This was an audiobook which I happened to see at my local library (Hillsborough, in Somerset County, New Jersey). It was one of the ones which was on the prominent display section, although it was even then a bit hidden, being one of a tower of audiobooks upon which was displayed the latest popular fiction, which I do not even remember.
Somehow, this one caught my eye. I grabbed it and took a look. It was not a spy novel, not a murder mystery, or horror, or teenage fiction, or anything. This was different, and it required a bit more thought than many of those more popular novels.
Before I delve into this book in more detail, I have to warn about spoilers first. So if you do not read on, then let me just sum up my own impressions of this book by strongly recommending thing book. Do yourself a favor and pick up a copy and give it a read. You won't be sorry!
Now, before I go on, there must be the usual warning that there will be spoilers ahead. So if you have not yet read this book and intend to, or otherwise just don't want the story spoiled, this is the warning not to read on.
*****SPOILER**********SPOILER**********SPOILER*****
Okay, so if you are reading now, I have to assume that one way or the other, you do not mind spoilers. Just please do not say that you were not warned.
This is about two girls who had become close friends, and remained close friends until they became women. Yet, they find themselves caught right in the middle of serious issues that are tearing the fabric of the country apart, and they are seemingly on opposite ends of the spectrum. Riley is a black woman and a journalist, who is tired of the racism - subtle and less than subtle - which she has had to endure all of her life. This shooting has a serious impact on her, since it could have happened to people very close to her. Meanwhile, Jenny is a white woman married to Kevin, one of the police officers involved in the shooting. She struggles to understand many things which she never really had to confront before, including charges of racism, and her shock when Riley, her best friend, seems hardly to believe her own assertions that Kevin is a good cop, and not a racist. In other words, it is a work of fiction for grown-ups, and it delves into many issues which are polarizing and dividing the United States right to the present. Indeed, it felt like two worlds, even two Americas, colliding.
It begins with a police shooting of a young, unarmed black teenager. This is the kind of scenario which has, in fact, played out here in the United States time and time again in recent years. Much like many of those killings, this one is caught on video, and it generates a tremendous amount of controversy and protest, understandably.
However, these two women find themselves in very different positions regarding this one incident. Jenny, being married to Kevin, feels it should be obvious that her husband (and her) are not racists or cold-blooded murderers. Yet, there is a newfound distance between her and Riley, her best and closest friend since very early childhood. She knows that Riley and Kevin have never gotten to be close. In fact, they hardly seem to talk or know each other at all, and appear almost suspicious of one another.
Still, she assumes that both Riley and Kevin will always be there, the two closest people to her in her life. Jenny is pregnant now, and she and Kevin are scared after prior unsuccessful attempts to have children. The stress she now feels in the aftermath of the shooting, with her husband's job seemingly in jeopardy, their financial future suddenly in doubt, and the life that they had known (and loved) before this incident now over and gone and out of their reach, already feels like too much. But now, with Riley seeming to keep her distance, and with a newfound and very real friction between them which neither seems capable of talking about outright to the other, Jenny feels hurt and a bit betrayed that her old best friend seems to be lumping her and Kevin in with racist whites.
Meanwhile, Riley also is going through a lot. She begins to suspect that her boss might be using her color to gain better access than competitors to Tamara Dwyer, the mother of Justin Dwyer, the teenage boy who was shot. Getting as close as she does to the victims of the shooting really brings the tragedy home to Riley. She can all too easily picture such a tragedy happening to her own brother, who is not all that much older than Justin was when he was shot. Throughout her life, she has experienced all of the signs of white racism, subtle and otherwise. From annoying assumptions that she was one of the salespeople at a department store when she was actually going shopping, to more blatantly racist incidents where she is described as "ugly" or a "monkey," or outright had racial slurs hurled at her. So this particular shooting, which seems both race-based and state-sanctioned, really hits her hard. And when Jenny, her best and closest friend, does not seem to get that, Riley has a hard time. Yes, she gets that Jenny would have concern for her husband, of course. But the extent to which Jenny seems to have a blind spot towards the who issue of racism begins to really become obvious, and bother Riley like never before.
Of course, there are other underlying issues. They have grown older, and experienced the painful reality of two friends simply drifting apart as they grow older, wrapped up in their own lives. Still, the most obvious obstacle is race. And Riley begins to feel more drawn to learn the reality of her own family history. In the process, she finds out some dark secrets in her own family history during a trip to Alabama to visit family.
Meanwhile, both women are suspicious of being manipulated by others, for their own causes or ideas. Jenny feels trapped within her family, which is a very white Irish family with a long history with law enforcement. They put pressure on both Kevin and Jenny to remain loyal to the blue, and neither to apologize for anything, as well as never, ever to testify against a fellow police officer. This becomes a particularly divisive point when Kevin is offered a chance at a more lenient sentence if he agrees to testify against the other, younger officer, who was the one who actually shot first. As for Jenny, she begins to admire a local politician, only to feel by the end of the novel that she was basically used, just a pawn in her political power play for higher office.
This is a book about friendship, loneliness, isolation, race, ambition, loss, fear, and suspicions. The two authors manage to juggle all of these things while also writing very capably and realistically about race and privilege and violence.
A very entertaining and well-written book. Also, a book that addresses some of the most polarizing issues of our time in this country.
Highly recommended!
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