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    We Are All Good People Here
    We Are All Good People Here
    We Are All Good People Here
    Audiobook9 hours

    We Are All Good People Here

    Written by Susan Rebecca White

    Narrated by Katharine Powell

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    From the author of A Place at the Table and A Soft Place to Land, an “intense, complex, and wholly immersive” (Joshilyn Jackson, New York Times bestselling author) multigenerational novel that explores the complex relationship between two very different women and the secrets they bequeath to their daughters.

    Eve Whalen, privileged child of an old-money Atlanta family, meets Daniella Gold in the fall of 1962, on their first day at Belmont College. Paired as roommates, the two become fast friends. Daniella, raised in Georgetown by a Jewish father and a Methodist mother, has always felt caught between two worlds. But at Belmont, her bond with Eve allows her to finally experience a sense of belonging. That is, until the girls’ expanding awareness of the South’s systematic injustice forces them to question everything they thought they knew about the world and their places in it.

    Eve veers toward radicalism—a choice pragmatic Daniella cannot fathom. After a tragedy, Eve returns to Daniella for help in beginning anew, hoping to shed her past. But the past isn’t so easily buried, as Daniella and Eve discover when their daughters are endangered by secrets meant to stay hidden.

    Spanning more than thirty years of American history, from the twilight of Kennedy’s Camelot to the beginning of Bill Clinton’s presidency, We Are All Good People Here is “a captivating…meaningful, resonant story” (Emily Giffin, author of All We Ever Wanted) about two flawed but well-meaning women clinging to a lifelong friendship that is tested by the rushing waters of history and their own good intentions.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateAug 6, 2019
    ISBN9781508286349
    Author

    Susan Rebecca White

    Susan Rebecca White is the author of four critically acclaimed novels, Bound South, A Soft Place to Land, We Are All Good People Here, and A Place at the Table. A graduate of Brown University and the MFA program at Hollins University, Susan has taught creative writing at Hollins, Emory, SCAD, and Mercer University, where she was the Ferrol A. Sams, Jr. Distinguished Chair of English Writer-in-Residence. An Atlanta native, Susan lives in Atlanta with her husband and son.

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    Reviews for We Are All Good People Here

    4/5

    181 ratings15 reviews

    What our readers think

    Readers find this title to be a captivating story that spans several decades and explores the lives of two women and their daughters. The book effectively portrays the historical events of the 60s and 70s and delves into complex situations with surprising twists. The narration is praised for its perfect pitch. While some reviewers found the ending disappointing, others enjoyed the depiction of Atlanta and felt immersed in the story. Overall, this book is praised for its depth, character development, and exploration of societal changes.

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      Another book about white ladies as saviors. Love the friendship element and the generational story, but the title along with the white lady savior trope had me gagging.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      Strong opening, good middle, disappointing ending. It was just okay.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      I felt like I was in the story. I finished it in 2 days because I didn’t want to stop.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      get through the first chapter and this book is great. Love the historical/ social journey through the 60’s. Really good story and characters.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      I was drawn to this book by the description - two young women from very different backgrounds meet in college in 1962 and become fast friends, but then find their lives going in very different directions, drawn by circumstances and the changing times of the 60s and 70s. Both see many societal changes that need to happen, but they have very different ideas about the best way to effect that change. After years of essentially being estranged, they're drawn back into each others' lives through their teen daughters.
      Being less than a decade younger than these two characters, it's always interesting to me to read books about that time, to see whether the author gets the feeling right. I did feel like for the most part White did get it right - for both characters. Like the author, I'm a native of the Atlanta area, so I'm also sensitive to descriptions of the area where I grew up. I could definitely relate to the Atlanta she describes. Overall a very good book about life, friendship, and values.
      My thanks to Netgalley and Atria Books for providing a copy for an unbiased review.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Damn... This one really got to me. Daniella and Eve's story is over that will resonate with many, both here in the South and elsewhere.
    • 5/5
      I loved this story— it so vividly captures the idealism and naïveté of young adulthood, the way we press our own regrets and insecurities on our children and the grace we must find as adults in order to be wise. Well done.
    • 5/5
      Very good read! I enjoyed hearing about another side of Atlanta since I grew up here.
    • 5/5
      What absolutely captivating story. Review up on my blog www.booksandstilettos.com
    • 4/5
      Well done!! I really enjoyed this story which spans the time between the early 1960’s and the early 1990’s and is about a generation of two women and their daughters. I guess this falls into the category of “historical fiction” because the events that take place are very much influenced by the turbulent 60’s and includes a lot of the political unrest that took place during that time.

      The story itself was really well done: Depth, character development, complex situations as well as many surprises that caught me off guard in shocking surprise. I thought the narrator did a fine job, a really fine job. She narrates the story in perfect pitch!
    • 1/5
      TRIGGER WARNING (book, not this review) for Animal sensitive people

      If it had just been a blip, I may have continued (MAY have) but with the extensive imagery in that scene, I am done (middle part of Ch7). I was slogging along until that point anyway, not feeling especially engaged but that scene is enough to slam the book closed (if it were not an audiobook) and DNF without so much as a blink (other than the graphic images I now have to actively work to erase from my head). I'm sure it was a relevant point in the story and I don't like to criticize a writer's content. All I can say is that I wish I had known before I got to that point. I'm a horror and a Holocaust junkie, so I'm no lightweight, but I can't handle animal torture/pain/fear beyond a cursory mention (and even that is often too much). If I'd have known, I would've never started it and wasted hours I could've spent on something else that, just, wouldn't...

      2 people found this helpful

    • 4/5
      Enjoyed the friendship in book. Loved the bit about the voting rights. Did not the middle of the book. Some characters inconsistent
    • 3/5
      I have such mixed feelings about this book. What starts out as a book about a friendship soon takes a left turn so drastic that I almost abandoned it. I’m glad I didn’t because the story did redeem itself somewhat.

      The main characters, Eve and Daniella meet at college and become close friends. They are both intelligent and care about the injustices in our society. The problem is they each have a different way of trying to “fix” these various injustices.

      I liked that the author recognized the controversies of the 60’s, but at some point it just got to be too much, especially when one of the characters takes an extreme radical turn. At this point, I almost abandoned the book because I didn’t want to read about all the hatred and immoral lifestyle of the fanatical group the character found herself involved with.

      Thankfully, the path of the story changed and Eve and Daniella end up cultivating an adult friendship that continues as they grow older. The story goes into the 80’s and beyond, bringing up just about every controversial issue our society has faced throughout the years.

      I enjoyed reading about the friendship and how it endured over the years, but the “hot-button” topics in the story was a bit overdone, in my opinion.

      Thanks go to NetGalley and Atria Books for allowing me to read an advance copy and give my honest review.
    • 4/5
      3.5
      The members of SMASH believed it was better to die in honor than to live as their parents did..."~from We Are All Good People Here by Susan Rebecca While

      How do we change society? Can we change society? Who are the 'good people' and can 'good people' do bad things for the right reason and still be 'good'? Can people really change?

      I was interested in the questions posed by the novel.

      The story begins in the early 1960s when two girls meet in a private women's college in the South and become best friends. Their rising awareness of social racism makes them question the values of their society. Decisions are made that take them in different directions. One girl works within the system while accepting the social expectations for a rising female lawyer. The other girl follows a charismatic radical into ever more violent protests and when she has lost everything she seeks out her old friend to help her return to society.

      The novel is filled with historical detail and events. Medgar Evans and Fannie Lou Hamer, Bob Dylan and Dr. Strangelove, the murders of James Chaney, Michael Schwerner, and Andrew Goodman, "Hey! Hey! LBJ how many kids did you kill today" are mentioned.

      It was very hard to follow Eve into the very dark place she ends up in. I nearly set the book aside as her life became quite disturbing. But I did pick it back up.

      Babe, you opted out of a normal life a long time ago.~ from We Are All Good People Here by Susan Rebecca White

      Can we keep our pasts a secret? Can we completely change? In the end, Eve became the very person she had sought to avoid becoming. And yet--she still needed a man to guide her. Daniella may have 'sold out' and but she gives it up for important work that better fits her values.

      Warren St. Clair was a charismatic and idealistic man who is also misogynistic and self-absorbed. Eve knows his reputation, but can't resist him, following him from place to place. When Warren escalates to violence against the system, Eve follows him underground.

      Meanwhile, Daniella marries a 'reformed' Republican, a good man who believes that social change happens slowly. Daniella pushes the envelope as a lawyer, working twice as hard to break into the old-boy network.

      Justice does not simply show up on it own, gliding in on the wings of platitudes and the promise of prayers. ~from We Are All Good People Here by Susan Rebecca Smith

      In mid-age, both women shift, the radical Eva embracing safety and surety and marriage that brings prosperity, and the widowed conformist Daniella chucking it all for non-profit work helping men on death row.

      The book could have ended here, but instead, we see how the women's decisions impact the next generation.

      Eve and Danilla each have a daughter. Eve's daughter Anna has everything and more, dressing in Laura Ashley clothing and driving a new car. Daniella is financially well off, too, but she insists on a lifestyle in keeping with her values. Used clothing, no conspicuous consumption.

      Daniella works and Eve is a housewife, so Daniella leaves her daughter Sarah with 'Aunt Eve' under the care of the maid. Sarah is envious of Anna's life and she worries that her mom is economically insecure.

      Eve has a secret that is exposed. When Anna has learned the truth about her mother, it creates a rift.

      There is an interesting theme on religion through the novel that is not central to the plot but takes enough space to show the author's concern.

      Early in the novel Eve and Warren St. Clair and have a discussion about the value of the church in society. Warren believes the cathedral is a waste of space better used for affordable housing. Eve thinks there is nothing more useful than a church. Warren mentions the German Lutheran Church was complicit with the Nazis, and Eve retorts, not Bonhoeffer's church. Sure, Warren replies. But Bonhoeffer was executed by the state which proves the church either is complicit or martyrs.

      Near the end of the novel Daniella and her daughter Sarah have a talk about religion. Eve has joined a right-wing evangelical church led by a charismatic preacher--still drawn to those charismatic men.

      Sarah asks Daniella, what if one must hit 'rock bottom' to be saved? Daniella believes in the social gospel, God's will for "the reconciliation of all people" as opposed to God daming some and saving others.

      But Sarah understands that her Aunt Eve is searching for stability and family. Daniella only sees that Eve jumps from one "dogma" to another.

      Again, a juxtaposition between two choices arises. Is changing the world better than saving souls? Do we need to become completely powerlessness before we can accept God? Is doing justice and showing mercy the mark of walking humbly with one's God?

      The book is summed up in one sentence:
      We are all good people here, all trying to muddle through this the best we can. ~from We Are All Good People Here by Susan Rebecca White

      I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.
    • 3/5
      This is the story of Eve and Daniella, who meet at a small, private all-female college in the 1960s. The two girls become instant best friends and the friendship transforms Eve, a debutante raised in a wealthy Atlanta household. Daniella is from the north, Jewish and liberal and Eve is immediately drawn to her views, taking them far further. As the years go by, their paths diverge as Eve becomes more and more radical, eventually joining a group similar to The Weathermen, while Daniella becomes a lawyer at a time when a woman's career is meant to be a pastime until she get married. But fate brings them back together again.

      This is a book with tremendous promise. Eve's story alone, and how she went from obedient debutante to underground radical in hiding provides enough substance for a dozen books. And then there's Daniella's fierce determination to forge a career and have a family regardless of the opposition she faced. But all of this is lost in the sheer amount of time and number of events this novel attempts to encompass. Stretching from 1962, to when their own daughters begin university, there's simply too much to fit in one novel and somehow the most interesting bits, from what motivated Eve to join a radical group that flirted with terrorism and what she thought of it all, to how Daniella negotiated her professional life, working to be taken seriously in a Southern law firm, are glossed over in a single paragraph or omitted entirely, in favor of spending many pages describing the traditions of a sorority neither girl joined. The details were interesting, I enjoyed learning about repousse silver tea sets, but I wonder if those paragraphs might have been better used giving an example of how Daniella managed to make the men in her law firm take her seriously, or how she negotiated her pregnancy while working. Or if those paragraphs might have been better used showing how Eve felt about her open relationship or how she was drawn into the radical group and what she thought about it.

      Both characters, as well as their daughters are never given the space to become complex and breathing individuals. Daniella's daughter is the most well-rounded character, but as she mainly reacts to the big events around here, from date rape of a friend, to another friend's same sex relationship, she remains a way to show changes in society than a person in her own right. The novel is well-written and when White does go into detail, it's clear she knows what she's writing about. And there was always something happening. But in the end the novel simply tried to do too much and ended up being a frustrating outline of something better.