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THE GIRL WHO LOVED ELVIS

Name: THE GIRL WHO LOVED ELVIS
Author: Susie Mee
ISBN: 1-56145-080-4

by Susie Mee ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 15, 1993

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A mostly comic, if uneven, first novel about a girl in a 1950's Georgia textile mill town who nourishes herself with fantasies of Elvis and of her long-gone father—while her mother would rather she feed on Bible verses and anything dripping in fatback. LaVonne Grubbs works hard as a doffer in the mill's spinning room, saving up to move into her own apartment so she can get away from Momma, an embittered woman seemingly bent on keeping LaVonne, now a year out of high school, from having any fun. But just as LaVonne is aiming to light out, as daddy did, her mother has a heart attack and she's stopped. So LaVonne distracts herself from her dull life by singing in the Sunshine Choir, organizing ``The Real Elvis Fan Club,'' and daydreaming about her two heroes—her father and Elvis. Meanwhile, the plot pivots on a doffing contest (hard to visualize) wherein LaVonne's co-worker Grady Fay is the main contender—for the contest and her heart. His chances are diminished, however, by the jealousy of LaVonne's erstwhile boyfriend Gene, a malevolent character whose capacity for violence becomes fully realized later on when he lures LaVonne to Memphis for the funeral of Gladys Presley. (While the reader is not unprepared for the rape scene that ensues in a motel room there, the shift in tone is problematic.) Despite the rape, LaVonne attends the mourning of Gladys Presley—and then spots Elvis, who looks right through her. Later, back home, she'll also see her father—at her mother's funeral—but he, too, will disappoint. The author better manages the complexity of black humor at that funeral, with the tale ending on a resounding, deservedly high note. The comic strength of Mee's debut can sometimes sabotage both plot and character, but the language is dead-on, and the humor genuine. A promising debut.

Pub Date: May 15, 1993

ISBN: 1-56145-080-4

Page Count: 224

Publisher: Peachtree

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1993

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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BETWEEN SISTERS

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2003

Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...

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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

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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by Kristin Hannah

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THE ALCHEMIST

by Paulo Coelho & translated by Margaret Jull Costa ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 1993

Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.

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Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.

The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.

Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.