A memorable look at the joys and tribulations of growing up in a small town during a bygone era.
A historical novel offers a collection of stories about life, love, and family in the rural South.
Evangeline “Vangie” Tanner has returned to her girlhood home in Collins, Mississippi, to mourn the loss of her beloved father. While digging through her memory box, Vangie uncovers an assortment of knickknacks that trigger sweet and poignant recollections of her childhood. Her memories are a window to the past, small moments that allow glimpses of larger social issues through a child’s eyes. There is ample humor throughout the novel, as Vangie recalls incidents such as her father slapping the preacher after the man startled him awake. There’s a thread of nostalgia as well, as Vangie muses on first dates and crazy relatives. But the cozy reflections do not mask the darker realities of a Southern community in mid-20th-century America. Women are expected to “get married and have a passel of children.” An African-American youth named Willie T. Clifford breaks off his friendship with Vangie because of their differing skin colors. The story about Rachel Katz, Vangie’s Jewish neighbor, is particularly striking. When Miss Rachel is attacked for her Jewish heritage, the neighbors murmur about the shame of it all. Vangie astutely observes the display of hypocrisy by most residents of Collins who refuse to take responsibility. This charming novel, a 2017 Faulkner Finalist, goes down like sweet tea on a warm summer night, a glass of refreshment and comfort. Pittman (Pony Tales, 2014, etc.) is an evocative writer. Her characters are well-defined, springing to life from the page in witty conversations and vibrant descriptions. Each story could stand alone, though they are all tied together through Vangie’s memory box. And each tale moves Vangie’s own life forward, eventually landing the small-town girl in Europe, where she discovers her future path. The author admirably balances the lightness of some stories with heavier themes of race, religion, heritage, and family.
A memorable look at the joys and tribulations of growing up in a small town during a bygone era.Pub Date: June 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-73231-740-6
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Serendipity Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
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SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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