PINEAPPLE STREET

by Jenny Jackson

When I think about Pineapple Street, it strikes me as the first fun summer book that I’ve read this year, albeit before summer has technically begun.  Set in Brooklyn Heights—and the first novel by Jenny Jackson, a Williams College graduate—the characters and storyline seem very familiar and realistic.  Pineapple Street tells the story of the Stockton family: mother, father and three grown children, some with children of their own.  The novel explores the children’s relationships with each other, with their parents and with their siblings’ spouses.  It definitely fits the category of a “rollicking” read.

As the book begins, we find that the older Stockton parents have owned their entire brownstone building for ages, but have recently decided to downsize and give the brownstone to their son Cord and his new wife Sasha, a New Englander with a far less affluent background than her husband.  You can imagine how the gift sits with Cord’s two sisters Darley and Georgiana.  Darley, who is married and has two young children, gave up her inheritance when she got married to make a point of her and her husband’s independence from her parents.  More recently, she left her lucrative hedge fund job to become a full-time mom.  She is struggling with both decisions and, fundamentally, with her identity.  She can’t abide her sister-in-law’s willful refusal to fit into the Stockton family mold. And, out of the blue, her husband gets fired from his job.  Georgiana, the coddled, youngest child, works for a non-profit and is grappling with being part of “the 1%.”  She falls in love with one of her co-workers, who turns out to be married.

It's not just the storyline that makes Pineapple Street a good read. Jackson has a keen eye for detail and an ability to write spot-on, believable dialogue.  In fact, her scenes sometimes seem so realistic, I found myself chuckling.  Family relations—especially when significant others are introduced into the family—are complicated.  Jackson has done a superb job of creating a realistic, lovable family, despite each character’s shortcomings.  Read Pineapple Street.  It is a real pleasure. (Liz)

A SECOND HELPING

This book was a perfect read to kick off the summer. (It’s summer, right? Please.) Full of wealthy family drama, big parties and bad behavior, I was hooked from the start. And kudos to Jackson for actually trying to deal with some of the big questions being raised by and about family wealth and how it perpetuates inequality. (Lily)