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
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her...
Another middle-aged mom in a muddle.
After years of false starts and big hopes, Elizabeth’s ruggedly handsome husband Jack, a former football star, just landed a spot as a sportscaster on national news. He still loves her, even though much younger women are giving him come-hither looks. Heck, he doesn’t want to betray the love of his life after she helped him kick drugs and stuck by him even when he was a struggling has-been. And won’t it seem hypocritical if he fools around with his sexy assistant while he does in-depth reporting on a rape case involving a famous basketball center? Well, he fools around anyway. Elizabeth, nicknamed Birdie, knows nothing of this, but she withdraws from Jack when her hard-drinking, salt-of-the-earth father has a stroke and dies. Now no one will call her “sugar beet” ever again. Time to return home to Tennessee and contend with Anita, the sort-of-evil stepmother so trashy she wears pink puffy slippers all day long. Naturally, it turns out that Anita actually has a heart of gold and knows a few things about Birdie’s dead mother that were hushed up for years. Mom was an artist, just like Birdie, and an old scandal comes to light as Anita unrolls a vibrant canvas that portrays her secret lover. Perhaps, Birdie muses, her mother died of heartbreak, never having followed her true love or developed her talent. Has she, too, compromised everything she holds dear? Hoping to find out, Birdie joins a support group that promises to reconnect confused women with their passion. She and Jack separate, prompting a how-dare-you fit from their grown daughters. Will Birdie fly her empty nest? Will she go back to college for a degree in art? Will her brooding watercolors ever sell?
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her previous tales (Summer Island, 2001, etc.).Pub Date: July 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-345-45071-X
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2002
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