Not Quite Home: A Novel
About
Claire, wealthy and recently widowed, is adrift. She has access to tools to make a real difference but can’t figure out where to apply them. Erica, a young outreach worker to the homeless, has grown so cynical about the broken system that she’s breaking rules herself—and for that, she’s about to get fired. One day, Erica finds Claire giving away gourmet sandwiches and twenty-dollar bills at a homeless encampment, and yanks her out of there with a lecture about systemic problems and feel-good solutions. Their conflict soon becomes a partnership, and they craft a plan to help ten unhoused women get off the streets and build a community of their own. Together, they navigate nasty neighbors and difficult politicians. And just when it seems like they’re going to pull it off, a shadow from one woman’s past jeopardizes the entire project.
Praise for this book
“A powerfully told story of the choices behind changes.”
"A piercing and hopeful novel about second chances, uneasy alliances, and the work of becoming useful again."
"How can a book about homelessness, substance addiction and domestic violence be a page turner and life affirming and informative? That is exactly what Not Quite Home is. It has a suspenseful plot with characters you care deeply about. Every region in America is challenged by the tragedy of our community members who are unhoused. And frankly, everyone in America should read this book."
“[A] novel of powerful literary skill, compassion, and purposeful insight.”
“Temple Lentz … adeptly challenges saviorism while celebrating unlikely partnerships, reminding us that true transformation begins where discomfort meets determination.”
"The story stays lively, with Lentz successfully portraying the many problems that can trigger displacement alongside a clear picture of the multi-pronged approach crucial to overcoming it. Both Erica and Claire must learn to compromise and stretch their comfort zones, but the payoff is worth it, and Lentz aptly illustrates 'real people doing incredible work to make things incrementally better, even when better seems impossible.'"
“A vivid and humanizing portrayal of homelessness, the nonprofit sector, and the donors who want to help. Hilarious and haunting in turn. We need more books like this.”
"Temple Lentz has written a big-hearted, clear-eyed novel about two unlikely allies imperfectly but doggedly trying to do good; I read Not Quite Home with great admiration and great delight."
"The pitiful politics of Portland homelessness, a disjointed public and private effort to help people back into shelter and housing, is a complex web of intentions and disappointments. Lentz sets her novel in this world, then uses the tools of fiction to envision something better. With care and humor, her characters take on the system and work together to get things done.
The storyline is rooted in Lentz’s pragmatic feminism. She shows how women, together, build relationships based on regard and respect and how those relationships result in solutions to a complex problem. Lentz is a careful listener who recognizes respect for the person in the midst of the crisis is an antidote to trauma. In her novel, there’s a constant banter of expression, of reflection, of shared fears, of internal doubts, of jokes and kindness, which shape the book’s characters and conclusion."