Whetstone, Diane McKinney

Trading Dreams at Midnight: A Novel

Fifteen-year-old Neena and her younger sister, Tish, are certain their mother will return, flush with the promise of a new man. But Freeda's disappearance on the cold February morning in 1984 soon stretches from days to months and from months to years. Raised by their stern grandmother Nan, the two sisters quickly learn to look after themselves, fiercely reinventing their lives in the wake of Freeda's absence.

Two decades later, at age thirty-six, Neena has moved away from Philadelphia and supports herself by blackmailing married men. When one of her stings goes terribly wrong, she decides to return to her childhood home. Unable to face her grandmother, Neena attempts to pull one last hustle on a prominent local lawyer. But when she learns that her younger sister has been hospitalized with pregnancy complications, she must decide how to come to terms with the woman who raised her. Reunited, Neena, Tish, and Nan each confronts her own memories of the past, and together reveal their dreams for the future.

Shifting seamlessly through time, Trading Dreams at Midnight is the story of three generations of women bound to each other by shared joy and pain. In the evocative prose that has become her signature, Diane McKinney-Whetstone captures in exquisite detail our lingering, ever-hopeful desires for redemption and rebirth—and reminds us of the possibilities the future may still hold.

Tumbling

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.

Leaving Cecil Street: A Novel (P.S.)

In one West Philadelphia neighborhood, families come together in celebration of unity and togetherness. Their block parties provide a union that serves as a backdrop for discovering the truth about themselves and the people they think they know.

Best friends Neet and Shay have depended on each other for most of their lives. However, their friendship will be tested when Neet becomes pregnant by one of the corner boys and Shay arranges an abortion that goes terribly wrong.

To Shay's horror, Neet is left unable to bear children and embraces her mother's esoteric yet sometimes impractical religious beliefs as punishment for her sins.

Meanwhile, Shay is left to struggle with her own growing maturity, the grief of losing a cherished friendship, and the disintegration of her parents' marriage. The two girls eventually choose their own separate paths. Leaving Cecil Street invokes those things that are most important -- family, friendship, and love.

Tempest Rising: A Novel

Set in west Philadelphia in the early sixties, Tempest Rising tells the story of three sisters, Bliss, Victoria, and Shern, budding adolescents raised in a world of financial privilege among the upper-black-class. But their lives quickly unravel as their father's lucrative catering business collapses. He disappears and is presumed dead, and their mother suffers an apparent breakdown. The girls are wrenched from their mother, and as the novel opens they are living in foster care in a working-class neighborhood in the home of Mae, a politically connected card shark. Though Mae is filled with syrupy names like "pudding" and "doll face" for the foster girls, she is abusive to her own child, Ramona, a twenty-something stunning beauty. As Ramona struggles with Mae's abuse and her own hatred for the foster children, she also tries to keep at bay a powerful attraction she has for her boyfriend's father.

Diane McKinney-Whetstone richly evokes the early 1960s in west Philadelphia in this spicy story of loss and healing, redemption and love.

Blues Dancing: A Novel

From the beloved author of Tumbling and Tempest Rising comes a new novel, Blues Dancing--a richly spun tale of love and passion, betrayal, redemption, and faith, set in contemporary Philadelphia.

In the early seventies, Verdi, a pampered, cloistered daughter of a southern preacher, heads to Philadelphia to enroll at the university. There she meets Johnson, a city boy. Their differences draw them together--he loves her gentility, she is seduced by his charisma. Their relationship is pure sweetness until Johnson teaches her the one thing that will change her life irrevocably--how to love heroin.

Enter Rowe, the conservative black professor who rescues Verdi from her overwhelming addiction and then falls desperately in love with her, leaving his sophisticated wife for this confused southern girl. Rowe and Verdi live a comfortable existence for twenty years, even though he attempts to strain Verdi's relationship with her first cousin and dearest friend, Kitt. As the novel opens, Kitt tells Verdi that Johnson is back in town and Verdi feels her safe and protected world teeter off balance. Once they lay their eyes on each other, they realize that the years have not dulled their passion as they skid uncontrollably toward the desires of their youth. Blues Dancing makes for rich interplay as the author allows time to inform her characters' lives in provocative ways.In the early seventies, Verdi, a pampered, cloistered daughter of a southern preacher, heads to Philadelphia to enroll at the university. There she meets Johnson, a city boy. Their differences draw them together--he loves her gentility, she is seduced by his charisma. Their relationship is pure sweetness until Johnson teaches her the one thing that will change her life irrevocably--how to love heroin.

Enter Rowe, the conservative black professor who rescues Verdi from her overwhelming addiction and then falls desperately in love with her, leaving his sophisticated wife for this confused southern girl. Rowe and Verdi live a comfortable existence for twenty years, even though he attempts to strain Verdi's relationship with her first cousin and dearest friend, Kitt. As the novel opens, Kitt tells Verdi that Johnson is back in town and Verdi feels her safe and protected world teeter off balance. Once they lay their eyes on each other, they realize that the years have not dulled their passion as they skid uncontrollably toward the desires of their youth. Blues Dancing makes for rich interplay as the author allows time to inform her characters' lives in provocative ways.In the early seventies, Verdi, a pampered, cloistered daughter of a southern preacher, heads to Philadelphia to enroll at the university. There she meets Johnson, a city boy. Their differences draw them together--he loves her gentility, she is seduced by his charisma. Their relationship is pure sweetness until Johnson teaches her the one thing that will change her life irrevocably--how to love heroin.

Enter Rowe, the conservative black professor who rescues Verdi from her overwhelming addiction and then falls desperately in love with her, leaving his sophisticated wife for this confused southern girl. Rowe and Verdi live a comfortable existence for twenty years, even though he attempts to strain Verdi's relationship with her first cousin and dearest friend, Kitt. As the novel opens, Kitt tells Verdi that Johnson is back in town and Verdi feels her safe and protected world teeter off balance. Once they lay their eyes on each other, they realize that the years have not dulled their passion as they skid uncontrollably toward the desires of their youth. Blues Dancing makes for rich interplay as the author allows time to inform her characters' lives in provocative ways.

Tumbling Reading Group Guide