How long does it take to read Tumbling?
Diane McKinney-Whetstone
Tumbling by Diane McKinney-Whetstone takes about 6 hours 14 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.
About 6 hours 14 minutes
A weekend read
First published 1996. 340 pages, about 93,500 words.
13 days at 30 minutes a day
Estimate based on 275 words per page.
At other speeds
| Slow, 150 words a minute | 10 hours 23 minutes |
| Average, 250 words a minute | 6 hours 14 minutes |
| Fast, 400 words a minute | 3 hours 54 minutes |
The page count is the median across 7 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.
About the book
In her deeply textured debut novel, Diane McKinney-Whetstone evokes the feel and rhythm of a close-knit African-American community. Set in South Philadelphia during the 1940s and 1950s, Tumbling combines the mood of an urban community with the vitality of its inhabitants to tell a story in which sorrow and joy come in equal measure. One unconventional couple is at the heart of the novel; Herbie and Noon care deeply for each other but have been unable to consummate their marriage because of a vicious sexual attack in Noon's past. So, while Noon finds comfort and solace in her church, club-hopping Herbie finds friendship and sexual gratification with a jazz singer named Ethel. Unexpectedly, Herbie and Noon are blessed with daughters when, on two separate occasions, children are left on their doorstep. On the advice of the community, they take the children into their home, where the girls become inseparable, as if blood sisters. When a devastating city proposal threatens to put a road through the area, the community must pull together to avoid being torn apart. Noon becomes the unexpected leader in the struggle to keep both her home and her family whole.
Subjects: African American families, African Americans, Fiction, Fiction, sagas, Philadelphia (pa.), fiction, African americans, fiction
