good People Here
From the author of A Place at the Table and A Soft Place to Land , an “intense, complex, and wholly immersive” (Joshilyn Jackson, New York Times bestselling author) multigenerational novel that explores the complex relationship between two very different women and the secrets they bequeath to their daughters.
Eve Whalen, privileged child of an old-money Atlanta family, meets Daniella Gold in the fall of 1962, on their first day at Belmont College. Paired as roommates, the two become fast friends. Daniella, raised in Georgetown by a Jewish father and a Methodist mother, has always felt caught between two worlds. But at Belmont, her bond with Eve allows her to finally experience a sense of belonging. That is, until the girls’ expanding awareness of the South’s systematic injustice forces them to question everything they thought they knew about the world and their places in it.
Eve veers toward radicalism—a choice pragmatic Daniella cannot fathom. After a tragedy, Eve returns to Daniella for help in beginning anew, hoping to shed her past. But the past isn’t so easily buried, as Daniella and Eve discover when their daughters are endangered by secrets meant to stay hidden.
Spanning more than thirty years of American history, from the twilight of Kennedy’s Camelot to the beginning of Bill Clinton’s presidency, We Are All Good People Here is “a captivating…meaningful, resonant story” (Emily Giffin, author of All We Ever Wanted ) about two flawed but well-meaning women clinging to a lifelong friendship that is tested by the rushing waters of history and their own good intentions.
Eve Whalen, privileged child of an old-money Atlanta family, meets Daniella Gold in the fall of 1962, on their first day at Belmont College. Paired as roommates, the two become fast friends. Daniella, raised in Georgetown by a Jewish father and a Methodist mother, has always felt caught between two worlds. But at Belmont, her bond with Eve allows her to finally experience a sense of belonging. That is, until the girls’ expanding awareness of the South’s systematic injustice forces them to question everything they thought they knew about the world and their places in it.
Eve veers toward radicalism—a choice pragmatic Daniella cannot fathom. After a tragedy, Eve returns to Daniella for help in beginning anew, hoping to shed her past. But the past isn’t so easily buried, as Daniella and Eve discover when their daughters are endangered by secrets meant to stay hidden.
Spanning more than thirty years of American history, from the twilight of Kennedy’s Camelot to the beginning of Bill Clinton’s presidency, We Are All Good People Here is “a captivating…meaningful, resonant story” (Emily Giffin, author of All We Ever Wanted ) about two flawed but well-meaning women clinging to a lifelong friendship that is tested by the rushing waters of history and their own good intentions.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published August 6, 2019
About the author
Susan Rebecca White
5 books286 followersSusan Rebecca White is the author of four novels: Bound South, A Soft Place to Land, A Place at the Table, and the forthcoming We Are All Good People Here, which will be published by Atria / Simon & Schuster on August 6, 2019. A graduate of Brown University and the MFA program at Hollins University, Susan has taught creative writing at Hollins, Emory, SCAD, and Mercer University, where she was the Ferrol A. Sams, Jr. Distinguished Chair of English Writer-in-Residence. Susan lives in her hometown of Atlanta with her husband Sam Reid and their son.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 407 reviews
November 2, 2019
Three point five, completely deserved to be rounded up to four because I had great time-travel between 60’s and 80’s and enjoyed well-developed, genuine, character-driven story about two women’s friendship throughout the years which warmed my heart stars!
This story centered around two protagonists who are different from each other like night and day, cold and hot, Eve and Daniella. Eve comes from wealthy Southern family, self-confident, passionate, activist, idealist character. When it comes to Daniella, she has a Jewish family consisted of Academicians, more attentive, deliberate, appreciable girl who doesn’t want to take unnecessary risks in her life. Their opposite characters bring out more conflicts which test their friendship but their unconditional remaining bond is never untied by the struggles they’d gotten through.
It is educational read especially about white upper-class Southern culture, a different approach to Vietnam War and extreme left groups’ propaganda strategies, Kennedy’s assassination. It was vivid and fast reading made me wish I had more pages of this book and read more about those characters’ stories and political, religious, racial, societal turmoil of those times.
Especially second half moved so fast that I just looked at the pages and thought somebody stole some parts because it ended sooner than I expected. I was about to write a letter to the writer for kindly requesting additional pages because I loved her characters and I preferred to spend more time with them (I know they’re fictional. I already told my shrink, too who insisted to see me more than 2 times a week. I told him I already spent his fees for my books. Evil laugh again!)
I liked the satisfying ending. This book was a nice and smooth escape for me after reading too many thrillers. It relaxed me and kept my heart warm with the beautiful, profound, poignant friendship story and additional amazing history lesson.
Thank you to Atria Books and Netgalley to give me the opportunity for reading this ARC COPY in exchange my honest review.
This story centered around two protagonists who are different from each other like night and day, cold and hot, Eve and Daniella. Eve comes from wealthy Southern family, self-confident, passionate, activist, idealist character. When it comes to Daniella, she has a Jewish family consisted of Academicians, more attentive, deliberate, appreciable girl who doesn’t want to take unnecessary risks in her life. Their opposite characters bring out more conflicts which test their friendship but their unconditional remaining bond is never untied by the struggles they’d gotten through.
It is educational read especially about white upper-class Southern culture, a different approach to Vietnam War and extreme left groups’ propaganda strategies, Kennedy’s assassination. It was vivid and fast reading made me wish I had more pages of this book and read more about those characters’ stories and political, religious, racial, societal turmoil of those times.
Especially second half moved so fast that I just looked at the pages and thought somebody stole some parts because it ended sooner than I expected. I was about to write a letter to the writer for kindly requesting additional pages because I loved her characters and I preferred to spend more time with them (I know they’re fictional. I already told my shrink, too who insisted to see me more than 2 times a week. I told him I already spent his fees for my books. Evil laugh again!)
I liked the satisfying ending. This book was a nice and smooth escape for me after reading too many thrillers. It relaxed me and kept my heart warm with the beautiful, profound, poignant friendship story and additional amazing history lesson.
Thank you to Atria Books and Netgalley to give me the opportunity for reading this ARC COPY in exchange my honest review.
August 20, 2019
3.5 rounded up
Social injustices, racism, antisemitism, anti war sentiment of US involvement in Vietnam are some of the issues that are front and center in this story of two young women who forge a friendship in college in the early 1960’s. Eve is from a well to do, elite family in Atlanta, steeped in tradition and their beliefs that the war is fine as long as it’s not their son who has to go, but the son of their black maid -“somebody has to go”. They also believe that their benevolence to their black maid and Eve’s nanny, by simply giving her a job absolves them of any idea that they are racist. Their idealistic and impetuous daughter thinks differently and she rebels through her path of radical activism. Daniella whose father is Jewish, comes from a completely different background and her path is a more tempered one of humanitarian activism. They become best friends, thinking at first that they think and feel very much the same, both with good intentions, but their different responses and actions impact their relationship and it is not until years later that they come together. Eve needs Daniella’s help to get her out the messy, dangerous circumstances she finds herself in after leading a life of radicalism.
I wasn’t immediately taken with the story, but as it progressed, I became more interested, thinking about the different ways that people respond to social injustice and inequality. It was also stunning to think of how some of the issues, particularly with regard to racism and anti semitism are still here today. I was warned about an unnecessarily gruesome scene involving animal abuse . In all honesty, when I got to it, I skipped through it. I don’t understand why it was there. Overall, I thought it was worth reading and I also enjoyed the continuation of the story through the lives of Eve’s and Daniella’s daughters. It was an excellent portrayal of the times spanning the 1960’s - 1980’s, civil rights, Kennedy’s assassination, Vietnam. It’s also an excellent character study that had me thinking about the women’s motivations at various times in the novel.
This ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
Social injustices, racism, antisemitism, anti war sentiment of US involvement in Vietnam are some of the issues that are front and center in this story of two young women who forge a friendship in college in the early 1960’s. Eve is from a well to do, elite family in Atlanta, steeped in tradition and their beliefs that the war is fine as long as it’s not their son who has to go, but the son of their black maid -“somebody has to go”. They also believe that their benevolence to their black maid and Eve’s nanny, by simply giving her a job absolves them of any idea that they are racist. Their idealistic and impetuous daughter thinks differently and she rebels through her path of radical activism. Daniella whose father is Jewish, comes from a completely different background and her path is a more tempered one of humanitarian activism. They become best friends, thinking at first that they think and feel very much the same, both with good intentions, but their different responses and actions impact their relationship and it is not until years later that they come together. Eve needs Daniella’s help to get her out the messy, dangerous circumstances she finds herself in after leading a life of radicalism.
I wasn’t immediately taken with the story, but as it progressed, I became more interested, thinking about the different ways that people respond to social injustice and inequality. It was also stunning to think of how some of the issues, particularly with regard to racism and anti semitism are still here today. I was warned about an unnecessarily gruesome scene involving animal abuse . In all honesty, when I got to it, I skipped through it. I don’t understand why it was there. Overall, I thought it was worth reading and I also enjoyed the continuation of the story through the lives of Eve’s and Daniella’s daughters. It was an excellent portrayal of the times spanning the 1960’s - 1980’s, civil rights, Kennedy’s assassination, Vietnam. It’s also an excellent character study that had me thinking about the women’s motivations at various times in the novel.
This ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
September 9, 2019
We Are All Good People Here by Susan Rebecca White is a 2019 Atria publication.
A familiar theme- but still a compelling thought- provoking story.
The story begins just at the onset of the turbulent sixties where two girls from differing backgrounds meet and bond- not over boys or clothes or parties, but over social injustices they’ve experienced first-hand or were a witness to.
Evelyn Elliot Whalen comes from a wealthy family, while Daniella Gold is from a middle -income family, and whose father happens to be Jewish. The two girls are college roommates and become fast friends. However, their responses to the social injustices they are awakening to are entirely different. While the work with CORE is commendable, there are lines drawn, and sometimes those lines are very blurred. Can change really occur if we color inside those lines? How does well-meaning activism morph into dangerous radicalization?
“We’re all good people here, all trying to muddle through this the best we can."
The ladies take two different paths, each critical of the other’s choices at times. However, their lives converge once again as they raise families of their own. But, when the past comes calling, the decisions they made will affect the next generation and shape them in ways that could solidify their unique familial patterns or break it.
The monumental changes over a thirty- year span of time is highlighted through the two main characters, who cope in different ways, giving the reader plenty of food for thought.
What makes the book even more complex is the southern setting, where certain values and ideals are so deeply embedded it is hard for even the most enlightened progressive thinker to cast them off.
While the author addresses racism and anti- Semitism, she also highlights the polarization of the Vietnam war, and drugs, as well. But we also see the many challenges women faced in the workforce. A woman having a career may be tolerated to a certain extent, but once she had children her career should stop- and forget about advancement or equal pay- just to name a few examples.
The only drawback for me was the disconnect with the characters. It often felt as though I was reading someone’s journal, rather than a fictional drama that plumbs the depths of one’s emotions. The only feelings I could summon were ones of frustration, brought on by some of the choices the characters made.
There is also a rather gruesome scene involving an animal, the imagery of which I could have done without.
This story is one that might not immediately grab you, but as the book progresses, I think the look back on the painful wounds in our country, and various ways people sought to heal those wounds, and bring about change, is what makes the story so compelling.
Certain factions or fringes always spring up in times of turmoil and can often lure in the gentle idealist who has become frustrated by the political climate and the constant cogs in the wheels of change. Because these are the groups that make the headlines, often times, activism of any kind is equated with extremism. This story is most definitely a cautionary tale and I must concur- non-violence and a proper prospective is a must.
But, in truth, the majority of activists, and I consider myself to be one for several important causes, work within the proper guidelines to progress and forge an atmosphere in which we can all play a part, work side by side, and make a difference. It isn’t always perfect, and there have been colossal blunders, but ultimately, great strides have been taken, although they were often very slow in coming. Activism is still important, still powerful and unfortunately, still very necessary.
While this book is primarily the study of the two women who chose different paths, made different choices, and then must cope with the consequences or results of their decisions, it is also a story about friendship, one that endures despite periods of dormancy, and their frustrations and differences.
Although this one failed to push my emotional buttons, and it is a bit slow and uneven at times, I still think that overall, the author reached the goal she set out to accomplish.
3.5 rounded up
A familiar theme- but still a compelling thought- provoking story.
The story begins just at the onset of the turbulent sixties where two girls from differing backgrounds meet and bond- not over boys or clothes or parties, but over social injustices they’ve experienced first-hand or were a witness to.
Evelyn Elliot Whalen comes from a wealthy family, while Daniella Gold is from a middle -income family, and whose father happens to be Jewish. The two girls are college roommates and become fast friends. However, their responses to the social injustices they are awakening to are entirely different. While the work with CORE is commendable, there are lines drawn, and sometimes those lines are very blurred. Can change really occur if we color inside those lines? How does well-meaning activism morph into dangerous radicalization?
“We’re all good people here, all trying to muddle through this the best we can."
The ladies take two different paths, each critical of the other’s choices at times. However, their lives converge once again as they raise families of their own. But, when the past comes calling, the decisions they made will affect the next generation and shape them in ways that could solidify their unique familial patterns or break it.
The monumental changes over a thirty- year span of time is highlighted through the two main characters, who cope in different ways, giving the reader plenty of food for thought.
What makes the book even more complex is the southern setting, where certain values and ideals are so deeply embedded it is hard for even the most enlightened progressive thinker to cast them off.
While the author addresses racism and anti- Semitism, she also highlights the polarization of the Vietnam war, and drugs, as well. But we also see the many challenges women faced in the workforce. A woman having a career may be tolerated to a certain extent, but once she had children her career should stop- and forget about advancement or equal pay- just to name a few examples.
The only drawback for me was the disconnect with the characters. It often felt as though I was reading someone’s journal, rather than a fictional drama that plumbs the depths of one’s emotions. The only feelings I could summon were ones of frustration, brought on by some of the choices the characters made.
There is also a rather gruesome scene involving an animal, the imagery of which I could have done without.
This story is one that might not immediately grab you, but as the book progresses, I think the look back on the painful wounds in our country, and various ways people sought to heal those wounds, and bring about change, is what makes the story so compelling.
Certain factions or fringes always spring up in times of turmoil and can often lure in the gentle idealist who has become frustrated by the political climate and the constant cogs in the wheels of change. Because these are the groups that make the headlines, often times, activism of any kind is equated with extremism. This story is most definitely a cautionary tale and I must concur- non-violence and a proper prospective is a must.
But, in truth, the majority of activists, and I consider myself to be one for several important causes, work within the proper guidelines to progress and forge an atmosphere in which we can all play a part, work side by side, and make a difference. It isn’t always perfect, and there have been colossal blunders, but ultimately, great strides have been taken, although they were often very slow in coming. Activism is still important, still powerful and unfortunately, still very necessary.
While this book is primarily the study of the two women who chose different paths, made different choices, and then must cope with the consequences or results of their decisions, it is also a story about friendship, one that endures despite periods of dormancy, and their frustrations and differences.
Although this one failed to push my emotional buttons, and it is a bit slow and uneven at times, I still think that overall, the author reached the goal she set out to accomplish.
3.5 rounded up
March 23, 2019
“You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows” –Bob Dylan
That is, of course, until you think you do. I’m getting ahead of myself. This novel begins in 1962 with the well worn trope of two girls from different backgrounds thrown together as college roommates at Belmont and become fast friends. The writing is, initially, simplistic which I found off putting. Due to an unsettling event, the girls transfer to Barnard and the writing becomes more sophisticated as the girls lose some of their naiveté. Nice device. Both girls become involved in the civil rights movement during the seething sixties. One becomes a member of a radical left-wing terror organization and the other chooses a different path. Throughout three decades the themes of racism, political unrest, faith and cultural/societal norms are explored. Sound familiar? The voices of the main characters and their daughters are singular and realistic. Suffice it to say that good people with good intentions can put into motion events that have catastrophic outcomes.
That is, of course, until you think you do. I’m getting ahead of myself. This novel begins in 1962 with the well worn trope of two girls from different backgrounds thrown together as college roommates at Belmont and become fast friends. The writing is, initially, simplistic which I found off putting. Due to an unsettling event, the girls transfer to Barnard and the writing becomes more sophisticated as the girls lose some of their naiveté. Nice device. Both girls become involved in the civil rights movement during the seething sixties. One becomes a member of a radical left-wing terror organization and the other chooses a different path. Throughout three decades the themes of racism, political unrest, faith and cultural/societal norms are explored. Sound familiar? The voices of the main characters and their daughters are singular and realistic. Suffice it to say that good people with good intentions can put into motion events that have catastrophic outcomes.
March 22, 2019
No spoilers about the storytelling - no specifics about the **wonderful** storytelling....
More about how I felt....plenty to give a flavor of what readers are in store to read.
I LOVED IT!!!!
Belmont
Roanoke, Virginia 1962
I was excited to read Susan Rebecca White’s novel - the minute I read the blurb. The eye-catching book cover didn’t hurt to pique my interest either...
but when I ‘knew’ for sure that I was in great hands by a new author -to me- was when I read this - only 2% into this novel:
“Oh, I’m so excited to meet you! I don’t mean to be such a *spaz*, but I’ve been looking forward to this moment all summer!
Wow....Rebecca Susan White took me back about 50 years. For some of us old farts - we remember using the term, “you spaz”....
nothing politically correct about the slang word...
So, I don’t mean to be a ‘spaz’, either...when I say...
this novel kept getting better...and better....
Daniella wore “a kelly-green sleeveless shirtdress and a pair of Keds printed with watermelon halves”.
“KELLY-GREEN”... a “SHIRTDRESS”.... and “KEDS”......
My goodness ... did the author find these clothes in my old teenage closet?
Daniella’s shoulder-length blond hair was *teased* ...
*flipped* at the ends... and of course a *barrette*.
Oh my! I feel like I’m 16 years old, again ... smiling down memory land before the internet.
This book is MUCH MORE than Hersheys chocolate over vanilla ice cream, vanilla wafers, hot cocoa, tweed dresses, Peter Pan collars, Capri pants, cashmere sweater sets, and saddle oxfords......
AMERICAN HISTORY WAS CHANGING.....
My heart, mind, and soul were activated.... reawakening feelings in me that had been dormant.
I mostly just want to say ‘amen’ to this luminous book as a calling to us all.....
The memories kept on flooding - page after page. As Bob Dylan sang to the world......Times are a 'changin'....in American History.....
Susan Rebecca White captures visuals, smells, sounds, language, (BUMMER...SEXIST PIG, DIG IT?), music, hygiene, style, families, education, injustice, racism, discrimination, black inequality, casualties of war, Vietnam, smoking joints, long hair, hippies, McGovern buttons, spanning history from President Kennedy’s assassination to president Bill Clinton.
I felt the anger - sick over violence - sadness - and the confusion of the characters resistance to change - (especially the privileged).....The lies of the bourgeoisie were disturbing.
I felt like I WAS IN MISSISSIPPI during the civil rights movement.
The right to vote came.....( with worries)....
....We look at morality, political choices, love, sex, free love, friendship, marriages, babies, divorce, deaths, and struggles of the times through the most wonderful intimate storytelling imaginable: stunningly brilliant!!!!!
I actually cried from so much pride and enjoyment. Literally my entire body felt the impact.
I couldn’t resist.... I downloading Bob Dylan’s 1964 hit release to “The Times They are changin”. With little tears in my eyes - I listened.
For my generation.... Life was never more confusing, chaotic, and politically brutal
than this period of history.
Feelings of Melancholy.....
A message I took away - equally true today....
“Change would not happen without women who held power in the workforce”.
Thank you Atria Books, Netgalley, and Susan Rebecca White
More about how I felt....plenty to give a flavor of what readers are in store to read.
I LOVED IT!!!!
Belmont
Roanoke, Virginia 1962
I was excited to read Susan Rebecca White’s novel - the minute I read the blurb. The eye-catching book cover didn’t hurt to pique my interest either...
but when I ‘knew’ for sure that I was in great hands by a new author -to me- was when I read this - only 2% into this novel:
“Oh, I’m so excited to meet you! I don’t mean to be such a *spaz*, but I’ve been looking forward to this moment all summer!
Wow....Rebecca Susan White took me back about 50 years. For some of us old farts - we remember using the term, “you spaz”....
nothing politically correct about the slang word...
So, I don’t mean to be a ‘spaz’, either...when I say...
this novel kept getting better...and better....
Daniella wore “a kelly-green sleeveless shirtdress and a pair of Keds printed with watermelon halves”.
“KELLY-GREEN”... a “SHIRTDRESS”.... and “KEDS”......
My goodness ... did the author find these clothes in my old teenage closet?
Daniella’s shoulder-length blond hair was *teased* ...
*flipped* at the ends... and of course a *barrette*.
Oh my! I feel like I’m 16 years old, again ... smiling down memory land before the internet.
This book is MUCH MORE than Hersheys chocolate over vanilla ice cream, vanilla wafers, hot cocoa, tweed dresses, Peter Pan collars, Capri pants, cashmere sweater sets, and saddle oxfords......
AMERICAN HISTORY WAS CHANGING.....
My heart, mind, and soul were activated.... reawakening feelings in me that had been dormant.
I mostly just want to say ‘amen’ to this luminous book as a calling to us all.....
The memories kept on flooding - page after page. As Bob Dylan sang to the world......Times are a 'changin'....in American History.....
Susan Rebecca White captures visuals, smells, sounds, language, (BUMMER...SEXIST PIG, DIG IT?), music, hygiene, style, families, education, injustice, racism, discrimination, black inequality, casualties of war, Vietnam, smoking joints, long hair, hippies, McGovern buttons, spanning history from President Kennedy’s assassination to president Bill Clinton.
I felt the anger - sick over violence - sadness - and the confusion of the characters resistance to change - (especially the privileged).....The lies of the bourgeoisie were disturbing.
I felt like I WAS IN MISSISSIPPI during the civil rights movement.
The right to vote came.....( with worries)....
....We look at morality, political choices, love, sex, free love, friendship, marriages, babies, divorce, deaths, and struggles of the times through the most wonderful intimate storytelling imaginable: stunningly brilliant!!!!!
I actually cried from so much pride and enjoyment. Literally my entire body felt the impact.
I couldn’t resist.... I downloading Bob Dylan’s 1964 hit release to “The Times They are changin”. With little tears in my eyes - I listened.
For my generation.... Life was never more confusing, chaotic, and politically brutal
than this period of history.
Feelings of Melancholy.....
A message I took away - equally true today....
“Change would not happen without women who held power in the workforce”.
Thank you Atria Books, Netgalley, and Susan Rebecca White
August 26, 2019
We Are All Good People Here is the story of Eve Whalen and Daniella Gold, who meet in college at Belmont in the early 1960s. The girls are from contrasting backgrounds and the college experience is eye-opening for both of them as social injustices and political events are revealed, changing their perspectives.
After college, Eve joins the radical movement and Daniella attends law school. The story follows Eve and Daniella through their various paths in life over the years, with the final part of the book focusing on each of their daughters, Anna and Sarah.
I ended up enjoying We Are All Good People Here more than I thought I initially would - The beginning was ok, the middle became boring for me, but then, fortunately, the final part picked up. Recognizing there was a lot going on in the U.S. during the decades of this story, I did feel like the book tried to touch on too many subjects instead of selecting 1-2 to give greater more detailed focus. The topics were relevant for the time period of the story yet I couldn’t help but think “What else will be thrown in next?”
While there are many themes and takeaways, We Are All Good People Here reinforces that some ideas are subjective, it’s easy to judge others, and there are multiple ways to partake in the act of doing good.
Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
After college, Eve joins the radical movement and Daniella attends law school. The story follows Eve and Daniella through their various paths in life over the years, with the final part of the book focusing on each of their daughters, Anna and Sarah.
I ended up enjoying We Are All Good People Here more than I thought I initially would - The beginning was ok, the middle became boring for me, but then, fortunately, the final part picked up. Recognizing there was a lot going on in the U.S. during the decades of this story, I did feel like the book tried to touch on too many subjects instead of selecting 1-2 to give greater more detailed focus. The topics were relevant for the time period of the story yet I couldn’t help but think “What else will be thrown in next?”
While there are many themes and takeaways, We Are All Good People Here reinforces that some ideas are subjective, it’s easy to judge others, and there are multiple ways to partake in the act of doing good.
Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
July 6, 2019
”We can never be gods, after all—but we can become something less than human with frightening ease.”
— N. K. Jemisin
Beginning in the year 1962, this story centers around two young women - girls, really - entering their first year of college. Set against the backdrop of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Roanoke, Virginia, Belmont College prides itself in the beauty and brains their young women have. The first of these two to arrive was Evelyn, Eve, who embraces Daniella in a welcoming hug when she arrives with her parents. Eve manages to quickly bond with Daniella’s mother over Eve’s tea set, the pattern being the same as the set Daniella’s Mother Scott left her. Her mother insists that the two girls are bound to be “a match made in heaven.”
I loved the references to the clothing, the music, the shoes, the decorations, even the colour schemes that were included, all of that had me smiling even while I wondered when we were going to get to the 1960’s, those revolutionary years that birthed so many changes, some good, some not so good, regardless of the original intent. It didn’t take long for this to really pick up the pace, once a cause that hits home to Eve has less than positive results.
There were some fairly iconic events during that time, the War in Vietnam, the Freedom Rides were just beginning, MLK became a household name, sit-ins for desegregation, and then later for anti-war protests, clothing changed, hairstyles changed, and families who once were friendly stopped sharing their opinions. JFK was shot, and then Bobby Kennedy, and MLK. The Beatles brought a change in music, and music changed beyond that. Music became a way to voice anger, frustration, distrust of the government, protest and also love as a solution. On the other side were people who had been perfectly happy with life before desegregation, who thought the war was a good thing, and protested the changes, the attempts at changes in a more volatile way, and soon, so did the other side.
Turbulent times tend to polarize people, and the further one of them goes in one direction, the other one tends to go in the opposite one. Their friendship becomes, if not strained then… perhaps less substantial at times over the decades this story covers, in part because they are no longer living near each other.
White manages to take these two very different women, their families, and bring them - along with three decades of history - to life in this mesmerizing story that was occasionally disturbing, entertaining, and yet retained a realistic and empathetic sense of the complexity of these relationships.
Pub Date: 06 Aug 2019
Many thanks for the ARC provided by my Book Angel!
— N. K. Jemisin
Beginning in the year 1962, this story centers around two young women - girls, really - entering their first year of college. Set against the backdrop of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Roanoke, Virginia, Belmont College prides itself in the beauty and brains their young women have. The first of these two to arrive was Evelyn, Eve, who embraces Daniella in a welcoming hug when she arrives with her parents. Eve manages to quickly bond with Daniella’s mother over Eve’s tea set, the pattern being the same as the set Daniella’s Mother Scott left her. Her mother insists that the two girls are bound to be “a match made in heaven.”
I loved the references to the clothing, the music, the shoes, the decorations, even the colour schemes that were included, all of that had me smiling even while I wondered when we were going to get to the 1960’s, those revolutionary years that birthed so many changes, some good, some not so good, regardless of the original intent. It didn’t take long for this to really pick up the pace, once a cause that hits home to Eve has less than positive results.
There were some fairly iconic events during that time, the War in Vietnam, the Freedom Rides were just beginning, MLK became a household name, sit-ins for desegregation, and then later for anti-war protests, clothing changed, hairstyles changed, and families who once were friendly stopped sharing their opinions. JFK was shot, and then Bobby Kennedy, and MLK. The Beatles brought a change in music, and music changed beyond that. Music became a way to voice anger, frustration, distrust of the government, protest and also love as a solution. On the other side were people who had been perfectly happy with life before desegregation, who thought the war was a good thing, and protested the changes, the attempts at changes in a more volatile way, and soon, so did the other side.
Turbulent times tend to polarize people, and the further one of them goes in one direction, the other one tends to go in the opposite one. Their friendship becomes, if not strained then… perhaps less substantial at times over the decades this story covers, in part because they are no longer living near each other.
White manages to take these two very different women, their families, and bring them - along with three decades of history - to life in this mesmerizing story that was occasionally disturbing, entertaining, and yet retained a realistic and empathetic sense of the complexity of these relationships.
Pub Date: 06 Aug 2019
Many thanks for the ARC provided by my Book Angel!
July 13, 2019
I seem to be on a roll reading historical fiction, especially books about the 1960s. We Are All Good People Here, starts in the 1960s and moves forward, tracking two women that meet as college freshmen. Despite opposite backgrounds, they bond. So much of this brought memories flooding back to me. White totally captures the times - the racial inequities, the sexism, the politics. At first, I worried that this was going to be women’s lit, fluff and the characters would be caricatures. But White surprised me. There are some hard core scenes here, one of which caused me to lose all respect for Eve. A respect I never did retrieve, especially as she seems to move from just following one man or another. Flip side, I found Daniella to be totally relatable as she seeks to fight first the sexism and then, the racism of the day.
The story drags in the middle, as we veer from one generation to the next. To be honest, I never quite regained my interest in the book after we move into the third decade. It came across as just trying to tick off the hot issues - date rape, acceptance of gays, the rise of conservative religious beliefs.
I’m thinking this is a case of the author trying to do too much. I can’t help but wonder if I would have liked the book more if it had just stayed focused on Eve and Daniella and their earlier years.
My thanks to netgalley and Atria Books for an advance copy of this book.
The story drags in the middle, as we veer from one generation to the next. To be honest, I never quite regained my interest in the book after we move into the third decade. It came across as just trying to tick off the hot issues - date rape, acceptance of gays, the rise of conservative religious beliefs.
I’m thinking this is a case of the author trying to do too much. I can’t help but wonder if I would have liked the book more if it had just stayed focused on Eve and Daniella and their earlier years.
My thanks to netgalley and Atria Books for an advance copy of this book.
Read
July 6, 2019Although the time period is authentically portrayed, I am ending at 40%. Can't deal with that cat scene, not only can't but won't. Don't feel the story would have been any less had that been left out.
August 14, 2019
4 stars - Definitely a solid read for me.
I definitely liked this more than I thought I would. I also really enjoyed the period it covered (60s-80s) as it was timely, (lots to compare to today’s headlines) and also educational for this child of the early 80s.
Eve Whalen and Daniella Gold become fast friends when they are assigned as each other's roommates in their prestigious, women's college in Atlanta during the early 1960's. They bond over shared indignation that the maids (all colored) live in the basement and are required to live with the students they care for, around the clock during the week. Eve also stands by her new best friend when Daniella is shunned from joining the sororities on campus because she is Jewish. As we move through the tumultuous times of the Vietnam era and beyond, both of their lives take a vastly different turn. It is much later they reconnect and follow their lives (and that of each daughter) through the late 1980s.
I'm not sure if I had a better reaction to this because I didn't live through this time period so a lot of it is new? My parents who came of age during the Vietnam era (and are about the same age as our main characters in the book) didn't share a lot of their experiences during this time in their life with me. All I really know is that they were against the war vehemently and that's about it. So reading everything through the experience of Eve who joined a radical alt-left group fighting against the US government was entirely new. (Also, extremely interesting and terrifying.) I also liked the earlier part of the book that took place during their college years because it gave a lot of perspective of the white, upper-middle class South of which I haven't read too much of. It piqued the little sociologist in me to read about something so foreign!
Where I found I was frustrated with the first half, I was thankful for in the second (which is weird how that worked out). I felt like I was kept at arms length from Eve and Daniella because so much is found out through the other person's perspective and time jumps rather quickly. I wanted to learn more about what they went through each day and maybe spend more time in this part of the book. However, in the second half, I didn't mind that as much (maybe because I was used to it at that point) and also because I appreciated it as the story wound down. (The book would have been well over 400+ pages if everything was told at length.)
Overall, I felt the writing was very good, I learned a lot of new things and I was never bored. At a little over 250 pages, this was a great read and one I definitely enjoyed.
Thank you to Netgalley, Atria Books and Susan Rebecca White for the opportunity to read this and provide an honest review.
Review Date: 8/13/19
Publication Date: 8/6/19
I definitely liked this more than I thought I would. I also really enjoyed the period it covered (60s-80s) as it was timely, (lots to compare to today’s headlines) and also educational for this child of the early 80s.
Eve Whalen and Daniella Gold become fast friends when they are assigned as each other's roommates in their prestigious, women's college in Atlanta during the early 1960's. They bond over shared indignation that the maids (all colored) live in the basement and are required to live with the students they care for, around the clock during the week. Eve also stands by her new best friend when Daniella is shunned from joining the sororities on campus because she is Jewish. As we move through the tumultuous times of the Vietnam era and beyond, both of their lives take a vastly different turn. It is much later they reconnect and follow their lives (and that of each daughter) through the late 1980s.
I'm not sure if I had a better reaction to this because I didn't live through this time period so a lot of it is new? My parents who came of age during the Vietnam era (and are about the same age as our main characters in the book) didn't share a lot of their experiences during this time in their life with me. All I really know is that they were against the war vehemently and that's about it. So reading everything through the experience of Eve who joined a radical alt-left group fighting against the US government was entirely new. (Also, extremely interesting and terrifying.) I also liked the earlier part of the book that took place during their college years because it gave a lot of perspective of the white, upper-middle class South of which I haven't read too much of. It piqued the little sociologist in me to read about something so foreign!
Where I found I was frustrated with the first half, I was thankful for in the second (which is weird how that worked out). I felt like I was kept at arms length from Eve and Daniella because so much is found out through the other person's perspective and time jumps rather quickly. I wanted to learn more about what they went through each day and maybe spend more time in this part of the book. However, in the second half, I didn't mind that as much (maybe because I was used to it at that point) and also because I appreciated it as the story wound down. (The book would have been well over 400+ pages if everything was told at length.)
Overall, I felt the writing was very good, I learned a lot of new things and I was never bored. At a little over 250 pages, this was a great read and one I definitely enjoyed.
Thank you to Netgalley, Atria Books and Susan Rebecca White for the opportunity to read this and provide an honest review.
Review Date: 8/13/19
Publication Date: 8/6/19
May 23, 2019
3.5 for this one, I’ll round it up.
Daniella and Eve meet when they start college and are paired as roommates at Belmont in Roanoke, Virginia 1962.
They become the best of friends and end up becoming involved in the social issues of the time, Eve.. becoming extremely radical.
This is a multigenerational story, you will also see the coming up years of their own daughters.
It covers thirty years of American history, from Kennedy’s Camelot through the Vietnam War and racial issues, etc.
The subject matter I always like reading about because I was born in 1958, and lived through much of these times as a child but wasn’t completely aware of everything going on in the world since I was so young.
Thank you to Netgalley and Simon and Schuster for the ARC!
Daniella and Eve meet when they start college and are paired as roommates at Belmont in Roanoke, Virginia 1962.
They become the best of friends and end up becoming involved in the social issues of the time, Eve.. becoming extremely radical.
This is a multigenerational story, you will also see the coming up years of their own daughters.
It covers thirty years of American history, from Kennedy’s Camelot through the Vietnam War and racial issues, etc.
The subject matter I always like reading about because I was born in 1958, and lived through much of these times as a child but wasn’t completely aware of everything going on in the world since I was so young.
Thank you to Netgalley and Simon and Schuster for the ARC!
February 2, 2020
The novel begins with two young, idealistic women from very different backgrounds, yet with similar ideas about social justice, then takes them down radically different paths, their choices shaping their lives in ways big and small. Beginning in the 60s and following their stories through three decades, eventually filtering their experiences through the eyes of their daughters, this story spans the tumult of an era and captures time and place remarkably well.
The title is derived from one character’s observation that ‘we are all good people here, trying to muddle through the best we can,’ yet one character’s naiveté and conscription to extremist ideology left me to wonder if that’s just a way to excuse bad behavior. As her friend points out later, ‘life has offered her so many opportunities, so many second chances…yet she continues to bury herself in the dogma of whoever has captured her attention at the moment.’ And that, my friends, is at the crux of the novel.
And as a visual person and one who applauds an engaging cover that amplifies a book’s theme, this one gets ALL the stars. The ambiguity it portrays*, the use of negative space that can be seen two ways--face front or profile--illustrates the point that two people can see the same thing, interpret in different ways and take action in vastly dissimilar ways.
‘…sometimes it is possible to right a wrong, but you have to work for it. Justice does not simply show up on its own, gliding in on the wings of platitudes and the promise of prayers.’
While I didn’t love this novel, never becoming fully engaged hence 3.5 stars rounded down, it was well written and thought provoking which elicited a lively discussion at our book club, the author’s intent fully realized. I hope that this book might help readers look at their blind spots, no matter where they fall on the political spectrum, will recognize how dangerous ideological purity is--removed from love, removed from mercy, removed from compassion.’
Preach, sister, preach!
* For word nerds and information junkies like me, this kind of illustration is referred to as Rubin’s Vase or Rubin’s faces.
The title is derived from one character’s observation that ‘we are all good people here, trying to muddle through the best we can,’ yet one character’s naiveté and conscription to extremist ideology left me to wonder if that’s just a way to excuse bad behavior. As her friend points out later, ‘life has offered her so many opportunities, so many second chances…yet she continues to bury herself in the dogma of whoever has captured her attention at the moment.’ And that, my friends, is at the crux of the novel.
And as a visual person and one who applauds an engaging cover that amplifies a book’s theme, this one gets ALL the stars. The ambiguity it portrays*, the use of negative space that can be seen two ways--face front or profile--illustrates the point that two people can see the same thing, interpret in different ways and take action in vastly dissimilar ways.
‘…sometimes it is possible to right a wrong, but you have to work for it. Justice does not simply show up on its own, gliding in on the wings of platitudes and the promise of prayers.’
While I didn’t love this novel, never becoming fully engaged hence 3.5 stars rounded down, it was well written and thought provoking which elicited a lively discussion at our book club, the author’s intent fully realized. I hope that this book might help readers look at their blind spots, no matter where they fall on the political spectrum, will recognize how dangerous ideological purity is--removed from love, removed from mercy, removed from compassion.’
Preach, sister, preach!
* For word nerds and information junkies like me, this kind of illustration is referred to as Rubin’s Vase or Rubin’s faces.
November 2, 2019
“We Are All Good People Here” by Susan Rebecca White is a story of two women who meet at a women’s college in the beginning of the “60’s. The women, Eve and Daniella, come from two very different backgrounds with differing ideas of what college will mean for them. Eve is a pampered southern belle who intends to pledge a sorority, get her MRS degree, and live a privileged life in Atlanta. Danielle is middle class, from Georgetown, with two working parents, her father Jewish, and she plans to be a professional working woman. Eve arrives with her Grandmother’s silver tea set and mink coats. Daniella arrives with a small valise with basics. This school has black maids who do the girls laundry, clean their dorm rooms, and well, be maids.
Daniella is aghast that the maids are treated as slaves for the over-privileged girls. Eve doesn’t bat an eye, as she was raised by a black woman while her mother socialized. Long story short, the girls bond over social injustices. Eve is very mailable, which portends her turbulent future
The story is slow to begin, dragging through some of the college years. Eve becomes mixed up in an underground anti-war radical group while Daniella spends her time fighting racism. Daniella who awoke Eve to racial and social injustices, and injustices everywhere, is the steady intellectual girl who plans out correct methods to seek change. Eve is a bit flightier and is easily manipulated. Eve’s antics in her early twenties are difficult to read. White shows, through Eve how naïve young adults fell victim to charismatic leaders.
Although the girls lose track of each other, they get together when Eve finds herself in a jam, and Daniella, an attorney, helps her. Daniella has her own injustices, as a female attorney in an all-male firm, she is discriminated because of her gender.
Both Eve and Daniella have children at around the same time, and their girls become friends. Eve goes back to her pampered lifestyle, while Daniella fights tooth and nail to be successful. White uses Daniella to show the gender injustices of working women in the ‘70’s and ‘80’s. Plus, Daniella has childcare issues that were a growing problem with the working women of that time.
This is a story of the social changes of the ‘60’s through ‘80’s that have nuances, especially in the south. It’s a story of two women who make different choices and how those choices impact their lives and their children’s lives. Each woman is flawed, and each has amazing strengths. They are kind and generous in different ways. Yet, they are totally different people. I like it. It is a thought-provoking novel.
Daniella is aghast that the maids are treated as slaves for the over-privileged girls. Eve doesn’t bat an eye, as she was raised by a black woman while her mother socialized. Long story short, the girls bond over social injustices. Eve is very mailable, which portends her turbulent future
The story is slow to begin, dragging through some of the college years. Eve becomes mixed up in an underground anti-war radical group while Daniella spends her time fighting racism. Daniella who awoke Eve to racial and social injustices, and injustices everywhere, is the steady intellectual girl who plans out correct methods to seek change. Eve is a bit flightier and is easily manipulated. Eve’s antics in her early twenties are difficult to read. White shows, through Eve how naïve young adults fell victim to charismatic leaders.
Although the girls lose track of each other, they get together when Eve finds herself in a jam, and Daniella, an attorney, helps her. Daniella has her own injustices, as a female attorney in an all-male firm, she is discriminated because of her gender.
Both Eve and Daniella have children at around the same time, and their girls become friends. Eve goes back to her pampered lifestyle, while Daniella fights tooth and nail to be successful. White uses Daniella to show the gender injustices of working women in the ‘70’s and ‘80’s. Plus, Daniella has childcare issues that were a growing problem with the working women of that time.
This is a story of the social changes of the ‘60’s through ‘80’s that have nuances, especially in the south. It’s a story of two women who make different choices and how those choices impact their lives and their children’s lives. Each woman is flawed, and each has amazing strengths. They are kind and generous in different ways. Yet, they are totally different people. I like it. It is a thought-provoking novel.
July 24, 2019
I must admit that I had a hard time putting this one down. There was something about the characters and their story that really worked for me. Eve and Daniella meet as freshmen in a small girls college in the south in the early 1960s. Eve comes from a very wealthy southern family, and Daniella is half Jewish and comes from an academic family. The story chronicles several decades of their frought friendship. The novel doesn't really play out in the way one might expect given their backgrounds. Rather than playing on stereotypes, the author gives them both distinct personalities that also influence their paths. Eve has an extremist idealistic tendency, and she throws herself into everything with passion -- often to her own detriment and to the detriment of others. Daniella is more careful and measured. This brings them into conflict, but there is nevertheless a deep bond between them. In later years, the story shifts a bit and focuses on their daughters -- a part I liked too, but not quite as much. The end was not quite tidy, which was another plus as far as I'm concerned. I would call this a really good character study.
One warning: don't read this book if you have any issues with reading about animal cruelty. There's one scene in the middle that's hard to stomach.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an opportunity to read an advance copy.
One warning: don't read this book if you have any issues with reading about animal cruelty. There's one scene in the middle that's hard to stomach.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an opportunity to read an advance copy.
August 6, 2019
Check out my fascinating Q&A Elevator Interview with the master Southern storyteller, Susan Rebecca White. Get exclusive behind-the-scene inspiration of her extraordinary novel, WE ARE ALL GOOD PEOPLE HERE, plus fun facts about the author.
I am excited to share with you one of my favorite Southern authors, master storyteller, Susan Rebecca White, and her latest highly anticipated novel, WE ARE ALL GOOD PEOPLE HERE— "cover of the year" and Top Books of 2019!🏆
A few months ago, I stumbled upon this vibrant cover, a stunning "optical illusion" and was spellbound. It drew me in. I "must" read this book. But wait, next, OMG, I noticed the author's name...Could this possibly be "the" Susan Rebecca White?
The Atlanta Southern Author I adore, who wrote A Place at the Table (LOVED), A Soft Place to Land, and Bound South (all favorites)? I read each of these books years ago (all 5 Glowing Stars) 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟. I fell in love with the author's authentic storytelling and her way of making the characters jump off the page. A Place at the Table landed on my Top Books of 2014, and have been anxiously awaiting her next book.
Immediately, I go to her profile on Amazon and, YES! it is the "same" Susan Rebecca White! Where has this gal been? Five years. (Yes, I do stalk my favorite popular authors anxiously waiting for the next book). Trust me, it is worth the wait.
You can guess I went a little "crazy" and started emailing everyone to snag an ARC copy of this book, dying to get her on my editorial schedule for a Q&A Interview, even though I had already scheduled four others for August. (thank you, Atria) A dream come true. As an Atlanta gal, I have always supported Atlanta and Southern authors.
OK, now that I have told you about my obsession, I do not want to take too much time telling you how fabulous Susan Rebecca White truly is, so we can get into this interview and her latest novel. She is amazing.
I love her writing and highly recommend each of her books, but her latest book is a true "masterpiece." Her most accomplished novel yet! As with her previous books, Susan writes about the underdog, the injustices, racism, diversity, family, the South, history, religion, and the complexities of life.
Highly charged emotional topics, all her books are character-driven. Different people from all walks of life come together. She does not hold back. I call this one her "grownup" real-life book—totally "radical."
As the author mentions, we can try to rewrite our history, but the truth will eventually surface, as we find in her latest novel. How women, in particular, feel the need to reinvent who they once were when they have children
WE ARE ALL GOOD PEOPLE HERE brilliantly explores the lives of two young women who form a bond starting at Belmont College in the 60s, and their lives are forever changed. Often it takes one incident to ignite a movement. A gripping, multi-generational story inspired by real events that follow their friendship for years to come, even though they take different paths.
Can you imagine a debutante going underground? From political awakening, social classes, racial, privilege, justice, causes, passions, duty, love, friendship, family, and moral divides.
The first half of the book, we follow the turbulent 70s with two women from college and beyond. (this is the era I lived through: college, marriage, children).
The second half of the book, we catch up with their daughters as the dark secrets of the past began to unravel. This novel covers an incredible period—from the early 1960s to the 1990s.
The story resonates with what we are dealing with today across America in these trying and turbulent times. Ironically, Georgia ranks among the worst states in America for women’s equality. Often you think we are going backward instead of forward.
Georgia has always been a controversial state, particularly Atlanta. I resided in Vinings, Buckhead, and Midtown and was in the media business as an associate publisher (Atlanta B&B Magazine), Black's Guide, Network Publishing, Cahners/Reed, and publisher (Primedia) for many years before relocating to South Florida full time. Atlanta will always be home for me and often meet up with my sons there which reside in NC.
Look at what is going on in the headlines at the moment: Controversial anti-abortion bill passes in Georgia State Senate. Controversial Atlanta judge hit with ethics charges by state watchdog agency. Celebrities postpone events and shows. An activist artist removes controversial art from the Atlanta beltway. Atlanta's Controversial 'Cityhood' Movement. They also have an Atlanta Controversial Topics Group. And the list goes on and on. Atlanta is diverse. Spread-out, and traffic is a nightmare. It is forever changing.
Without individuals who speak up, take action, risk their lives for a bigger cause, where would our country be? As referenced in this extraordinary blending of fact and fiction, the author explores courageous woman and men who have stood on their beliefs to create change. I totally agree with one of the author's previous interviews. Atlanta is the perfect setting for these rich fictional stories.
In WE ARE ALL GOOD PEOPLE HERE, the author proposes many thought-provoking questions:
White offers detailed historical research into the Weather Underground Organization, documentaries, and other references for additional reading. I particularly enjoyed learning more about the Mississippi Summer Project, “Freedom Summer,” and what occurred during those months and enjoyed learning more about Bob Moses and particularly, Fannie Lou Hamer.
Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer’s role in the civil rights movement was absolutely fundamental and blown away by her continuous courage to overcome obstacles and providing a voice for others. Read More on Susan's website.
The true essence of the story, as the author so eloquently describes:
Indeed, you accomplished your goal and exceeded all expectations!
I cannot wait to tell everyone about this powerful book. I am a huge fan of shows such as Underground (2016), Queen Sugar, and The Good Fight, etc. Flannery O'Connor would be proud! You will note many similarities here ripped from today’s headlines.
If you are new to the author's work, I highly recommend reading her previous books as well, listed below. I hope you enjoy reading as much as I did and look forward to your thoughts.
PS. Since these are some of my long-time favorite Southern authors, please take a moment to review the recent feature in Atlanta Magazine, Scribes of Summer. Atlanta authors talk about their latest books and invite us inside the writer’s life.
Congrats, Susan another hit!
A special thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for an advanced reading copy.
@JudithDCollins
#JDCMustReadBooks
I am excited to share with you one of my favorite Southern authors, master storyteller, Susan Rebecca White, and her latest highly anticipated novel, WE ARE ALL GOOD PEOPLE HERE— "cover of the year" and Top Books of 2019!🏆
A few months ago, I stumbled upon this vibrant cover, a stunning "optical illusion" and was spellbound. It drew me in. I "must" read this book. But wait, next, OMG, I noticed the author's name...Could this possibly be "the" Susan Rebecca White?
The Atlanta Southern Author I adore, who wrote A Place at the Table (LOVED), A Soft Place to Land, and Bound South (all favorites)? I read each of these books years ago (all 5 Glowing Stars) 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟. I fell in love with the author's authentic storytelling and her way of making the characters jump off the page. A Place at the Table landed on my Top Books of 2014, and have been anxiously awaiting her next book.
Immediately, I go to her profile on Amazon and, YES! it is the "same" Susan Rebecca White! Where has this gal been? Five years. (Yes, I do stalk my favorite popular authors anxiously waiting for the next book). Trust me, it is worth the wait.
You can guess I went a little "crazy" and started emailing everyone to snag an ARC copy of this book, dying to get her on my editorial schedule for a Q&A Interview, even though I had already scheduled four others for August. (thank you, Atria) A dream come true. As an Atlanta gal, I have always supported Atlanta and Southern authors.
OK, now that I have told you about my obsession, I do not want to take too much time telling you how fabulous Susan Rebecca White truly is, so we can get into this interview and her latest novel. She is amazing.
I love her writing and highly recommend each of her books, but her latest book is a true "masterpiece." Her most accomplished novel yet! As with her previous books, Susan writes about the underdog, the injustices, racism, diversity, family, the South, history, religion, and the complexities of life.
Highly charged emotional topics, all her books are character-driven. Different people from all walks of life come together. She does not hold back. I call this one her "grownup" real-life book—totally "radical."
As the author mentions, we can try to rewrite our history, but the truth will eventually surface, as we find in her latest novel. How women, in particular, feel the need to reinvent who they once were when they have children
WE ARE ALL GOOD PEOPLE HERE brilliantly explores the lives of two young women who form a bond starting at Belmont College in the 60s, and their lives are forever changed. Often it takes one incident to ignite a movement. A gripping, multi-generational story inspired by real events that follow their friendship for years to come, even though they take different paths.
Can you imagine a debutante going underground? From political awakening, social classes, racial, privilege, justice, causes, passions, duty, love, friendship, family, and moral divides.
The first half of the book, we follow the turbulent 70s with two women from college and beyond. (this is the era I lived through: college, marriage, children).
The second half of the book, we catch up with their daughters as the dark secrets of the past began to unravel. This novel covers an incredible period—from the early 1960s to the 1990s.
The story resonates with what we are dealing with today across America in these trying and turbulent times. Ironically, Georgia ranks among the worst states in America for women’s equality. Often you think we are going backward instead of forward.
Georgia has always been a controversial state, particularly Atlanta. I resided in Vinings, Buckhead, and Midtown and was in the media business as an associate publisher (Atlanta B&B Magazine), Black's Guide, Network Publishing, Cahners/Reed, and publisher (Primedia) for many years before relocating to South Florida full time. Atlanta will always be home for me and often meet up with my sons there which reside in NC.
Look at what is going on in the headlines at the moment: Controversial anti-abortion bill passes in Georgia State Senate. Controversial Atlanta judge hit with ethics charges by state watchdog agency. Celebrities postpone events and shows. An activist artist removes controversial art from the Atlanta beltway. Atlanta's Controversial 'Cityhood' Movement. They also have an Atlanta Controversial Topics Group. And the list goes on and on. Atlanta is diverse. Spread-out, and traffic is a nightmare. It is forever changing.
Without individuals who speak up, take action, risk their lives for a bigger cause, where would our country be? As referenced in this extraordinary blending of fact and fiction, the author explores courageous woman and men who have stood on their beliefs to create change. I totally agree with one of the author's previous interviews. Atlanta is the perfect setting for these rich fictional stories.
In WE ARE ALL GOOD PEOPLE HERE, the author proposes many thought-provoking questions:
Why do good intentions often lead to tragic outcomes? Can we separate our political choices and our personal morals? And is it possible to truly bury our former selves and escape our own history? She adds a new dimension. Actions have consequences.
White offers detailed historical research into the Weather Underground Organization, documentaries, and other references for additional reading. I particularly enjoyed learning more about the Mississippi Summer Project, “Freedom Summer,” and what occurred during those months and enjoyed learning more about Bob Moses and particularly, Fannie Lou Hamer.
Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer’s role in the civil rights movement was absolutely fundamental and blown away by her continuous courage to overcome obstacles and providing a voice for others. Read More on Susan's website.
The true essence of the story, as the author so eloquently describes:
"[I] I hope that readers, no matter where they fall on the political spectrum, will recognize how dangerous ideological purity is—removed from love, removed from mercy, removed from compassion. I hope this book encourages readers to seek justice, but with love."
Indeed, you accomplished your goal and exceeded all expectations!
I cannot wait to tell everyone about this powerful book. I am a huge fan of shows such as Underground (2016), Queen Sugar, and The Good Fight, etc. Flannery O'Connor would be proud! You will note many similarities here ripped from today’s headlines.
If you are new to the author's work, I highly recommend reading her previous books as well, listed below. I hope you enjoy reading as much as I did and look forward to your thoughts.
PS. Since these are some of my long-time favorite Southern authors, please take a moment to review the recent feature in Atlanta Magazine, Scribes of Summer. Atlanta authors talk about their latest books and invite us inside the writer’s life.
Congrats, Susan another hit!
A special thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for an advanced reading copy.
@JudithDCollins
#JDCMustReadBooks
September 9, 2019
I was fascinated by the character development in this saga of two female friends from their college days in the early 60s and on through the social turbulence of the 70s and 80s. Daniella is from a progressive academic family in the DC area while her roommate Eve is from a conservative, wealthy family in Atlanta. From their arrival at a small prestigious college in Virginia we follow them overcoming their divergent backgrounds to become best friends. In the midst of the sorority rush process, they both get disgusted by the system for perpetuating class privilege, and Eve gets radicalized over the oppression of the black maids in residence in the basement of the school’s dorms. Together they transfer to Barnard College in New York, where they soon drift apart as Daniella pragmatically invests herself in academic achievement, marriage, and a law career and Eve pursues initially an escapist bohemian lifestyle and then a dedicated path of anti-war protest leading to violent activism in a group like the Weathermen.
Something happens that puts Eve in trouble and brings Daniella to take risks to render her help, in the process reviving their friendship. The story could have ended there as a sort of morality tale on the power of friendship to overcome the divisive and unjust forces in society. Instead we get more depth and richness by following the metamorphoses of the two into the 80s. It takes more lessons from their selfish mistakes for them to earn the reader’s respect. They struggle hard in their child rearing practices to infuse their different values, but their children forge their own path, as their mothers did before them.
Reading this brought me some of the same pleasures I got from the Turkish author Shafak’s Three Daughters of Eve, with its comparable overlay of the parallel and intersecting lives of college friends over decades of political and moral schisms in society. Its story of an interdependence and nourishment between women friends with outwardly conflicting goals and personalities also reminds me of Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend, although not in the same class in terms of literary achievement. The prose and artistry of unfolding the tale here are more mundane, but the pacing and drama in the storytelling were satisfying to me and far from manipulative melodrama.
This book was provided by the publisher for review through the Netgalley program.
Something happens that puts Eve in trouble and brings Daniella to take risks to render her help, in the process reviving their friendship. The story could have ended there as a sort of morality tale on the power of friendship to overcome the divisive and unjust forces in society. Instead we get more depth and richness by following the metamorphoses of the two into the 80s. It takes more lessons from their selfish mistakes for them to earn the reader’s respect. They struggle hard in their child rearing practices to infuse their different values, but their children forge their own path, as their mothers did before them.
Reading this brought me some of the same pleasures I got from the Turkish author Shafak’s Three Daughters of Eve, with its comparable overlay of the parallel and intersecting lives of college friends over decades of political and moral schisms in society. Its story of an interdependence and nourishment between women friends with outwardly conflicting goals and personalities also reminds me of Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend, although not in the same class in terms of literary achievement. The prose and artistry of unfolding the tale here are more mundane, but the pacing and drama in the storytelling were satisfying to me and far from manipulative melodrama.
This book was provided by the publisher for review through the Netgalley program.
May 24, 2019
I am always rather wary of issue-driven novels which can be too concerned with moralistic polemicising to breathe real life into the characters. However, this is not the case here as the author has presented a balanced and non-judgemental account of how the pursuance of any ideology to extremes will likely end in tears. The era covered starts with that of my generation, so it is a jolt to realise this is classed as historical fiction, but I enjoyed the trip down a memory lane with much of the same scenery, landmarks and pitfalls.
August 15, 2019
The journey of the boomer generation from 60's radicals to 80's conservatives has been traced out before, and often it's not a story I'm all that interested in, but it does feel newly relevant in our current times. It seems a particularly good time for a story about how minor political differences can lead to significant alterations of friendships and relationships. While it starts with a lot of potential, ultimately I felt that it didn't go deep enough to be really satisfying.
Eve and Daniella meet as so many female friends in books do, on their first day of college at their shared dorm room. Eve is a Southern blonde from a family of means, a third-generation attendee of their small women's college. Daniella is half-Jewish (though a practicing Unitarian), the child of educated liberals with strong politics. They are not much alike on paper but immediately become fast friends, especially as Eve slowly begins to see the inequality of the world around her for the first time away from the shelter of her parents. At first Daniella is the stronger force, trying to help Eve understand how things work, but ultimately it is Eve's emotional investment that becomes stronger and deeper. Eve makes lots of well-meaning-white-girl mistakes but only grows more committed. Daniella begins to follow a more traditional path and their lives diverge, only to find themselves intertwining again years later.
From there the book skips forward in time to their daughters, looking at how Eve and Daniella have changed, and how their choices have played out for their families. But once the book reaches its turning point halfway through, it loses much of its momentum. After hopping from one character to the other, letting us see how they both feel, at one point we stop following Eve's point of view entirely even though it is at the most crucial point where she goes through the most change. Nor do we get to go back inside her head after everything has played out. Instead we follow Daniella's daughter, who is the least involved in the second half of the plot. Seeing it from her point of view doesn't make it more interesting or dramatic, it only keeps us at a distance from the meatiest part of the story. It also makes the plot feel more pat and predictable without seeing it directly.
This book tries to make some interesting points about radicalism and extreme beliefs, about how to make change, but it doesn't see them through. Daniella reflects at the end of the book on her beliefs and her commitment to them, but these reflections feel half-hearted, all done in retrospect. The way Eve and Daniella challenge each other at the beginning of the book is really interesting. But after they fall into typical polite adult behavior, the stakes don't feel the same.
Eve and Daniella meet as so many female friends in books do, on their first day of college at their shared dorm room. Eve is a Southern blonde from a family of means, a third-generation attendee of their small women's college. Daniella is half-Jewish (though a practicing Unitarian), the child of educated liberals with strong politics. They are not much alike on paper but immediately become fast friends, especially as Eve slowly begins to see the inequality of the world around her for the first time away from the shelter of her parents. At first Daniella is the stronger force, trying to help Eve understand how things work, but ultimately it is Eve's emotional investment that becomes stronger and deeper. Eve makes lots of well-meaning-white-girl mistakes but only grows more committed. Daniella begins to follow a more traditional path and their lives diverge, only to find themselves intertwining again years later.
From there the book skips forward in time to their daughters, looking at how Eve and Daniella have changed, and how their choices have played out for their families. But once the book reaches its turning point halfway through, it loses much of its momentum. After hopping from one character to the other, letting us see how they both feel, at one point we stop following Eve's point of view entirely even though it is at the most crucial point where she goes through the most change. Nor do we get to go back inside her head after everything has played out. Instead we follow Daniella's daughter, who is the least involved in the second half of the plot. Seeing it from her point of view doesn't make it more interesting or dramatic, it only keeps us at a distance from the meatiest part of the story. It also makes the plot feel more pat and predictable without seeing it directly.
This book tries to make some interesting points about radicalism and extreme beliefs, about how to make change, but it doesn't see them through. Daniella reflects at the end of the book on her beliefs and her commitment to them, but these reflections feel half-hearted, all done in retrospect. The way Eve and Daniella challenge each other at the beginning of the book is really interesting. But after they fall into typical polite adult behavior, the stakes don't feel the same.
July 31, 2022
[3.25] I mostly enjoyed reading this promising novel about two privileged, idealistic young women who take different paths as adults. But I was also disappointed. Too often, White just skimmed the surface with Eve and Daniella. The storyline also felt familiar - I've read several novels with similar settings - political turmoil in the 1960s - and I'll probably soon forget this one.
August 6, 2019
I have mixed feelings about this novel. It starts off well. It spans two generations of women and their friendships, beginning in the early 60s, as Eve and Daniella meet at Belmont University as freshmen. They are from very different backgrounds but, thrown together as roommates, they form a strong bond. When they butt up against prejudice for the first time, Eve, who has lived a privileged life, jumps in to try to improve things, with disastrous results.
The girls decide to transfer to Barnard College in NYC for their sophomore year and there become more deeply involved in social issues: Daniella wants to work for the civil rights movement while Eve becomes involved with the anti-war campaign, falling for a charismatic radical, again with disastrous results.
This is where the story started to leave me behind. I went to university in the late 60s so I'm very aware of how our newly-fledged idealism could be directed toward fighting many social injustices. But where is Eve's brain? She allows herself to be pushed into doing things she knows are wrong. That 'cat' chapter--ugh!!
Later, when each has a daughter who become friends, we are fairly bludgeoned with every form of modern-day prejudice there is. It was just too much in one story. Is this a commentary on what's going on today, when prejudice seems to be gaining ground again, when there seems to be a different set of rules for the wealthy 1%ers?
Eve and Daniella's friendship just didn't ring true for me either. I have a life-long friend and we've often gone our separate way on issues, but not to this extreme extent. I wonder if we would have remained friends if we'd been on different sides of the law, for instance. I truly doubt it.
I received an arc of this new novel from the publisher via NetGalley for my honest review. Thank you for the opportunity.
The girls decide to transfer to Barnard College in NYC for their sophomore year and there become more deeply involved in social issues: Daniella wants to work for the civil rights movement while Eve becomes involved with the anti-war campaign, falling for a charismatic radical, again with disastrous results.
This is where the story started to leave me behind. I went to university in the late 60s so I'm very aware of how our newly-fledged idealism could be directed toward fighting many social injustices. But where is Eve's brain? She allows herself to be pushed into doing things she knows are wrong. That 'cat' chapter--ugh!!
Later, when each has a daughter who become friends, we are fairly bludgeoned with every form of modern-day prejudice there is. It was just too much in one story. Is this a commentary on what's going on today, when prejudice seems to be gaining ground again, when there seems to be a different set of rules for the wealthy 1%ers?
Eve and Daniella's friendship just didn't ring true for me either. I have a life-long friend and we've often gone our separate way on issues, but not to this extreme extent. I wonder if we would have remained friends if we'd been on different sides of the law, for instance. I truly doubt it.
I received an arc of this new novel from the publisher via NetGalley for my honest review. Thank you for the opportunity.
Shelved as 'dnf'
July 31, 2019DNF at 35% ... right now this is not working for me. Maybe I will come back at a later date.
November 1, 2019
I had a love/hate relationship with this book and reading it was a true roller-coaster for me. There were times that I truly loved this book: the well-developed characters, the descriptions of thought-provoking issues that the American people faced in 1960s to 1990s period, and the beautifully written prose. However, there were also parts of this story that dragged and made it hard for me to continue reading it. Overall, this is a solid historical fiction novel, and many readers will find this book captivating and provocative. I think this was just not the right book for me or rather it was not the best time for me to read it.
Thank you NetGalley, Atria Books, and the author for providing me with an ARC copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
Thank you NetGalley, Atria Books, and the author for providing me with an ARC copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
June 20, 2019
At the end of this book, Susan Rebecca White provides proof of all the research she did to capture the 1960s-1970s. No surprise there because that research showed throughout the '60s-'70s part of the story. It showed badly. Badly because a novel is a work of fiction, not a work of nonfiction. Research should not be obvious. Details and events should not be in the forefront, while the characters and the story itself get pushed into the background. That’s what happened with this book, in my opinion. Everyone is speaking lines that educate the reader, every detail about everything is informing the reader what life was like in the past.
Then we have Chapter 7--”Radicals At Home”. (That is my title for the chapter, not the author’s title.) It was a dirty, filthy chapter, and that’s not even taking into account what happened to the poor cat. (Seriously, if you are a sensitive type reader, just skip that chapter. You’ll miss nothing.) I guess Ms. White was once again showing the reader how it really was back in the ‘60s-'70s. It was an odd chapter, too, in the way it told facts about one of the main character’s life that the reader already knew, as if the reader did not already know those facts. Very odd.
Eventually we reach the 1980s-1990s. At that point, the characters seem a bit more more real and natural. Maybe that’s because the author was more familiar with that time period. Or maybe because she could put aside all her 1960s-1970s research notes, and concentrate on the characters and where the story was going. Only, during that time period the story really doesn’t go much of anywhere. There seemed to be a bit of a disconnect between the first part of the story and the second. It’s only towards the end of the novel that it’s connected again, when the past catches up with one of the characters.
What happens when the past resurfaces? Strangely, one of the main characters is then quickly pushed into the background, the very one who should have then been pushed into the foreground. Odd. Very odd. Towards the end of the novel, there is a poetry reading the three remaining main characters are attending. After one finishes reading her poems and the audience is applauding, I then fantasized a different ending to this book. In my fantasy, that applause is then interrupted by the loud voice of a director: “Okay, that’s it. Everyone go home. This isn’t working. It’s over. Everyone just go home.” At which time all the characters stop saying their lines, start heading for the exits, and start talking and thinking normally, like real people.
(Note: I received a free ARC of this book from Amazon Vine.)
Then we have Chapter 7--”Radicals At Home”. (That is my title for the chapter, not the author’s title.) It was a dirty, filthy chapter, and that’s not even taking into account what happened to the poor cat. (Seriously, if you are a sensitive type reader, just skip that chapter. You’ll miss nothing.) I guess Ms. White was once again showing the reader how it really was back in the ‘60s-'70s. It was an odd chapter, too, in the way it told facts about one of the main character’s life that the reader already knew, as if the reader did not already know those facts. Very odd.
Eventually we reach the 1980s-1990s. At that point, the characters seem a bit more more real and natural. Maybe that’s because the author was more familiar with that time period. Or maybe because she could put aside all her 1960s-1970s research notes, and concentrate on the characters and where the story was going. Only, during that time period the story really doesn’t go much of anywhere. There seemed to be a bit of a disconnect between the first part of the story and the second. It’s only towards the end of the novel that it’s connected again, when the past catches up with one of the characters.
What happens when the past resurfaces? Strangely, one of the main characters is then quickly pushed into the background, the very one who should have then been pushed into the foreground. Odd. Very odd. Towards the end of the novel, there is a poetry reading the three remaining main characters are attending. After one finishes reading her poems and the audience is applauding, I then fantasized a different ending to this book. In my fantasy, that applause is then interrupted by the loud voice of a director: “Okay, that’s it. Everyone go home. This isn’t working. It’s over. Everyone just go home.” At which time all the characters stop saying their lines, start heading for the exits, and start talking and thinking normally, like real people.
(Note: I received a free ARC of this book from Amazon Vine.)
August 15, 2019
My thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for sending me an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own and are not influenced by the publisher.
We Are All Good People Here is trying to do a lot of things, but at the forefront is an exploration of radicalization. At the beginning of the book when Daniella and Eve first meet, Daniella seems the more likely of the two to fall into a radical protest movement. She is a young Jewish woman who experiences discrimination during a formative part of her life, and she's passionate about fighting injustice against others. However, Eve, privileged, wealthy, and sheltered, has a difficult time navigating her early years away and college and all the drastic changes that come with it. She ends up being a more appealing and susceptible target for radical groups.
Eve was endlessly frustrating to me, not just as a person, but in the way she is written. She took a long time to make sense to me as a character, as her viewpoints swing from one extreme to the next and then back again. By the end of the book, I came to understand her as a person who defines herself by those who surround her and support her at any given time. She will become a mirror and reflect their own beliefs right back at them, and it becomes difficult to fathom what, if anything, is beneath that shiny surface.
While there was a lot of meat to this story and a lot of potential, my reading experience with it was just okay. The pacing sometimes felt a bit off and the story seemed to drag at time. But a big part of the problem is that I think the author was trying to do a little too much. Some books have loads of hot-button issues within them and they make it work. More often, it feels like the author is throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks; it does not feel organic.
While this book fell a little flat for me, I don't regret reading it. I would recommend it to fans of books like The Help.
You can read all of my reviews on my blog, Jenna Bookish!
Facebook | Instagram | Tumblr
We Are All Good People Here is trying to do a lot of things, but at the forefront is an exploration of radicalization. At the beginning of the book when Daniella and Eve first meet, Daniella seems the more likely of the two to fall into a radical protest movement. She is a young Jewish woman who experiences discrimination during a formative part of her life, and she's passionate about fighting injustice against others. However, Eve, privileged, wealthy, and sheltered, has a difficult time navigating her early years away and college and all the drastic changes that come with it. She ends up being a more appealing and susceptible target for radical groups.
Eve was endlessly frustrating to me, not just as a person, but in the way she is written. She took a long time to make sense to me as a character, as her viewpoints swing from one extreme to the next and then back again. By the end of the book, I came to understand her as a person who defines herself by those who surround her and support her at any given time. She will become a mirror and reflect their own beliefs right back at them, and it becomes difficult to fathom what, if anything, is beneath that shiny surface.
While there was a lot of meat to this story and a lot of potential, my reading experience with it was just okay. The pacing sometimes felt a bit off and the story seemed to drag at time. But a big part of the problem is that I think the author was trying to do a little too much. Some books have loads of hot-button issues within them and they make it work. More often, it feels like the author is throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks; it does not feel organic.
While this book fell a little flat for me, I don't regret reading it. I would recommend it to fans of books like The Help.
You can read all of my reviews on my blog, Jenna Bookish!
Facebook | Instagram | Tumblr
May 14, 2019
A title like this suggest a serious morality play. It’s clever and ironic and sets you up to expect more than what you get. What you get isn’t inconsiderable, mind you, it’s two lives followed from early years to advanced middle age as two friends Eve and Daniella navigate the turbulent political waters of America from the early 1960s until the early 1990s. Three significant tumultuous decades, during which Eve and Daniella undergo various changes as they become variously engaged with the sociopolitics of the times. Eve starts out as a very mild and sheltered character, but as the weaker of the two, soon becomes radicalized and wastes years on that scene before getting her act together. Daniella as a more moderate character, finds a much more sustainable personal balance. The two drift apart only to eventually come back together on a more equally shared plane while raising their daughters. So you get to observe not just one, but two sets of young women coming of age, differently enough to inspire all sorts of nature/nurture considerations. It’s an interesting concept, but all these questions of morality and social consciousness and personal involvement consistently get wrapped up too neatly for all their inherent complexity. It’s almost as if the author set out to write a very serious heavy novel, but always wanted it to be nice. And nice just isn’t the right adjective for proper literature. If this was a tv drama show, it would be something on the major network where it can maintain a certain level of lightness and quaintness as oppose to a premium network where there is way more morally gray territory. Basically, yeah, it’s too quaint for the complexity of its subjects and themes. And, frankly, too estrogeny too. This is definitely women’s fiction, though it wasn’t sold as such. The reviews on Goodreads alone are a proof of that. And actually the reviews are very favorable, so I’m possibly in the minority on this. But for me, was a decent read, but left a lot to be desired. The cover's great, though. Such a genius take on duality. Thanks Netgalley.
June 3, 2019
The story of Daniella and Eve two privileged college sorority girls in the early 1960’s who get totally swept up in the political and racial tumult of the times. The story follows the two’s very different life paths into the 1990’s when they have become mothers and can now observe the results of their choices and see that previous events in history and the way they’ve chosen to respond to them have had a tremendous influence on their entire family’s futures.
There is a lot of territory to be covered in the political and social climate between the Kennedy and Clinton administrations. Though the characters and the main concept here was interesting, perhaps tackling so much subject matter in 300 pages made the story a bit disjointed to me.
I received an ARC of this book because I enjoyed The Nix by Nathan Hill, and the similarities were there, though this one seems written for a more female demographic.
It’s getting great reviews from GR friends and is due out August 6,2019. 3.5 stars
Read - for honest review
There is a lot of territory to be covered in the political and social climate between the Kennedy and Clinton administrations. Though the characters and the main concept here was interesting, perhaps tackling so much subject matter in 300 pages made the story a bit disjointed to me.
I received an ARC of this book because I enjoyed The Nix by Nathan Hill, and the similarities were there, though this one seems written for a more female demographic.
It’s getting great reviews from GR friends and is due out August 6,2019. 3.5 stars
Read - for honest review
January 24, 2019
Susan Rebecca White returns, after six years, with a timely novel that is deeply engrossing and thought-provoking. Her characters are well-developed and their motivations are clearly and tenderly defined. The author expresses her themes with integrity and fairness. I truly appreciated her attention to detail and historical accuracy. I have followed her career and with each novel she exceeds my expectations. This book is a must-read and well worth the wait!
August 15, 2019
With We Are All Good People Here, White has taken on thirty years of American history to show how the political and social issues of the time influence two friends differently as they weave in and out of each others' lives over three decades.
It's an interesting premise set within a rather large time period. Unfortunately, I expected to like it more than I did. This book has a lot of is historical detail and it's evident that White spent a lot of time researching but often the book had a Nonfiction/History textbook feel while the character development felt a little neglected.
The plot also dragged quite a bit in a few places, and I ended up taking a couple of breaks from the book (both in the first half - with one directly after the 'cat' scene). My interest picked up in the second half somewhat, but I can't say I ever, truly got invested in the story.
This is a coming-of-age story featuring two generations of women during the tumultuous political and social climate from the 1960's to the 1990's. It has an ambitious premise and includes a sometimes overwhelming amount of historical data but unfortunately it often felt like it skimmed some of the deeper 'why' questions I wanted answered. In the end, I think it tried to do too much and its disjointed telling lost me along the way.
Disclaimer: My sincere thanks to Atria Books for providing me with a complimentary digital copy of this title in exchange for my honest review.
It's an interesting premise set within a rather large time period. Unfortunately, I expected to like it more than I did. This book has a lot of is historical detail and it's evident that White spent a lot of time researching but often the book had a Nonfiction/History textbook feel while the character development felt a little neglected.
The plot also dragged quite a bit in a few places, and I ended up taking a couple of breaks from the book (both in the first half - with one directly after the 'cat' scene). My interest picked up in the second half somewhat, but I can't say I ever, truly got invested in the story.
This is a coming-of-age story featuring two generations of women during the tumultuous political and social climate from the 1960's to the 1990's. It has an ambitious premise and includes a sometimes overwhelming amount of historical data but unfortunately it often felt like it skimmed some of the deeper 'why' questions I wanted answered. In the end, I think it tried to do too much and its disjointed telling lost me along the way.
Disclaimer: My sincere thanks to Atria Books for providing me with a complimentary digital copy of this title in exchange for my honest review.
March 6, 2019
Unflinching ~ Challenging ~ Important
tl;dr: Noone is without bias.
I was on the fence about reading this book. It was about the coming of age of liberal white women in the 1960s. I mean, you can see how this could go bad. And, the fact that this book is so good is a testament to White's character-development. She pulls no punches. These are real women. Their lessons about race and class are hard-won (and described easily.) Readers get to know these women and the difficulties of the society they exist in. This is a wonderful book for everyone but particularly for people who claim not to be racist. This book shows how everyone is racist, and how you work to transform your relationship with race. This book is surprisingly powerful, wrapped up in a historical fiction about a couple of gals.
Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Seema Rao Write : Instagram| Blog| Twitter|
tl;dr: Noone is without bias.
I was on the fence about reading this book. It was about the coming of age of liberal white women in the 1960s. I mean, you can see how this could go bad. And, the fact that this book is so good is a testament to White's character-development. She pulls no punches. These are real women. Their lessons about race and class are hard-won (and described easily.) Readers get to know these women and the difficulties of the society they exist in. This is a wonderful book for everyone but particularly for people who claim not to be racist. This book shows how everyone is racist, and how you work to transform your relationship with race. This book is surprisingly powerful, wrapped up in a historical fiction about a couple of gals.
Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Seema Rao Write : Instagram| Blog| Twitter|
June 7, 2019
3.5
The members of SMASH believed it was better to die in honor than to live as their parents did..."~from We Are All Good People Here by Susan Rebecca While
How do we change society? Can we change society? Who are the 'good people' and can 'good people' do bad things for the right reason and still be 'good'? Can people really change?
I was interested in the questions posed by the novel.
The story begins in the early 1960s when two girls meet in a private women's college in the South and become best friends. Their rising awareness of social racism makes them question the values of their society. Decisions are made that take them in different directions. One girl works within the system while accepting the social expectations for a rising female lawyer. The other girl follows a charismatic radical into ever more violent protests and when she has lost everything she seeks out her old friend to help her return to society.
The novel is filled with historical detail and events. Medgar Evans and Fannie Lou Hamer, Bob Dylan and Dr. Strangelove, the murders of James Chaney, Michael Schwerner, and Andrew Goodman, "Hey! Hey! LBJ how many kids did you kill today" are mentioned.
It was very hard to follow Eve into the very dark place she ends up in. I nearly set the book aside as her life became quite disturbing. But I did pick it back up.
Babe, you opted out of a normal life a long time ago.~ from We Are All Good People Here by Susan Rebecca White
Can we keep our pasts a secret? Can we completely change? In the end, Eve became the very person she had sought to avoid becoming. And yet--she still needed a man to guide her. Daniella may have 'sold out' and but she gives it up for important work that better fits her values.
Warren St. Clair was a charismatic and idealistic man who is also misogynistic and self-absorbed. Eve knows his reputation, but can't resist him, following him from place to place. When Warren escalates to violence against the system, Eve follows him underground.
Meanwhile, Daniella marries a 'reformed' Republican, a good man who believes that social change happens slowly. Daniella pushes the envelope as a lawyer, working twice as hard to break into the old-boy network.
Justice does not simply show up on it own, gliding in on the wings of platitudes and the promise of prayers. ~from We Are All Good People Here by Susan Rebecca Smith
In mid-age, both women shift, the radical Eva embracing safety and surety and marriage that brings prosperity, and the widowed conformist Daniella chucking it all for non-profit work helping men on death row.
The book could have ended here, but instead, we see how the women's decisions impact the next generation.
Eve and Danilla each have a daughter. Eve's daughter Anna has everything and more, dressing in Laura Ashley clothing and driving a new car. Daniella is financially well off, too, but she insists on a lifestyle in keeping with her values. Used clothing, no conspicuous consumption.
Daniella works and Eve is a housewife, so Daniella leaves her daughter Sarah with 'Aunt Eve' under the care of the maid. Sarah is envious of Anna's life and she worries that her mom is economically insecure.
Eve has a secret that is exposed. When Anna has learned the truth about her mother, it creates a rift.
There is an interesting theme on religion through the novel that is not central to the plot but takes enough space to show the author's concern.
Early in the novel Eve and Warren St. Clair and have a discussion about the value of the church in society. Warren believes the cathedral is a waste of space better used for affordable housing. Eve thinks there is nothing more useful than a church. Warren mentions the German Lutheran Church was complicit with the Nazis, and Eve retorts, not Bonhoeffer's church. Sure, Warren replies. But Bonhoeffer was executed by the state which proves the church either is complicit or martyrs.
Near the end of the novel Daniella and her daughter Sarah have a talk about religion. Eve has joined a right-wing evangelical church led by a charismatic preacher--still drawn to those charismatic men.
Sarah asks Daniella, what if one must hit 'rock bottom' to be saved? Daniella believes in the social gospel, God's will for "the reconciliation of all people" as opposed to God daming some and saving others.
But Sarah understands that her Aunt Eve is searching for stability and family. Daniella only sees that Eve jumps from one "dogma" to another.
Again, a juxtaposition between two choices arises. Is changing the world better than saving souls? Do we need to become completely powerlessness before we can accept God? Is doing justice and showing mercy the mark of walking humbly with one's God?
The book is summed up in one sentence:
We are all good people here, all trying to muddle through this the best we can. ~from We Are All Good People Here by Susan Rebecca White
I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.
The members of SMASH believed it was better to die in honor than to live as their parents did..."~from We Are All Good People Here by Susan Rebecca While
How do we change society? Can we change society? Who are the 'good people' and can 'good people' do bad things for the right reason and still be 'good'? Can people really change?
I was interested in the questions posed by the novel.
The story begins in the early 1960s when two girls meet in a private women's college in the South and become best friends. Their rising awareness of social racism makes them question the values of their society. Decisions are made that take them in different directions. One girl works within the system while accepting the social expectations for a rising female lawyer. The other girl follows a charismatic radical into ever more violent protests and when she has lost everything she seeks out her old friend to help her return to society.
The novel is filled with historical detail and events. Medgar Evans and Fannie Lou Hamer, Bob Dylan and Dr. Strangelove, the murders of James Chaney, Michael Schwerner, and Andrew Goodman, "Hey! Hey! LBJ how many kids did you kill today" are mentioned.
It was very hard to follow Eve into the very dark place she ends up in. I nearly set the book aside as her life became quite disturbing. But I did pick it back up.
Babe, you opted out of a normal life a long time ago.~ from We Are All Good People Here by Susan Rebecca White
Can we keep our pasts a secret? Can we completely change? In the end, Eve became the very person she had sought to avoid becoming. And yet--she still needed a man to guide her. Daniella may have 'sold out' and but she gives it up for important work that better fits her values.
Warren St. Clair was a charismatic and idealistic man who is also misogynistic and self-absorbed. Eve knows his reputation, but can't resist him, following him from place to place. When Warren escalates to violence against the system, Eve follows him underground.
Meanwhile, Daniella marries a 'reformed' Republican, a good man who believes that social change happens slowly. Daniella pushes the envelope as a lawyer, working twice as hard to break into the old-boy network.
Justice does not simply show up on it own, gliding in on the wings of platitudes and the promise of prayers. ~from We Are All Good People Here by Susan Rebecca Smith
In mid-age, both women shift, the radical Eva embracing safety and surety and marriage that brings prosperity, and the widowed conformist Daniella chucking it all for non-profit work helping men on death row.
The book could have ended here, but instead, we see how the women's decisions impact the next generation.
Eve and Danilla each have a daughter. Eve's daughter Anna has everything and more, dressing in Laura Ashley clothing and driving a new car. Daniella is financially well off, too, but she insists on a lifestyle in keeping with her values. Used clothing, no conspicuous consumption.
Daniella works and Eve is a housewife, so Daniella leaves her daughter Sarah with 'Aunt Eve' under the care of the maid. Sarah is envious of Anna's life and she worries that her mom is economically insecure.
Eve has a secret that is exposed. When Anna has learned the truth about her mother, it creates a rift.
There is an interesting theme on religion through the novel that is not central to the plot but takes enough space to show the author's concern.
Early in the novel Eve and Warren St. Clair and have a discussion about the value of the church in society. Warren believes the cathedral is a waste of space better used for affordable housing. Eve thinks there is nothing more useful than a church. Warren mentions the German Lutheran Church was complicit with the Nazis, and Eve retorts, not Bonhoeffer's church. Sure, Warren replies. But Bonhoeffer was executed by the state which proves the church either is complicit or martyrs.
Near the end of the novel Daniella and her daughter Sarah have a talk about religion. Eve has joined a right-wing evangelical church led by a charismatic preacher--still drawn to those charismatic men.
Sarah asks Daniella, what if one must hit 'rock bottom' to be saved? Daniella believes in the social gospel, God's will for "the reconciliation of all people" as opposed to God daming some and saving others.
But Sarah understands that her Aunt Eve is searching for stability and family. Daniella only sees that Eve jumps from one "dogma" to another.
Again, a juxtaposition between two choices arises. Is changing the world better than saving souls? Do we need to become completely powerlessness before we can accept God? Is doing justice and showing mercy the mark of walking humbly with one's God?
The book is summed up in one sentence:
We are all good people here, all trying to muddle through this the best we can. ~from We Are All Good People Here by Susan Rebecca White
I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 407 reviews