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A review by hannahcstocks
Pineapple Street by Jenny Jackson
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
***sorry for the super long review***
Writing is engaging enough for a 3, but the characters are incredibly frustrating and that doesn’t really change much by the end, despite the book being character-driven. I love a moral grey area, but I need a lot less superficiality to actually appreciate the complexity driving the character(s).
While the tongue-in-cheek descriptions of the Stockton family was funny early on, it felt like it was slipping into territory that the 1% is somehow just as much of a victim of their wealth and power as those who are/were exploited for them to gain it, albeit in different ways. Overall, the book can’t seem to decide whether it’s lightheartedly making fun of the family for their flippant relationship to money and their behavior in a sincere way, even while empathizing them as human beings, or if the underlying message is that it’s okay to gloss over the true harm of their understanding of money and how that affects society as a whole because of “good intentions” or lack of exposure. The really wealthy and impoverished may both hate talking about money and privilege, as the author notes, but only one group feels the physical impact of avoiding those conversations and lack of change (as it relates to food, health, housing, education, etc).
As the book progresses, we get a much better understanding of the wild differences between the uber-wealthy and the middle class, and yet so much of the US population doesn’t under either of those categories. The folks in the service industry that cater to the Stocktons are used to show how many people are invisible in their world, but even the middle class “outsider” perspective wholly ignores this dynamic while making excuses for her rich husband. It’s great to employ people, and don’t think it’s bad at all that this role exists, but Berta existing as a character solely meant to serve and that never being challenged or at least reflected upon despite the “growth” of the characters seems like a missed opportunity to contextualize the full reality of class. Sasha (aka the middle class) can be wrong too! She doesn’t have to just offer understanding and reflection to the oblivious rich people but can extend that to folks with fewer resources as well. It’s quite possible this isn’t an oversight by the author but an intentional absence to show the the blind spots by the middle class as well. But the issue is there is no way to tell, and if it is the latter, then there needs to be at least some way this is brought to the character’s attention. As an aside, I do appreciate that we learn the Stocktons’ paid for Berta’s children to go to college. I think the actual relationship and the interactions day-to-day needed exploration as well though. The book also mostly highlights low income and poverty through Georgiana’s non-profit, and while global health is extremely important, the way poverty was included through this context both ignores the experience of being low-income or impoverished in the US and mildly portrayed the Global South in stereotypical ways. While I appreciate the concept of the book and can get on board with empathizing with nearly anyone as a human being regardless of background, this seems to miss the mark. A book devoted to scrutinizing class, even in a seemingly lighthearted book like this, there needs to be a bit more contextualization. I don’t have to love the characters that I find unrelatable, even in a character-driven story, but I would like to clearly recognize and respect their growth.
I also understand this is not the purpose of the book, and the absence can also be part of the point, but it could have used more diversity, or at least more conversations about race outside of the inner thoughts of one character who is married to an Asian man with whom she shares biracial children. No discussion can be had about class without discussing the impact of race and discrimination, and it has a much bigger impact than the story portrays.
<spoilers>
Also as a small rant about the characters at the end of the novel:
It felt like any major changes from the family were mostly for self-congratulation rather than from gaining a true understanding about the world. This could be somewhat intentional possibly but if so, the vagueness undercuts the point. The parents and two of the Stockton children don’t reflect much about their privilege in the end, and are just happy their personal problems are solved. One child struggles internally after her spouse loses his job (understandable), but we discover later the spouse was making 7 figures and her concern for his finding a job throughout the book seems almost trivial at that point. The three months he gets paid before receiving “nothing” after his firing is likely hundreds of thousands of dollars. She is worried about the cost of her children attending private school and having to asking parents for help, and yet she chooses to send them to a $50K/yr (each) school, and has parents who can give her $100K. The complaints of money and outgrowing their space, etc, weren’t really challenged in the end. She and her husband simply found more high-paying jobs, and then no reflection was really made about the privilege of that ability, or the literal free home they receive by the end. The Stockton son is the least reflective of the 3 children about his wealth and privilege. Outside of agreeing to moving out of the house on Pineapple Street and finally saying his wife is the most important thing to him (wtf at Sasha having to beg for this), he has little to no growth. The parents have pretty much no growth at all.
Writing is engaging enough for a 3, but the characters are incredibly frustrating and that doesn’t really change much by the end, despite the book being character-driven. I love a moral grey area, but I need a lot less superficiality to actually appreciate the complexity driving the character(s).
While the tongue-in-cheek descriptions of the Stockton family was funny early on, it felt like it was slipping into territory that the 1% is somehow just as much of a victim of their wealth and power as those who are/were exploited for them to gain it, albeit in different ways. Overall, the book can’t seem to decide whether it’s lightheartedly making fun of the family for their flippant relationship to money and their behavior in a sincere way, even while empathizing them as human beings, or if the underlying message is that it’s okay to gloss over the true harm of their understanding of money and how that affects society as a whole because of “good intentions” or lack of exposure. The really wealthy and impoverished may both hate talking about money and privilege, as the author notes, but only one group feels the physical impact of avoiding those conversations and lack of change (as it relates to food, health, housing, education, etc).
As the book progresses, we get a much better understanding of the wild differences between the uber-wealthy and the middle class, and yet so much of the US population doesn’t under either of those categories. The folks in the service industry that cater to the Stocktons are used to show how many people are invisible in their world, but even the middle class “outsider” perspective wholly ignores this dynamic while making excuses for her rich husband. It’s great to employ people, and don’t think it’s bad at all that this role exists, but Berta existing as a character solely meant to serve and that never being challenged or at least reflected upon despite the “growth” of the characters seems like a missed opportunity to contextualize the full reality of class. Sasha (aka the middle class) can be wrong too! She doesn’t have to just offer understanding and reflection to the oblivious rich people but can extend that to folks with fewer resources as well. It’s quite possible this isn’t an oversight by the author but an intentional absence to show the the blind spots by the middle class as well. But the issue is there is no way to tell, and if it is the latter, then there needs to be at least some way this is brought to the character’s attention. As an aside, I do appreciate that we learn the Stocktons’ paid for Berta’s children to go to college. I think the actual relationship and the interactions day-to-day needed exploration as well though. The book also mostly highlights low income and poverty through Georgiana’s non-profit, and while global health is extremely important, the way poverty was included through this context both ignores the experience of being low-income or impoverished in the US and mildly portrayed the Global South in stereotypical ways. While I appreciate the concept of the book and can get on board with empathizing with nearly anyone as a human being regardless of background, this seems to miss the mark. A book devoted to scrutinizing class, even in a seemingly lighthearted book like this, there needs to be a bit more contextualization. I don’t have to love the characters that I find unrelatable, even in a character-driven story, but I would like to clearly recognize and respect their growth.
I also understand this is not the purpose of the book, and the absence can also be part of the point, but it could have used more diversity, or at least more conversations about race outside of the inner thoughts of one character who is married to an Asian man with whom she shares biracial children. No discussion can be had about class without discussing the impact of race and discrimination, and it has a much bigger impact than the story portrays.
<spoilers>
Also as a small rant about the characters at the end of the novel:
It felt like any major changes from the family were mostly for self-congratulation rather than from gaining a true understanding about the world. This could be somewhat intentional possibly but if so, the vagueness undercuts the point. The parents and two of the Stockton children don’t reflect much about their privilege in the end, and are just happy their personal problems are solved. One child struggles internally after her spouse loses his job (understandable), but we discover later the spouse was making 7 figures and her concern for his finding a job throughout the book seems almost trivial at that point. The three months he gets paid before receiving “nothing” after his firing is likely hundreds of thousands of dollars. She is worried about the cost of her children attending private school and having to asking parents for help, and yet she chooses to send them to a $50K/yr (each) school, and has parents who can give her $100K. The complaints of money and outgrowing their space, etc, weren’t really challenged in the end. She and her husband simply found more high-paying jobs, and then no reflection was really made about the privilege of that ability, or the literal free home they receive by the end. The Stockton son is the least reflective of the 3 children about his wealth and privilege. Outside of agreeing to moving out of the house on Pineapple Street and finally saying his wife is the most important thing to him (wtf at Sasha having to beg for this), he has little to no growth. The parents have pretty much no growth at all.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Gaslighting, Grief, Pregnancy, Alcoholism, Death, Drug abuse, and Classism