Thanks to NetGalley and Open Road Integrated Media as well as the author for this read. I read this book long ago so when I requested it from NetGalley I was not sure that I read it previously but as I tried reading it, I was not able to really enjoy the read as I was starting to remember so much about that book. It was a good read that spoke on the have and the have-nots.

Sorry for the delayed review.

I couldn't put this down and finished it in one day. The portrayal of wealth, class and racial divides is so well done in this book, and the characters are so vivid and developed. It was brilliant from the beginning to its heartbreaking end.

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Review I was invited to read and review this title by Open Road Media and Net Galley, and at first I thought I would like it. Sadly, social commentary that was considered acceptable by the majority in America of 1985, when this was first published, doesn’t work for many readers now, and I am one of them.

Linden Hills is the ultimate residential area for upscale African-Americans. Naylor models the novel on Dante’s Infernal and its seven circles of hell to examine the ways in which African-Americans judge one another. Although I don’t feel entitled to a voice as to how Black folks treat one another, being Caucasian myself, I thought the book looked intriguing and the basic foundation promising. Naylor is a scholar and very skilled with the written word.

But here’s the rub: those young enough not to recall, or not to even have been born in the 1980s have no real conception of how differently gay and trans people were regarded during that time. Many otherwise open-minded, liberal human beings thought nothing of making what were actually very nasty jokes about sexual minorities. Most gay and trans people were so carefully closeted that most straight Americans believed we did not know any gay or trans people. It was easy to compare their sexual habits to those of, say, people that perform intimate acts with barnyard animals, because hey, nobody we knew fit that category. I don’t know, of course, who the author knew and who she didn’t; I’m just saying there’s a reason this book was so successful back then, but hasn’t aged well.

The first reference I saw here made me wrinkle my brow and make a note to myself, but it wasn’t something that would tank the whole book, especially one so otherwise well written, and I thought it possible that Naylor might even be using it to build up to a more progressive statement. But sadly, it just isn’t so. I read about halfway in and then threw up my hands; I just couldn’t stand it anymore.

Naylor was not writing anything that wasn’t common during the time period; however indefensible, it was an area where she had a whole lot of company. But the world has, for the most part, moved on, whereas this story is still frozen in time.

Although I would be happy to see what else this talented writer has produced, I cannot recommend this particular book.

Wow. Linden Hills forces readers to examine our perceptions of success and what we deem as "making it." Linden Hills was designed by the original Luther Nedeed for African Americans, and the Nedeed family lived at the bottom of the V-shaped community. Living in Linden Hills, especially near the bottom, is a symbol of success. However, the lifestyle comes with a price; all isn't as it seems. Readers follow Willie and Lester, as they encounter the families that live in Linden Hills and watch the families of Linden Hills descent into their own personal hell. I enjoyed this thought-provoking novel.

When receiving the invitation to read "Linden Hills", I was ecstatic to say the least. I remember searching for a author who looked like me. At the age of sixteen, I had already Toni Morrison, Alice Walker and some Jamaica Kincaid. However, it wasn't until I read Gloria Naylor my senior year that I fell head over heels with her grasp of language, nuance and encompassing compassion to those from all backgrounds in the black community. I didn't feel as alone anymore. After hearing about her death and remembering the joy she brought to my life, I was happy to see the invitation to read and review "Linden Hills". In less than a week, I consumed all her novels, falling in love again with her style of words, finding sustenance in the beauty of my people and wishing we had even more from this author. She is one of the authors who inspired me to create the online magazine "Rigorous" that celebrates works of art by people of color from all walks of life.

Linden Hills by Gloria Naylor is a story about cultural/class divide and societal expectations which dictate the lives of the affluent African-American residents of an area called, Linden Hills. These residents live in exclusivity. To live in Linden Hills, you had to have achieved certain standards. To continue living there, these standards had to be maintained. The story is mainly narrated by two young men, Lester and Willie. One of them lives almost at Linden Hills but doesn’t have the stature of success. All that he has is a home on the right address (almost at the gates of Linden Hills but not quite there). The other man lives outside Linden Hills, on the wrong side of town. In the days leading to Christmas, the two mingle with the residents of Linden Hills when they start looking for work in the homes and get a glimpse into the secret lives of these residents.
I liked the development of the characters in this book. Some of their stories were tragic. Others will remain with me for a long time for instance, the gay lovers who had to live a lie to fit into the society. One of them ends up as the best man at his lover’s wedding and gives toast revealing his true feeling by reading from a poem that only Willie and Lester understand. The author describes the wedding being as sad as a funeral. On the other hand, another resident of Linden Hills buries his wife but the funeral is more like a celebration. It was merrier than the wedding. There is also a white man secretly in love with a black woman but publicly dating women of his own race. Linden Hills is filled with seemingly successful people. However, the secrets and lies behind closed doors tell a different story.
“They all trying to say something with music that you can't say with plain talk. There ain't really no words for love or pain. And the way I see it, only fools go around trying to talk their love or talk their pain. So the smart people make music and you can kinda hear about it without them saying anything.”
― Gloria Naylor, Linden Hills
The book tackles various themes including racial relations. What stood out to me especially was the issue of ‘acting white’. It illustrated what success meant to different characters and how others perceived them. It raised the question of what does success mean? Whose standards dictate what it means to be successful? Is the white gaze an influence on what the black people perceived as success? On the other hand, the illusion of a perfect marriage versus what happens behind closed doors was illustrated in the narrative. I liked the fact that at the beginning of the book, there was a story of a married couple living outside Linden Hills. They were poor and the man had a mental problem that caused him hallucinations once in a while. It was a dysfunctional but okay couple. On the hand, in Linden Hills, one of the most successful men in the area had the most disturbing marriages and for most part of the story, his current wife lived as a prisoner. The man still attended the funeral and wedding, keeping up social appearances and making excuses for his wife’s absence.There was also a key theme of gender roles and in specific, the role of different women and where they stood in this ‘image of success. It was interesting how different women were portrayed from the wives, daughters and mothers. There was also a divide between the educated and successful professionals and those who were not and how this affected their relationships with the men.
Linden Hills by Gloria Taylor is a deep, thought-provoking book. However, it is not the easiest read. Naylor’s writing reminded me of Toni Morrison’s Beloved. The writing is complex and doesn’t really have a flow. It jumped from one POV to another and tackled various themes at the same time. At some point, it sort of read like a compilation of short stories of different characters. The narration sounds poetic which is not a narrative style that I am used to. However, the book is definitely worth reading. Naylor illustrates how the residents of Linden Hills fought hard to let go of the past that defined them. The ties of slavery were severed only for new forms of self-slavery to emerge. They moved from one master to another. In this case, they were enslaved by their need to achieve high social status and wealth.

-20%

Pros: From what I read so far it does bring up a lot of black racial topics (colorism, assimilation, respectability, and the problematic bits of affluent black neighborhood)

Why DNF? This sounded so good I thought this is going to be a literal or more direct Dante's Inferno with black folks. In my head it was going to be sci-fi, I think.

What about black women? I can't tell if it is a good representation of how black men view women during this time period (or in general) or another book with black women as set pieces. Or I did not read it far enough to get to the nuanced women. Overall, I just was not enjoying it and felt it was a conversation that has been had a lot already in more reachable/non-black women exclusionary ways.

Gloria Naylor passed from the literary family at far too young an age. While The Women of Brewster’s Place and Mama Day are better works, Linden Hills offers a look at the competitive natures of this wealthy black neighborhood, as well as its secrets and narcissism. What is so good about Naylor’s work is the way she controls the magical and the realistic, taking a very serious look at human nature.

Unfortunately I was unable to read this book because of a formatting issue that wouldn't allow me to read the file on any of my devices.

Interesting parallels to Dante, although I wonder what would have happened had the author not been restricted to that model. Writing can be a bit clunky, but generally a good read, with compelling, well-drawn characters.

Linden Hills is a place where African Americans become the elite, but at what cost? The audacity to hope for something better, to yearn for something equal, to appear what you are not; that's Linden Hills. Like most of her work, Gloria Naylor writes with a moving pen of emotions. She carefully crafts a background with rich, problematic characters. Linden Hills captivated me with the journey of the Nedeeds. Starting off with a man that had a vision to have his own little corner of the world for his people. What started off as something innocent, turned into something so hideous that could only be blistered by pride. I fell in love with characters-especially Willie and Lester. This novel tells a story so complex and heart wrenching, it could make you weep. I gave it four stars because I needed an ending to clear my troubled memory mind.

Linden Hills was originally published in 1985, and yet it feels so modern and current – it could easily be a satirical reference to race relations in America today. It is the story of an affluent African-American neighbourhood that becomes a symbol of success for its residents. Living in Linden Hills is the highest achievement they can imagine, but getting there is not good enough – one must always strive to move lower down the hill to the wealthiest homes. In this way, Naylor’s novel mirrors Dante’s Inferno, and the descent into hell. As status increases, so does the emptiness within.

The novel begins by describing how Linden Hills came to be. A black man named Luther Needed bought the land from white men who thought they were offloading undesirable property. However, Luther managed to turn the land into a powerful symbol for its black residents – a neighbourhood where they could be successful in their own right, outside of the constraints of segregation and poverty surrounding them. The original inhabitants of Linden Hills strived to create an inclusive space, but now their descendants are obsessed with status, at the risk of their souls.

Rumours abound that the original Luther Needed sold his wife and child into slavery in order to purchase the land that would become Linden Hills. Now, his great-grandson and de facto leader of the Hills – also called Luther Needed – struggles with the equally unsavoury rumours that surround him. We view the neighourhood through the eyes of two teenage boys, who ramble around Linden Hills, looking for odd jobs to do. Willie comes from a poor family living nearby, while Lester grew up in the Hills. As they move throughout the community, the boys contrast their perspectives and learn shocking secrets about the people they thought they knew.

More than an allegory for the modern descent into hell, Linden Hills is an analysis of the American dream and its consequences. It examines the dangers of conformity and the damages of progress. Using white standards as a measure of conformity, the residents of this black community compromise their real desires in order to show the outer world a certain image.

The individual lives of the people of Linden Hills are told like short stories that can almost stand on their own, although Naylor weaves them together with impressive skill. The ending, for Luther and the others, feels inevitable, but certainly not uplifting. This is a socioeconomic study of race, class and gender, steeped in a gritty version of reality. The inhabitants of Linden Hills escaped from a history of slavery and segregation, only to fall into the self-imposed slavery of wealth and status, where nothing is ever good enough. This is a novel I will be thinking about for awhile, and it should be considered required reading in today’s political climate.

I received this book from Open Road Media and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I really liked the book. I reading about wealthy people and it's not too often that you get to read about wealthy African Americans in novels. Taking the concept of Dante's Inferno was brilliant and I honestly would have never thought of that. Showing how money, power and success gets the best of people and often leads to downfall is not a new story by any means but Naylor's prose and voice elevates concept to new heights. Everything should have felt blatent but it didn't and I wished that this had been required reading when I was in school and hope that many more people find this book and enjoy it.

Linden Hills, which was originally published in 1985, depicts African Americans of middle and upper class and their desire to adopt the customs of the white world or the perfect world. In the process of trying to adopt those customs, the characters lose themselves. This book was very thought provoking and relevant to the way many people I know try to live.

Gloria Naylor, author of The Women of Brewster Place, grants the world another chance to read why she's considered a literary champion. When I began reading Naylor's Linden Hills I was not familiar with her works nor had any inclination to be. Oh how foolish I have been all these years. I didn't realize until the last word that I missed her voice.

When I first requested Linden Hills for review it was simply because of the cover. I'm totally one of those people who judges books by their cover. I can't help it and I know I'm not alone in this matter. Once I was given access to the title, I realized I'd stumbled upon a true literary creation that I'd either get... or not get. Literary fiction always seems to intimidate me. I wonder if I'll "get" it. Will I have trudged along through masterful prose after masterful prose and simply not understand? Understanding literature in a more meaningful way is a community I desire to belong. I am similar to the people who desire to live in Linden Hills.

Linden Hills is known all over the Western world for being an exclusive community that all want to belong to. No one quite knows what the requirements are to getting in this neighborhood, but it is the creme de la creme of where to call home. Outsiders to this community see the opulence with envy. They are blind to the true, sad, disturbed existence that really lay in wait for a place that is so exclusive, yet always has an opening.

Our primary tour guides through this "heaven" on earth are Willie Lester. Two friends who are thicker than blood with each other. Although they are best friends, they are both very different. One glaring difference is that one lives in Linden Hills and the other lives in the neighboring town of Putney Wayne. Putney Wayne isn't exactly the place to be, or the place to be from. It's considered low although it looks down (geographically) on Linden Hills. The irony is not lost on anyone that the world's most happening place to call home is at the bottom of the hill, is not lost on me. And I'm surprised to be even that smart.

I guess my application into the Linden Hill's of reviewers looks slightly better.

Gloria Naylor's Linden Hill's is a contemporary take on Dante's Inferno. With Lester and Willie as our guides, we happen upon the nine circles of hell. We meet the people of Linden Hills and learn how their stories intertwine. Before long, it's obvious there's a heart and soul that is missing in Linden Hill's. Perhaps that heart and soul died generations ago when the first lease contract for a 1000 years was signed.

How's that for adding another bullet point into the exclusive reviewer's club. Sure, I could be a snarky, witty, or even completely dimwitted reviewer, but I want in!!! I want in although I don't know why. There's just something about this exclusive membership I have no choice but to attain.

Either way, Naylor had me glued to the pages of Linden Hill's and it saddened me to part with each character I met. On the surface they all seemed so real and it almost makes me mad that much of their stories were not perfectly sealed with some form of conclusion. But, their necessity on helping Lester, Willie, and us readers understand Linden Hill's better, and then ultimately ourselves isn't lost.

In conclusion, Linden Hills is actually my favorite book I've read this year so far. It surface hot buttons on race relations, poverty, prosperity, and the image we all want to portray are just a looking glass for the real point of this story. Whether my interpretation be right or wrong, I hope to never lose myself or my personal truth to conform to any "exclusive" faction at the cost of my soul. I think I'll just rescind my application and let it burn.

Copy provided by Open Road Media via Netgalley

This is the first I have heard of Gloria Naylor, and her writing took me back to 1986 in America.
The story takes us through the generations of Luther Needed and his way of life, values and struggles mostly being that he was Black, and what follows from the first two chapters is an account of various Black families and their children struggling to make it in life.

Linden Hills is symbolic in that it is not just a place, but to most people it is the best and only place one should aspire to live in, and so they all go about getting good grades, working for big corporations, attending the best education institutions all in the name of making it in life and in the end...it's sad that they lose a part of them that no amount of wealth could ever buy back.

It's quite skewed if you ask me, in that the further down you live, the wealthier you are. I found this quite ironic, and for someone who has never enjoyed reading Dante's Inferno, the symbolism had me thinking twice about the brilliance of the writer.
Simply put amassing wealth, living for status is sinking deeper into hell.

However, it took me two weeks to read this book because of the characters narratives. Switching from one character to the other was not as seamless as I hoped it would be, and this threw me off for a couple of days.
There was however David...Winston's partner and lover who said something that stuck with me:

"You want the world to turn inside out and make up a nice, neat title that you can put on your desk. And that's not about to happen. You can't handle anything less than that because yo are a made man, Winston. They made you a good son, a promising young lawyer, and now they've made you ashamed of what you are."

It's an insightful read and I am glad that I got an arc from NetGalley because now I have been introduced to a Writer, I never heard of and my next read is The Women of Brewster Place.

Good book and holds your attention. This book is of course about the inhabitants of Linden Hill. Gives one something to think about regarding race, social status, etc. Thank you NetGalley, the author and the publisher for the advanced copy of this book in return for my honest review.

Originally published in 1985, Linden Hills explores a diverse group of middle-class and upper middle-class African-Americans, who have to a large extent assimilated the values and culture of the dominant white world but in many ways are still searching for their own identity. Through a series of depictions of various characters, all of whose lives are interconnected, Naylor explores issues of class and race, and with some memorable set pieces rather than a sustained narrative opens up to the reader a community of individuals whose concerns about materialism and “making it” in the American dream often lead to their downfall. Cynical at times, but always perceptive and insightful, I found this an interesting book on the whole, although it only just about hangs together as a satisfying novel. Well worth reading, however.