Book Review: Pineapple Street
07/12/2022
Book Review | Pineapple Street by Jenny Jackson
This was a surprisingly difficult novel to review because while aspects of it captivated me I was in some ways left unsatisfied. I was initially sold on trying it due to the 'family saga' angle which is absolute catnip to me and I thought Jackson did a fantastic job of creating a family that was both recognisable and unique. The story is told from the POV of three female characters - Georgiana and Darley (siblings from the main Stockton family) and Sasha, who has married their brother Cord. I enjoyed the different viewpoints this facilitated and the ability to learn more about each sibling's life outside of the central family unit. I particularly loved the rendering of Darley and Malcolm's marriage, although it did feel unbelievably perfect! Georgiana probably has the most interesting narrative arc of the three women, and I really liked the discussions around inherited wealth that her storyline invoked. Sasha's family background is also explored a little which provides a nice juxtaposition to the extreme wealth and society centric one she marries into.
The interrogation of the morality and responsibilities surrounding inherited wealth were probably what interested me most about this book. It's always fun reading about the super rich but it's also absolutely been done before so this was a great twist on the subject and genuinely sparked some debate between my husband and myself. I found that in general Jackson showed a great depth of knowledge (or excellently done research) on a number of topics: New York society, the property market, the financial industry and, perhaps most intriguingly, the financial side of the aviation industry.
Ultimately there's a lot to like about this novel and I definitely found that I sped through the final third of the story. However it took me an incredibly long time to get into the book in the first place. I thought that the more interesting aspects of each character didn't begin to evolve until quite late in the novel and they were instead kept superficial for a little too long. The reason that, despite all the things I genuinely loved about Pineapple Street, I didn't love the book as a whole was simply that I was left wanting more. More of each character's story, more of Sasha's family, more interplay between the Stockton siblings and parents. I resented how long it took to get into the book because, once I was in, there seemed to be so much to explore that was only touched upon. There were so many interestingly messy emotions and yearnings that were suddenly neatly tied up at the end that I felt a little cheated out of what could've been a number of emotive and nuanced moments between characters.
In summary I do think this novel is worth a read. As I mentioned earlier there's plenty to like, it's a really fun depiction of a New York society family and how interlinked their personalities and decisions are with their money. There are loads of interesting relationships and little twists that are really enjoyable and some really amusing scenes. I just really felt like it could have been even better.