Those
People. Louise Candlish. Penguin
Publishing Group. June, 2019; pb, 368
pp.; ISBN #: 9780451489142.
Lowland Avenue is an upper
middle class street in a perfect neighborhood, where the residents get along
and cherish the Sunday street rules which ban parking and establish a place
where children can draw in the streets, ride bikes, skateboard and all in all
play without fear of approaching danger from encroaching transportation.
But the peacefulness and
perfection are about to disappear.
For Darren and Jodi, a
young couple, move into the neighborhood.
Their noise of blaring rock music at all hours of day and night along
with their car business manifest in dozens of cars and vans parked on the lawn
and around the street immediately draw the ire and complaints of their
neighbors. Efforts at talking out the
problem result in the hurling of foul language and angry diatribes.
At first there are efforts
to band together but it turns out that nothing being done is illegal. But the
spreading of the neighborly hate is fast spreading through the internet and
yielding some protesting articles in a
local newspaper. However, all of this
turns ugly very fast with no change looming on a street fast moving toward
attitudes that could become very dangerous.
Finally, a disaster
happens with the collapse of a scaffold for renovations and the death of a
resident on the street. Accusations fly
and now it’s hard to figure out who is throwing legitimate protests and threats
of a response and what turns out to be another death before the end of this
riveting but virulently angry novel.
What is most amazing is
how what starts out as a disagreement quickly destroys the peace of home
owners, frays the tempers and marriages of some, and elicits a response that
becomes criminal. Astonishing and violent story that doesn’t end soon enough!
