Synopses & Reviews
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.
Review
“McKinney-Whetstones gifts as a writer continue to fascinate.” San Francisco Chronicle
Synopsis
Class, race, and sexuality converge in this page-turning story of desire, jealousy, and survival.
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. When their father disappears suddenly, he is presumed dead, sending their mother spiraling into an apparent breakdown. The girls are wrenched from their mother and dumped into foster care in a working-class neighborhood in the home of Mae, a politically connected card shark.
Though Mae lavishes affection onto her foster children, 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.
In Tempest Rising, McKinney-Whetstone richly evokes the early 1960s in west Philadelphia in this story of loss and healing, redemption, and love.
Synopsis
It is 1965 in Philadelphia. Clarise, Finch, and their three adolescent daughters are living the dream life of the black financially privileged. Then everything changes with the suddenness of a violent summer thunderstorm. Finch's lucrative catering business falls on hard times. Finch is lost at sea, Clarise suffers an apparent nervous collapse, and the girls -- Shern, Bliss, and Victoria -- are discharged into the foster care of politically connected cardsharp Mae and her beautiful, dark-spirited daughter Ramona. A world rich in love, pride, and joy has been abruptly exchanged for another -- one coarser and meaner, suffused with an air of jealousy, malignity, and brutal secrets that permeate every room of Mae's unhappy home. But pain and cruelty cannot destroy a determination to survive -- and a driving need to recapture a wounded lost thing called family.
About the Author
Diane grew up in Philadelphia, the city she returns to as the setting for
Leaving Cecil Street. Her work has appeared in
Philadelphia Magazine; Essence; the
Sunday Philadelphia Inquirer Magazine;and the anthologies
Bluelight Corner, and
Mending the World.She has received numerous awards, including a Pennsylvania Council on the Arts grant, the Zora Neale Hurston Society award for creative contribution to literature, a citation from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for her portrayal of urban life as presented in Tumbling, Author of the Year award from the Go On Girl Book Club, and more.
She presently teaches fiction writing at her alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania. She lives in Philadelphia with her husband Greg, and sometimes her college-age twins, Taiwo, her daughter, and Kehinde, her son.