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US Mall 1 - The Turnaround
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List Price: $24.99
Our Price: $12.00
Your Save: $ 12.99 ( 52% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Little, Brown and Company
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780316156479
ISBN: 0316156477
Label: Little, Brown and Company
Manufacturer: Little, Brown and Company
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 304
Publication Date: 2008-08-01
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Studio: Little, Brown and Company
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: "What matters now is how you make the turnaround."
Comment:
Pelecanos takes the life-changing events of one night of random violence in 1972 Washington, DC, building a tale of consequence and retribution as troubled men learn to coexist with their burdened pasts. When three white teens, Billy, Pete and Alex, stoned and bored, drive recklessly into an exclusively black neighborhood, Heathrow Heights, hurling insults at three young black men outside a local store, they find their easy escape thwarted by a dead end. Forced to turn around and face the angry boys, one, Pete, runs into the woods. Billy steps from the car, followed by Alex, a too-late apology on Billy's lips. Within minutes, Billy is dead from a gunshot wound and Alex's face is bashed by the boot of Charles Barker. Given the times, the white boys are perceived by the courts as impetuous kids looking for a bit of mischief, James Monroe sentenced to jail for murder, Barker for a shorter time for assault and Raymond Monroe released without charges because of his age. Billy is dead, Alex forever scarred and two young men behind bars for one moment of incredible stupidity by the intruders.
Forty years later, the world has changed considerably, Pete a successful businessman, Alex taking over his father's small diner, one son dead in Iraq, the other working with him. James Monroe has spent much of his life in prison thanks to bad decisions and the influence of Charles Barker, Raymond working as a physical therapist at Walter Reed Hospital, his son currently in Afghanistan. A chance meeting between Raymond Monroe and Alex Pappas reignites the past, as the author explores the paths of his protagonists and their fates after that pivotal event. Seeking resolution, Raymond contacts Alex, the men's lives are explored chapter by chapter, their failed dreams and vague hopes for a better future. And just as he was in 1972, Charles Barker remains the one unstable piece of a complicated history, skating through the system with an eye to getting over, always hoping for that big score in a world that has treated him unfairly.
The young men and women recovering at Walter Reed play a large role in this novel, not only through Ray's involvement, but with Alex's continued deliveries of baked goods from the diner. Pelecanos stresses the bravery of these returning soldiers as they face daunting odds, their trials certainly more meaningful than the event one summer night in 1972 Heathrow Heights. Moving toward a resolution of past grievances and an opportunity for restitution, Barker remains the one unpredictable factor, the destructive force that threatens years of rebuilding after disastrous decisions. The message is clear: "What matters is how you make the turnaround." Violence begets violence and tragedy, while forgiveness offers peace of mind as four men come to terms with their choices and delayed dreams. Luan Gaines/2008.
Customer Rating:
Summary: One Incident Impacts Lives
Comment: The Turnaround is a true story of three white kids who on a summer day, went into a black neighborhood and had an incident with three black kids which affected them for years. It's a real page turner; however, not for everyone. I recommend it to anyone who likes reading about "street life."
Customer Rating:
Summary: Noir flavored by compassion
Comment: This novel -- an increasingly gripping read as it moves along -- explores how a violent racial incident in 1972 shaped -- or shattered -- the adult lives of the men, black and white, who twenty-five years ago were the teenagers involved in the incident. The principal characters, the scene, and bits of the incident are sketched in a short first section, set in 1972, when three white kids on a thoughtless and stupid summertime lark drive into the unknown streets of a neighboring black community in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, DC. These working-class suburbs are part the "other Washington DC" that Pelecanos knows intimately and has brought to life in earlier books.
The meat of the novel gets rolling in the present day just before the participants' lives are about to collide again after many years. One of the white kids, Alex Pappas, is now in his 50s and runs the downtown DC sandwich shop -- "John Pappas & Sons" -- that he inherited from his father. He is a devoted family man with a stable life and modest aspirations that amount to carrying on what his father built. Alex's face still is scarred from the summer afternoon twenty-five years ago, and he carries a more recent, internal sorrow -- his younger son, a soldier, was killed in the Middle East. Ray Monroe, the younger of two black brothers also involved in the incident, is now a physical therapist at Walter Reed, dedicated to his patients and worried about his own son who is stationed in Afghanistan. Charles Baker, already a dangerous young man in 1972, has grown into vicious ex-con who believes that the world in general, and the men who were once those teenagers all owe him a debt.
Pelecanos sets these and the other characters into action, their lives intersecting and, in the process, their values tested and unexpected new connections forged. Through Charles Baker, who believes too blindly in his own power, anxiety and the threat of violence are never far from the events of the novel. But Pelecanos is also a compassionate writer, and the story ultimately is both redemptive and hopeful. Pelecanos tells it in direct, economical prose, multiple viewpoints, and dialogue that rings true. Whether the ending is too optimistic to be believable, who knows . . . Pelecanos left me badly wanting to believe in it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Out of the Past
Comment: I've been a huge Pelecanos fan since I discovered his books in the early '90s, so every new one from him is something to be savored over a long weekend. I finally got a chance to sit down and read this latest, and am happy to report that it's a return to his usual excellent form after the somewhat disappointing Night Gardener. Fans of out and out crime books may not be so pleased though, because, as is becoming more obvious with every book, Pelecanos is losing his interest in telling crime stories, and is more interested in telling human stories.
Here, he returns to a classic noir theme, the inescapability of the past. The book opens in 1972, where we meet three teenage white boys living in Maryland, just outside Washington, DC. We also meet three teenage black boys, who live in a nearby black enclave (named Heathrow Heights in the book and Ken-Gar in real life). It's obvious that the two groups of boys come from very similar backgrounds and have very similar interests, and that race is more or less all that separates them. So, when the white kids ill-advisedly cruise into black neighborhood and shout the n-word at the black kids, the resulting violence is both inevitable and tragic.
Fast-forward some thirty-five years, and those teenage boys are now middle-aged men trying to get on with their lives. Alex Pappas is literally scarred from that encounter, and is the embodiment of the hard-working, blue-collar, Greek character that pops up in many of Pelecanos' work. Like Pelecanos himself, Alex is the son of a diner owner who is one forced to take over the family business as a teenager when his WWII vet father gets ill. Unlike Pelecanos, Alex is trapped by his role as family provider, and can only dream of a different life. Raymond Monroe has stumbled a few times over the years, but is holding it together as a physical therapist at Walter Reed Medical Center (the country's premier rehab facility for soldiers) and has a nice girlfriend and surrogate son. When Alex and Raymond run into each other one day, they realize that they've never been able to fully escape the tragedy from their childhood.
What follows is a story of redemption and hope for Alex, Raymond, and Raymond's older brother (who went to jail for a long time for what happened in 1972). There is a significant plotline involving a cunning career criminal who attempts to blackmail Alex and the other surviving white kid, and while it does provide necessary drama and tension, it almost feels like something from another book. And to a certain extent, it embodies the thematic tension within Pelecanos's more recent work -- he loves the crime genre, but with fifteen books now, one gets the sense he's more than ready to move beyond it. In his last few books, the best parts have been the domestic scenes, problems, and characters, and although his next book is still crime-centric, it wouldn't be surprising if book #17 is completely crime-free. If the book has a flaw, it might be that it's a little too, well, hopeful, at the end. Things get resolved rather more conveniently than in most of Pelecanos' books, and again, it's not hard to imagine that as he gets older as a writer and father, he need to find some measure of hope in the world, for both his characters and his own kids.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Author's Political Agenda
Comment: Another blank slate for the author to give us a view of his politics. Tell me about it on the cover so I don't waste my money.
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Editorial Reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: "What matters now is how you make the turnaround."
Comment:
Pelecanos takes the life-changing events of one night of random violence in 1972 Washington, DC, building a tale of consequence and retribution as troubled men learn to coexist with their burdened pasts. When three white teens, Billy, Pete and Alex, stoned and bored, drive recklessly into an exclusively black neighborhood, Heathrow Heights, hurling insults at three young black men outside a local store, they find their easy escape thwarted by a dead end. Forced to turn around and face the angry boys, one, Pete, runs into the woods. Billy steps from the car, followed by Alex, a too-late apology on Billy's lips. Within minutes, Billy is dead from a gunshot wound and Alex's face is bashed by the boot of Charles Barker. Given the times, the white boys are perceived by the courts as impetuous kids looking for a bit of mischief, James Monroe sentenced to jail for murder, Barker for a shorter time for assault and Raymond Monroe released without charges because of his age. Billy is dead, Alex forever scarred and two young men behind bars for one moment of incredible stupidity by the intruders.
Forty years later, the world has changed considerably, Pete a successful businessman, Alex taking over his father's small diner, one son dead in Iraq, the other working with him. James Monroe has spent much of his life in prison thanks to bad decisions and the influence of Charles Barker, Raymond working as a physical therapist at Walter Reed Hospital, his son currently in Afghanistan. A chance meeting between Raymond Monroe and Alex Pappas reignites the past, as the author explores the paths of his protagonists and their fates after that pivotal event. Seeking resolution, Raymond contacts Alex, the men's lives are explored chapter by chapter, their failed dreams and vague hopes for a better future. And just as he was in 1972, Charles Barker remains the one unstable piece of a complicated history, skating through the system with an eye to getting over, always hoping for that big score in a world that has treated him unfairly.
The young men and women recovering at Walter Reed play a large role in this novel, not only through Ray's involvement, but with Alex's continued deliveries of baked goods from the diner. Pelecanos stresses the bravery of these returning soldiers as they face daunting odds, their trials certainly more meaningful than the event one summer night in 1972 Heathrow Heights. Moving toward a resolution of past grievances and an opportunity for restitution, Barker remains the one unpredictable factor, the destructive force that threatens years of rebuilding after disastrous decisions. The message is clear: "What matters is how you make the turnaround." Violence begets violence and tragedy, while forgiveness offers peace of mind as four men come to terms with their choices and delayed dreams. Luan Gaines/2008.
Customer Rating:
Summary: One Incident Impacts Lives
Comment: The Turnaround is a true story of three white kids who on a summer day, went into a black neighborhood and had an incident with three black kids which affected them for years. It's a real page turner; however, not for everyone. I recommend it to anyone who likes reading about "street life."
Customer Rating:
Summary: Noir flavored by compassion
Comment: This novel -- an increasingly gripping read as it moves along -- explores how a violent racial incident in 1972 shaped -- or shattered -- the adult lives of the men, black and white, who twenty-five years ago were the teenagers involved in the incident. The principal characters, the scene, and bits of the incident are sketched in a short first section, set in 1972, when three white kids on a thoughtless and stupid summertime lark drive into the unknown streets of a neighboring black community in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, DC. These working-class suburbs are part the "other Washington DC" that Pelecanos knows intimately and has brought to life in earlier books.
The meat of the novel gets rolling in the present day just before the participants' lives are about to collide again after many years. One of the white kids, Alex Pappas, is now in his 50s and runs the downtown DC sandwich shop -- "John Pappas & Sons" -- that he inherited from his father. He is a devoted family man with a stable life and modest aspirations that amount to carrying on what his father built. Alex's face still is scarred from the summer afternoon twenty-five years ago, and he carries a more recent, internal sorrow -- his younger son, a soldier, was killed in the Middle East. Ray Monroe, the younger of two black brothers also involved in the incident, is now a physical therapist at Walter Reed, dedicated to his patients and worried about his own son who is stationed in Afghanistan. Charles Baker, already a dangerous young man in 1972, has grown into vicious ex-con who believes that the world in general, and the men who were once those teenagers all owe him a debt.
Pelecanos sets these and the other characters into action, their lives intersecting and, in the process, their values tested and unexpected new connections forged. Through Charles Baker, who believes too blindly in his own power, anxiety and the threat of violence are never far from the events of the novel. But Pelecanos is also a compassionate writer, and the story ultimately is both redemptive and hopeful. Pelecanos tells it in direct, economical prose, multiple viewpoints, and dialogue that rings true. Whether the ending is too optimistic to be believable, who knows . . . Pelecanos left me badly wanting to believe in it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Out of the Past
Comment: I've been a huge Pelecanos fan since I discovered his books in the early '90s, so every new one from him is something to be savored over a long weekend. I finally got a chance to sit down and read this latest, and am happy to report that it's a return to his usual excellent form after the somewhat disappointing Night Gardener. Fans of out and out crime books may not be so pleased though, because, as is becoming more obvious with every book, Pelecanos is losing his interest in telling crime stories, and is more interested in telling human stories.
Here, he returns to a classic noir theme, the inescapability of the past. The book opens in 1972, where we meet three teenage white boys living in Maryland, just outside Washington, DC. We also meet three teenage black boys, who live in a nearby black enclave (named Heathrow Heights in the book and Ken-Gar in real life). It's obvious that the two groups of boys come from very similar backgrounds and have very similar interests, and that race is more or less all that separates them. So, when the white kids ill-advisedly cruise into black neighborhood and shout the n-word at the black kids, the resulting violence is both inevitable and tragic.
Fast-forward some thirty-five years, and those teenage boys are now middle-aged men trying to get on with their lives. Alex Pappas is literally scarred from that encounter, and is the embodiment of the hard-working, blue-collar, Greek character that pops up in many of Pelecanos' work. Like Pelecanos himself, Alex is the son of a diner owner who is one forced to take over the family business as a teenager when his WWII vet father gets ill. Unlike Pelecanos, Alex is trapped by his role as family provider, and can only dream of a different life. Raymond Monroe has stumbled a few times over the years, but is holding it together as a physical therapist at Walter Reed Medical Center (the country's premier rehab facility for soldiers) and has a nice girlfriend and surrogate son. When Alex and Raymond run into each other one day, they realize that they've never been able to fully escape the tragedy from their childhood.
What follows is a story of redemption and hope for Alex, Raymond, and Raymond's older brother (who went to jail for a long time for what happened in 1972). There is a significant plotline involving a cunning career criminal who attempts to blackmail Alex and the other surviving white kid, and while it does provide necessary drama and tension, it almost feels like something from another book. And to a certain extent, it embodies the thematic tension within Pelecanos's more recent work -- he loves the crime genre, but with fifteen books now, one gets the sense he's more than ready to move beyond it. In his last few books, the best parts have been the domestic scenes, problems, and characters, and although his next book is still crime-centric, it wouldn't be surprising if book #17 is completely crime-free. If the book has a flaw, it might be that it's a little too, well, hopeful, at the end. Things get resolved rather more conveniently than in most of Pelecanos' books, and again, it's not hard to imagine that as he gets older as a writer and father, he need to find some measure of hope in the world, for both his characters and his own kids.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Author's Political Agenda
Comment: Another blank slate for the author to give us a view of his politics. Tell me about it on the cover so I don't waste my money.
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