Locke provides all the conventional signposts finding the body, calling the police, telling the parents, making the arrest. However, in my view, Locke’s depiction is neither as vivid nor as dramatically powerful.Ĭrime writing depends on intricate plotting to keep the reader guessing. In the second part, Porter encounters many obstacles as he builds his client’s defence which leads, in the third part, to the novel’s climax, a set-piece courtroom drama that echoes the writing of John Grisham. Locke successfully pulls these threads together giving an historical perspective on this black community’s creation, its evolution, and its future, as well as the political future of America. Told in three parts, the first introduces the missing girl, Alicia Nowell, and a multitude of other characters, any one of whom might be guilty of her demise.
Politics, murder and family tragedy are the main threads running through this complex narrative. Her omniscient voice makes the setting compelling, delivering cinematic views of the locale. Local lawyer Jay Porter, a widower struggling to raise a young son and teenage daughter, is called upon to represent Axel’s nephew.Though Locke has fictionalised some of its history and geography, Pleasantville is a real neighbourhood. When her body is found, Axel’s nephew and campaign manager is charged with her murder. Axel Hathorne, son of Pleasantville’s founder Sam Hathorne, seems set to become Houston’s first black mayor. Campaigning is focused on the predominantly African-American neighbourhood of Pleasantville, where black voting power has swung many close polls. Bill Clinton has been re-elected to the White House and elections for mayor are looming in Houston. Pleasantville, her third novel, is set in 1996 America. Her second, The Cutting Season, was the 2013 winner of the Ernest Gaines Award for Literary Excellence. Locke’s focus is African-American cultural and political history and her 2010 debut novel, Black Water Rising, was shortlisted for the Orange Prize and nominated for an Edgar Award, an NAACP Image Award and a Los Angeles Times Book Prize. She has been a scriptwriter for Paramount, Warner Bros, Twentieth Century Fox, HBO and Dreamworks, and is currently a writer and producer on the Fox drama Empire. A graduate of Northwestern University, Attica Locke was a Fellow at the Sundance Institute’s Feature Filmmakers Lab.
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