Shifting the narrative between the characters’ pasts and the present day, Diane McKinney-Whetstone deftly builds suspense as she captures with insight, poignancy, and humor, the scars, tenderness, and swagger of those not yet old, but no longer young, coming to the mean acceptance that life is finite after all, who knew.

With its walls of windows gushing light and air, the Gen becomes the catalyst for secrets to be exposed. Their camaraderie is exhilarating.īut beneath the fun and froth, storms gather.

They regularly convene to smoke weed, line dance, and debate politics and philosophy as the wine goes down like silk. Main character Cynthia befriends the Gen’s two other Black residents, Bloc and Tish, as well as Lavia, who everyone assumes is from India. The Gen-short for Sexagenarian-is an upscale fifty-five-plus community located in the bucolic suburbs of Philadelphia. Tumbling book by Diane McKinney-Whetstone on all Collectibles Literature & Fiction Books > Genre Fiction Books Dumping Debt Rated: G (General Audience) See Customer Reviews Select Format Hardcover 4.19 Paperback 4.19 - 15.99 Select Condition Like New Unavailable Very Good - Good 4.19 Acceptable - New - See All 4 Editions from 4. Suddenly and unexpectedly a family, Herbie, Noon, and their two girls draw closer-until an outside threat reawakens a fire in Noon, causing her to rise up and fight to hold her family and her community together.Residents of an active-living retirement community revert to lives of youthful indulgence, even as time-bomb secrets of their pasts tick toward explosion. McKinney-Whetstone, who grew up in West Philadelphia rowhouse on Chestnut Street, was almost 40 when she started writing fiction in 1992. Then one day an infant girl is left on their doorstep, and later Ethel blesses them with her five-year-old niece. But their marriage remains unconsummated because of a horrible incident in Noon's past, so each seeks comfort elsewhere: Noon in the warm acceptance of the neighborhood church Herbie in the arms of Ethel, a jazz singer.

Noon and Herbie are deeply in love and living in a tightly knit African American neighborhood in South Philadelphia during the 1940s. Writing in a style as accessible as Terry McMillan, yet with the literary touches of Toni Morrison, McKinney Whetstone's Tumbling is a poignant, exquisitely rendered story of the ties that bind us and the secrets that keep us apart. Tumbling is the beloved bestselling debut novel that launched the luminous career of Diane McKinney Whetstone, critically acclaimed author of Tempest Rising, Blues Dancing, Leaving Cecil Street, and Trading Dreams at Midnight.

An accomplished novel, with sharply drawn characters, exuberant prose, plenty of period detail and a wise, forgiving outlook on family life.' - Los Angeles Times Book Review

Diane mckinney whetstone