Stewart O'Nan's latest novel could likely take place anywhere, but it's absolutely right that it takes place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Filled with local dialect, or "Pittsburghese" (like the term chip-chop ham), and with fathers working for the biggest of the local corporations such as Nabisco, this book is Pittsburgh through and through. The geography is impeccable; there is a passage where a character drives a stolen car around town that is so perfect, I could swear I was in the car. Mr. O'Nan even flavors the tale with real Pittsburgh weather --- everything gray, always raining.

Over the course of one week in the fall of 1998, East Liberty, a community in Pittsburgh, is on the verge of being cut off from the rest of the city by the opening of a new expressway for buses. The town has long been victim to poverty and gang violence; during this one week, their patience will be tested more than usual.

The youngest child of the Tolbert family, Chris, a.k.a. Crest, has recently been in a horrible accident on that very expressway which left him paralyzed from the waist down. The accident also took the life of his best friend. His girlfriend and mother of his son, Vanessa, is going to school to improve her chances in life; his brother has recently returned from jail a born-again Christian, and the marriage of his parents is in crisis. Beside this one family, there are neighbors dying, friends being robbed, and political upheaval.

The novel is very nonjudgmental. These characters are who they are. They are parents, drug lords, homosexuals, politicians. They each speak in very distinctive voices, never losing the slang of the inner city. The dialect is near perfect.

O'Nan uses a very effective form, telling the story of different characters in separate chapters. Each character has his or her place, and because of the way the chapters are broken up, the novel is a quick and ever-changing read. This form fits perfectly the pace of life for these characters, and is benefited by the strong voices of each character.

From the beginning quote by Raymond Patterson, one understands that this is a novel not only about the plight of the black man in the city, but of how the city can benefit from, or harm, its urban residents. It shows in a powerful way how society keeps going in circles, and how we often wonder how to get out of the pattern. One character, while reflecting upon life in East Liberty, thinks that "there wasn't a day he didn't wonder what exactly he was doing there." This might well be the thought heard round the world. Haven't we all thought of ways to get out of a bad situation? And haven't many just stayed for reasons unknown?

I began reading this novel believing that it would focus primarily on Crest; by the end, I felt it focused more on Vanessa. Though the other characters are equally strong in voice and story, Vanessa and her new life as a result of night school occupy the most chapters. And while she begins this novel with a slightly soft tone and a new wide-eyed view of the world, she ends it with an attitude that comes off as a bit "holier-than-thou." I would have liked to have spent more time inside the head of Crest. The final chapters where he attends the opening of the busway where he had his accident are powerful and moving. They ring the truest of all of the well-titled chapters.

After reading Stewart O'Nan's novel, readers will be more than familiar with the workings of life in urban America. If they have never been to Pittsburgh, they will feel as if they have been, and if they have been, they will receive a very welcome return trip. They will listen to the voices of these characters, and they will know them to be everyday people, rather than hooligans, or drug lords, or thieves. And they will go out singing "O Happy Day."

Special Note: The last sentence sent chills right through me. Definitely worth the careful reading to feel the power of that sentence.

    --- Reviewed by Josette Kurey

• Click here now to buy this book from Amazon.

© Copyright 1996-2008, Bookreporter.com. All rights reserved.

Back to top.