Product Description

Diane McKinney-Whetstone's lyrical first novel, Tumbling, vividly captures a tightly knit African-American neighborhood in South Philadelphia during the forties and fifties. Its central characters, Herbie and Noon, are a loving but unconventional couple whose marriage remains unconsummated for many years as Noon struggles to repossess her sexuality after a brutal attack in her past. While she seeks salvation in the church, Herbie gains sexual gratification in the arms of a bewitching jazz singer named Ethel, a woman who profoundly affects both Noon's and Herbie's lives when she leaves with them, first, a baby girl and then later, a five-year-old named Liz.

When a road planned by the city council threatens to break up this South Philadelphia neighborhood, the community must band together. Unexpectedly, Noon rises up and takes the lead in the opposition, fighting for all she's worth to keep her family and community together.

Tumbling is a beautiftilly rendered, poignant story about the ties that bind us and the secrets that keep us apart. With striking lyricism, Diane McKinney-Whetstone keenly guides us through the world of community, family, and the human heart.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #325360 in Books
• Published on: 1997-04-09
• Format: Bargain Price
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

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

From Library Journal
It's been almost a year since Herbie and Noon were married, and still they've had no sexual contact. When Herbie finds a baby on their porch steps one night, he hopes things will change. When nothing happens, he continues to stay out late into the night and takes up with a local club singer. The club singer suddenly leaves to pursue another job, leaving her five-year-old niece in Herbie's care. Thus, Herbie and Noon now must raise two children, one who seems to have the ability to see into the future and another who enjoys eating the plaster off their closet walls. This is an intelligently written first novel set in Philadelphia during the 1940s. The author captures the time, emotions, and lives of the characters well, even if the novel slows down around the midway point. All in all, this will do well in large fiction collections.?Shenise Ross, New York
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Scientific American
Tumbling makes me marvel. It is smooth, sure-footed, wise as old folks, hip-hop street smart, a beam of laser light that illuminates the heart of the human condition. Prepare for deep laughter. Don't be surprised when you are moved to tears.

Customer Reviews

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

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

"Excuse Me Can I Have More Stars?"
Tumbling will tumble you through the lives of black folk and their community. This book is filled with a sense of purpose, love, commitment, loyalty, pain, family, acceptance, lies, betrayal, loneliness, and LAUGHTER!

THIS ONE IS A MUST. The characters were truly VIVID! - and the story was EXCELLENT. Ms. Whetstone has a manficient talent not to mention excellent storytelling abilities.

Although the book wasn't contemporary like most books are these days...the CHANGE WAS WONDERFUL! I agree with another reviewer that Tumbling is literature at it's best. You will truly be caught up in the tumblings of Lombard Street.

Noon, Herbie, Fannie, Liz and oooooohhhh Ms. "Thang" Ethel will keep your entertained and wondering what's going to happen next!

Once you finish you'll be wishing you lived with all of these characters. Noon is a fine example of black women of the past. We could all learn some lessons.

GET THIS ONE! Ms. Whetstone...gurl you are soooo bad! LOL