Pineapple Street by Jenny Jackson

 

Do you live in the same neighborhood that you grew up in?  I live in a different midwestern state, Wisconsin, than I grew up in, Michigan.  I still live in a small town, in a rural county as I did growing up, but now I’m on Lake Michigan.

Pineapple Street is the story of a family that lives a rarified life in Brooklyn Heights.  This story is told from three different viewpoints. Sasha is a woman who married Cord, the eldest son of the Stockton family.  She ran a successful business of her own when she married Cord, but Cord’s family is in a much different class than hers.  Darley is the oldest daughter of the family, and she is happily married to her husband Malcolm who has a high-profile job.  Darley has stayed home with her two small children.  When Malcolm loses his job, Darley starts to wonder if she should have given up her inheritance and her job.  Georgiana is the youngest in the family by ten years. She feels like Sasha is an interloper in their family.  When tragedy strikes her life, she begins to wonder about her inherited wealth and how she can help the world.

Pineapple Street was a very slow-moving book.  I kept wondering when the plot would happen, but I did find the characters interesting and wanted to keep reading. Everything just seemed to come about and be wrapped up right at the end.  The theme was as F. Scott Fitzgerald said, “'Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me.”  I think that F. Scott Fitzgerald told a more entertaining story with this theme in The Great Gatsby.  The book did seem to highlight how young people today are doing things differently with inherited wealth.

Pineapple Street was the January selection for the Page-turners Book Club at the Kewaunee Public Library.  It seemed that most members had the same feelings about the book that I did.

Book Source:  The Kewaunee Public Library