Pacific Avenue

by Anne L. Watson

Where do you go from the end of the line? This is the question facing Kathy Woodbridge as she steps off the bus in the port city of San Pedro, California. Nineteen years old, from Louisiana, she is... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1620355329
• ISBN13: 9781620355329
• Release Date: January 2017
• Publisher: Shepard & Piper
• Length: 328 Pages
• Weight: 0.92 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Earned a place in my TOP 10....

I came to this book with no pre-conceived notions. Because the author was local, I also came to the book with limited expectations. Sometimes books gain traction in the local environment primarily because the author is local - friends and neighbors tend to be a bit forgiving. No forgiveness needed here. The book does indeed open a bit "flat" as one of the reviewers said. But I have a policy of giving any book at least 50 pages to hook me. I was hooked WELL before page 50, and realized that the book mirrored the central character's mood and affect in a way that was wonderfully evocative and enveloping. Those reviewers who have complained about "plot" miss the mark widely in my opinion. If your primary requirement is that your books lead you from sad to happy or happy to sad or point A to point B, this may not be your favorite read. However, I found the pacing and the careful use of changing time and scene a welcome and interesting mechanism for honing perspective and understanding the characters. This book is all about the characters, and they are multi-dimensional and interesting. Perhaps a younger reader will not feel or relate to the peculiar combination of freedom and repression that swirled around our foreign policy and domestic race relations during this era, but those of us who lived it will be transported back in time. I was. But this is not a "Vietnam book" or a "racial story" or anything so simple as either. This wonderful narrative is a slice of life that includes elements of those conflicts and more. To hope that a peek inside the minds of thoughtful characters in this confusing place and time would produce a "happy ending" is naive at best. And yet, when I closed the back cover I felt as deeply satisfied as I had when I finished "the Kite Runner", and that is lofty praise indeed in my world - and totally merited in my opinion. Like that story, the conflicts swirl around and influence our characters, and yet they maintain their unique and complex fully three-dimensional depth and reality: very little is black and white, even in issues as emotional as race, war, and love. Anne Watson has created a slice of life that is very much worth your time to visit. It started somewhat slowly, pulled me deeply into it's characters and made me care for most of them in ways that belied our short interaction. When things turned out as they did, I was neither elated nor crushed, but edified and reminded once again that the human experience is deep and rich and invariably defies simple explanations. My great hope is that the next time Anne hears Richard and Kathy and Thu's voices in her head that they will speak to her for a very long time so that we can all ride along again. You may not get exactly what you expect, but I doubt very sincerely that you will be disappointed. James "Shu" Carroll

`The good things hurt worse than the bad.'

This is a novel that combines elements of hope and happiness with tragedy and triumph, and ends up with that compromise known as reality. Kathy, escaping a past that has brought her pain, meets Lacey while searching for a job. Lacey, needing to learn that the pattern of mothering changes as children reach adulthood, becomes concerned for Kathy and seeks to find out more about her past. By moving between past and present and sharing the narrative between Kathy and Lacey, we piece together Kathy's life and Lacey's challenge. The shifting points of view are handled deftly. Ms Watson has taken some relatively common real life ingredients and combined them in a way that provides readers with a magnificent story. The writing is superb, the main characters are three dimensional, and very human. There is much to enjoy in this novel. Ms Watson has packed a world into less than 320 pages. I am looking forward to reading other novels by Ms Watson. Highly recommended. Jennifer Cameron-Smith

Keeps your attention until the last word.

I found this book to be captivating. Pacific Avenue is so raw in its emotions, it was as if the author was writing her own story. I had to keep reminding myself this was a piece of fiction. It is not a predictable story in any way. Each new page captures you and leads you to the next. This book has some scarred figures and will take you on an emotional ride. Richard, the young African American college student, just back from Viet Nam. He is estranged from his family, and his nights are filled with the horrors he experienced during the war while he sleeps. Even during the day he is haunted. Kathy is a young white college student whom her mother never liked. Kathy could never measure up to her mother's standards. She was taught that it did not matter what the color of a person's skin was. She begins a relationship with Richard and invites him to dinner at her parent's house. Her mother did not seem pleased, but her father accepted him. To her mother racism becomes prevalent. They continue to date and eventually become lovers. Kathy invites Richard to share in her family's Thanksgiving dinner. Everything is going fine until Richard hears a loud crash from the window shutters. He automatically dives under the dinner table, the food that was there falls to the floor as well as plates. Her mother is appalled by his behavior. While Richard is cleaning the food off of his clothes, it is her sister's finace Sam that comes to Richard's defense. He tries to make family members understand why Richard acted as he did. This book shows us the dynamics of a generation that is just beginning to step out of the mold that has plaqued both blacks and whites in this nation. This is a story of love that two people share. One black and one white. Kathy and Richard quit school, and leave Baton Rouge for New Orleans. They are hoping that there they will be accepted as a couple. For a short period life was great. They had the freedom they had sought. They made new friends and found jobs. Life was hard but they were making it together. It was also the beginning of Richard's descent. It becomes hard for him to tell reality from his days in Viet Nam. Eventually, they part, but not for the reasons anyone reading this may think. It is where they find true tragedy. Kathy jumps on the first bus leaving. She is running away from her past and the events that have destroyed her world. She arrives in San Pedro, California not knowing what she will do. She is a young woman who is mourning her loss. Her pain will not go away, and she does not know how to pick up the pieces and begin a new life. How she does it is her story, the story of Pacific Avenue. The author has sought to entertain you and to keep your attention focused on this story. She has done so until the last word on the last page. Five stars Anne; as this book is an excellent read for all.

Avenue of Peace

While the book briefly starts in a rather dry and flat manner ... it quickly lights up into a dynamic and vivid story which will capture most readers interest and hold it to the very end. Most readers will be caught up in the dramatic interracial love affair between Kathy Woodridge, the daughter of a Northwestern University professor and Richard Johnson, the son of a non-commissioned black career Army officer. They met in September 1972 in Baton Rouge Louisiana in a psychology class. Their meeting was a most symbolic and symbiotic experience. Kathy eventually introduced Richard to her family where he received a mixed reception of acceptance. When there was a loud crash from some shutters - Richard dove for cover under the dining room table, breaking porcelain dishes and over turning whatever food had been placed on the table. Only Sam, Kathy's sister's fiance totally understood what happened and asked the telling question, "Nam?" To which Richard replied, "Yes" as he walked off in embarrassment to wash off cranberry sauce and other food stuck to his good suit. With this inauspicious beginning, the couple continued dating and engaged in a physical love affair that led to Kathy's pregnancy, outside of marriage. She looked forward to having his child but had serious reservations about her relationship with Richard after he suggested she could have an abortion, that he would understand ... While her father accepted Richard, her mother was obviously tight-lipped and disapproving. Richard had long ago cut off relations with his family. Essentially he felt his father disowned him when he joined the Army and was sent to Viet Nam. He did not do what his father had urged, finish college and become a commissioned officer. His stint in Viet Nam left invisible emotional scars - which usually surfaced at night. He sufferred from post traumatic stress syndrome but would not seek help. He and Kathy put their college plans on hold to have their baby. They moved to the French Quarter of New Orleans where, as an interracial couple, they would be more accepted by society. The plot and story line are very engaging with believable and well fleshed out characters who have complex family dynamics. They live in the turbulent times of the early and mid 1970s, during the post Civil Rights and post hippie movements. The unsettled turmoil of the Viet Nam War continues to haunt the landscape in which everyone lives. The author adds a new dimension of excitement: the city of New Orleans and its social milieu, along with some very eccentric and totally captivating personalities. First, Kathy found a job working for Eddie Graziano, who ran a produce stand in the French Quarter where he sold fresh vegetables shipped in from his brother's farm in Mississippi, along with wholesale produce. Later, Richard and Kathy moved to Gretna, a town not far from New Orleans where the rent was cheaper. They found most unusual jobs ... as puppeteers working for a couple who became their good

Absolutely wonderful

I was extremely surprised by the quality of the writing of Anne L. Watson. She delivered the complete package, a well-crafted plot, with proficiently developed characters, and the use of a writing style that has nothing to be jealous of the greats in the genre. The fact that I read this novel in one sitting, really speaks to how much I liked it and the kind of grip that the story gets on the reader. I have had this happen to me before with several mystery novels, but this was one of the few times I experienced it with literary fiction. When Kathy arrives at San Pedro and rents a room in Pacific Avenue, she is at the bottom of a deep hole. A series of terrible events have affected her life and she is trying to find the strength to move forward and forge a new future. This is where she meets Lacey, a middle-aged woman that is going through a crisis herself, after her daughter left for college and "does not need her anymore". Kathy is the perfect pet project for Lacey, who does not need long to see that the youngster carries a heavy burden and is in desperate need of help. Thus, starts this novel, which alternates the narration in first person between these two complex and mesmerizing characters. The story also goes back and forth in time, between past and present, and as we learn more about Kathy's misfortune, we get drawn deeper and deeper into this wonderful novel. There are several interesting topics intertwined in this story, such as interracial marriages, the effects of war, and infant death. The author treats these topics seriously and delves deep into how they affect the characters of her story. I do not feel I exaggerate when I say that this is one of the best books I have read in the last few years. I am looking forward to discovering more works by this great author.