"Safe From the Neighbors"

“Safe From The Neighbors” is not the type of story you would think it is. Since I am from a small town, I know what it is like to know everyone. In Haskell, we have three cops. Even in Benton, there are small tight knit communities. There is one main road that can be accessed a hundred different ways. Yarbrough does a great job of describing this sort of run down town in his story. We get that plot line that tells us everything: no one ever leaves this town. Luke was born and raised and he now teaches Loring history at the local high school. It’s your average “out in the sticks” town. “The house where I grew up burned about twenty years ago. It was situated a few miles north of Loring, near the intersection of two country roads, only one of which was paved when I was a boy. The one we lived on wasn’t, and my dad considered it a major triumph when he managed to embarrass the county board of supervisors into grading it and adding several loads of fresh gravel. Normally, the supervisors didn’t pay much attention to men like him, but he’d been persistent and, in the end, won out” (16). This paragraph give the reader a good idea of what kind of town this is. They have one paved main road. The details and descriptions that Yarbrough uses gives the reader a good understanding, but doesn’t overdo it. I found this book to be a very easy read. The sections are short and the pacing is not slow. The way Yarbrough has it set up makes it to be a very simple read. There is backstory, but not too much. He gives us what we absolutely need to know and when we need to know it. I do have to agree with Luke though. Why is it that a husband was arrested for killing his wife with a gun he just so had lying around, but was released a few days later? I think there is definitely more to that and I’m anxious to get to the bottom of that. In all reality, Mr. Calloway got what he deserved, but still probably should have been convicted. The fact that he wasn’t tells me that there may be a corrupt justice system in Loring. It could also be because the town is so close knit and they don’t want anyone to get into trouble. As you may know, this type of story is right up my alley. I think the main focus of this story is to figure out if Mr. Calloway was actually innocent and if Luke’s father had a thing with Nadine. From what I have read so far, I have taken away a few things. First is the concision with the sections. Yarbrough doesn’t unload a vast amount of information on you at one time. Instead, he spaces it out but also doesn’t make the pacing feel too fast or too slow. Second, the way in which details are used is interesting. Yarbrough doesn’t overwrite, but he shows us the landscape in a very detailed way. Having talked about landscape as “stuff” to put into your details and stories, I think that Yarbrough used it as a strategy to paint the pictures in his reader’s heads. Lastly, he created so many dysfunctional family relationships that will play out in some shape or form. Adding complexity in a story makes a reader want to finish the story so that they can figure out what happens. When I first started the book I had planned on finishing the first section and then stopping for a bit; however, when I came to the end of that first section and Maggie said, “Luke, do you not remember who I am?” I had to keep going. I had to figure out where he knows her from and how he knows her. Yarbrough does a fantastic job with his cliff hangers. I really enjoy “Safe From The Neighbors” for a couple of reasons. First, the punch lines at the beginning of each chapter are amazing. I am the type of reader who likes to stop at the end of a chapter, but Yarbrough makes it impossible to do. I’ll flip the page and go to put my bookmark up, and I’ll read the line of the beginning of the chapter and then I have to keep reading. For example, “The first time Maggie and I make love, it’s raining” (104). It came out of the blue. Yarbrough keeps you from putting the book down, which I really like. That is something I want in my stories and books. I don’t want my reader to be able to put the book down until it’s done, and I want them to want more. I enjoyed the story line. Yarbrough covered a bunch of topics such as racism, adultery, and poverty. I admire this aspect of the book. It shows how talented Yarbrough is. It also leaves the reader wondering, “What is this book really about?” The reader can make their own assumptions about the novel instead of Yarbrough telling us what the focus of the novel is. To me, that is what makes a novel so great. I want to write like that. I want my stories to be so full of different things that it leaves my reader open for interpretation. I’m not a big fan of the affair between Luke and Maggie. I think it was too predictable, but then again it had to be inevitable because of Maggie’s mom. Nadine cheated on her husband with who knows how many men, so it was only true for Maggie to do the same. Like I said, I finished the book. I think that Jennifer’s response to the affair was harsh, but to be expected. She said, “’Luke,’ she said, ‘I want us to go to bed and make love. Then I’ll ask you to get up, walk out of this house, and drive away. Where you go’s up to you, though I’m sure your dad could use some company’” (222). I think that response is to be expected, but I’m not sure why she would want to have sex with him before he leaves. That is one thing I don’t understand about this section, but I don’t think Yarbrough wants you to understand it, and I respect that. I really did enjoy this novel. His style is really clean and the plot is easy to follow, which is something I need to work on in my stories. Yarbrough also doesn’t lie to his readers, which is definitely something I need to work on. The way he characterizes his characters comes out through memories that Luke has. It is a really unique way to do that and I want to use that aspect in my stories and novels.