Rating: 
Summary: Spellbinding Human Drama
Review: I liked Nancy Peacock's Life without Water a lot, but nothing prepared me for the Redd's story in Home Across the Road. This story, which spans five generations tells the story of the Redd family, descended from slaves and slave-owners. Peacock's writing is wonderful and hypnotic, drawing you slowly into a complex family history full of love and hate, prejudice, revenge, and desire. This wonderful and moving story is unlike any I've read in a long while. It reminded me both of Pauli Murray's Proud Shoes and Alice Walker's early books.The Home Across the Road refers to the Roseberry Plantation. But the title could also refer to any home across the road, which is full of people and stories like the ones in this book, if only we'd listen; if only we'd look. Nancy Peacock actually listens and sees the world as it is and as it was and transforms it into a meaningful story. A remarkable accomplishment! I'm recommending Home Across the Road to my book group and wish there was a readers' guide to go along with it. It's a fascinating tale that will spark some good discussions.
Rating:
Summary: Peacock has done it again
Review: Several years ago I came across and read Nancy Peacock's first book, Life Without Water, and found myself eagerly waiting for her next read. And now that I have read Home Across the Road, I am once again waiting to read another offering by this talented writer. A pair of earrings, long buried, and a once stately plantation home are the backdrop against which an intriguing generational tale is told in Home Across the Road. The white Redds were once an old aristocratic Southern family complete with a working plantation home and slaves. The black Redds were once the white Redd slaves who grew up while working the plantation, married had families and eventually inhabit their own home across the road. As China, an aging woman sits on her porch, she reminisces about her family and their involvement with the white Redds. Through her recollections, she tells the history of both familis and events which have led them to live across the road and watch first the demise of the plantation family, and now the total abandonment of their home. She recalls how a pair of earrings owned by a white Redd wife were stolen long ago and came into the possession of a black Redd slave forvermore sealing the fate of both families. Mrs. Pecock has written a small book which envelops the reader and has them asking for more.
Rating:
Summary: Peacock has done it again
Review: Several years ago I came across and read Nancy Peacock's first book, Life Without Water, and found myself eagerly waiting for her next read. And now that I have read Home Across the Road, I am once again waiting to read another offering by this talented writer. A pair of earrings, long buried, and a once stately plantation home are the backdrop against which an intriguing generational tale is told in Home Across the Road. The white Redds were once an old aristocratic Southern family complete with a working plantation home and slaves. The black Redds were once the white Redd slaves who grew up while working the plantation, married had families and eventually inhabit their own home across the road. As China, an aging woman sits on her porch, she reminisces about her family and their involvement with the white Redds. Through her recollections, she tells the history of both familis and events which have led them to live across the road and watch first the demise of the plantation family, and now the total abandonment of their home. She recalls how a pair of earrings owned by a white Redd wife were stolen long ago and came into the possession of a black Redd slave forvermore sealing the fate of both families. Mrs. Pecock has written a small book which envelops the reader and has them asking for more.
Rating: 
Summary: Good novel, rather biased
Review: The story of the black Redds and the white Redds gives a good picutre of life for blacks and whites in America, however, the story is rather biased. It is easy to see who you are to feel pity on and who you are not to like. The blacks are shown as oppressed, loving, caring and family oriented. The white Redds are shown to be over-powering, greedy, and basically not nice people. Each of the Redds dies a rather violent death or at least a death that is not peaceful. There always seems to be a reason that the world is a better place without them. The black Redds are shown to have very difficult lives, which they may have had, however, there is little joy shown in their lives. There is no reason for them to be happy. The book was interesting, however, I was looking for more when it ended. The story just fizzled out. The white Redds all were dead and gone, we never do find if any of the black Redds have joy in their lives. Maybe the story was not long enough, perhaps with a bit more depth the bias would not have been as pronounced.
Rating:
Summary: Good novel, rather biased
Review: The story of the black Redds and the white Redds gives a good picutre of life for blacks and whites in America, however, the story is rather biased. It is easy to see who you are to feel pity on and who you are not to like. The blacks are shown as oppressed, loving, caring and family oriented. The white Redds are shown to be over-powering, greedy, and basically not nice people. Each of the Redds dies a rather violent death or at least a death that is not peaceful. There always seems to be a reason that the world is a better place without them. The black Redds are shown to have very difficult lives, which they may have had, however, there is little joy shown in their lives. There is no reason for them to be happy. The book was interesting, however, I was looking for more when it ended. The story just fizzled out. The white Redds all were dead and gone, we never do find if any of the black Redds have joy in their lives. Maybe the story was not long enough, perhaps with a bit more depth the bias would not have been as pronounced.
Rating:
Summary: A story that burgeoned with life!
Review: Too often one finds individuals who are capable of telling a story but not capable of breathing life into one. Nancy Peacock is truly a life giver with her novel HOME ACROSS THE ROAD. Her opening line, "In 1973, China Redd was waiting to die" gives the reader a first glimpse into the complex world of the Redd family. The reader soon learns that China Redd can't die until she tells this incredible story. A story of the white Redds and the black Redds. A story of white America and black America. A story that not only needed to be told, but demanded it. As is the case with much of African American history, it exists, primarily in the minds and hearts of the walking oracles who lived it first hand. Nancy Peacock gives the fictional oracle, China Redd, an arena to tell a story that is grounded in truth. The story flows smoothly from the past to the present, and it gives the reader a glimpse into the world that many black people lived but did not live to tell about.
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