Picket Fences

I'm currently engrossed in Whitney Terrell's novel The King of Kings County, an account of the development of the Kansas-side suburbs of Kansas City that thinly veils some real players and some real tactics. The story is a "coming of age" bit about the son of an aspiring developer who becomes involved with Prudential Bowen, who is doubtlessly modeled after prolific KC real estate mogel J.C. Nichols.

The story is powerful, however, in that it makes its point in a story that has the son riding along. It doesn't pontificate directly, but it makes one think. It is an added perk that I recognize many of the areas mentioned in the book.

It is clear that Whitney and I share the same views regarding the responsibility of ones choice of residence. It is implicit in the book. It is expressed in this quotation I found from an interview:

“The idea that just because you don’t know how your neighborhood was formed ... doesn’t mean that you aren’t an active participant in a society or a city that has chosen to divide itself up that way. I guess the argument would be that Kansas Citians and Americans know how segregation works, and in public they’re against it, but in private, in the way that they buy their houses, they still enforce that old system.”

Buy the book. Read the book. Enjoy the book.