I lived the Southwestern part of Virginia for 10 years of my
adult life. I absolutely love what
American literature categorizes as “local color” that is still exhibited among
Southern people, towns, and communities.
Upon leaving the South I took up reading the Fannie Flagg fiction novels
just to remind me of those Southern days.
After reviewing a Fannie Flagg novel, Goodreads.com sent me an email
suggestion that I take a look at author--Susan Gregg Gilmore. By such good luck, I found Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen,
Susan Gregg Gilmore's first novel.
Just the title that hinted a possibility of salvation at a Dairy Queen
sparked my interest. However, this
novel demonstrated the comfortable joy of reading fiction novels set in the South that
is more addictive than a Blizzard. There is no doubt that this novel fit that "comfortable
joy" category for me.
Plot synopsis but no
spoilers:
So without spoilers (and there are a couple of shockers in
this novel that you do not see coming) here is a quick synopsis:
The story is set in small town Georgia. The narrator, Catherine Grace, is the
older of two daughters of the town preacher. Their mother died in a drowning accident when the girls were
6 and 2. They have lived their
entire childhood under the scrutiny that comes with being a preacher's child,
but they cast their dreams far and away while eating Dilly Bars at the town
Dairy Queen every Saturday afternoon.
The novel follows these two girls through school with the charmingly
typical things that girls do included.
Catherine Grace graduates from high school and pursues her one dream of
escaping a small town and making her mark in a big city. She chooses to stay in the South and
off she goes in a Greyhound bus to make that dream come true in a Big Southern
City. Her sister, Martha Ann,
chooses to stay close to home and although she voiced an interest in dreaming
like her older sister, once Catherine Grace leaves, Martha Ann pulls back and
sticks where she feels much safer, and that is in the embrace of family and
community in their town of Ringgold, Georgia.
A few Southern
lessons:
Any non-Southern readers may benefit by a few lessons I
learned while living in Virginia (and these lessons are all included throughout
this novel.)
1. People in the South talk gently--so they have many wonderful
sayings that communicate exactly what they are fixin' to tell you. You will find some of those sayings in
this novel--and you will love them.
2. There are two powerful forces in Southern towns and
intrinsically in Southern people:
Family first and Community second.
No matter how far one travels from Southern roots, the roots will pull
back and that pull never stops.
The "pull" is a strong element throughout Catherine Grace's
dream, her move after high school and how she lives out her dream.
3. Southern communities do not particularly like secrets. If a member of the community tries to
keep a secret, shame or no shame, he or she runs the risk of being villified as Southerners are story-tellers and they will fill in the blanks. But instead of secrecy there is transparency, the member is accepted, assisted
and embraced in the community without a single objection. Yes, Southerners prefer to be in the
know and part of the action.
4. Once is never enough for Southerners. The answer to every problem is to
visit, and bring a casserole. Not
just once, but three or four times or until the next problem occurs and the
casseroles move on to someone else.
These casseroles are a little high in calories, but they are so, so
good. There are several casserole
events in this novel. Don't miss
them.
5. Religion is very important to the Southern communities--it
is how they come together and stay together. One look at the Blue Ridge Mountains, I was sold. It is truly God's Country.
Susan Gregg Gilmore writes with humor, strong story plot,
lots of surprises, includes characters found in every Southern town and an obvious effort to extend the local color of the
Southern life to a new generation of readers. I recommend this book to any reader who wants to get
comfortable and relax with a good book, not just at the beach but in any season.
Favorite quote in the
book:
Chapter 2 when Catherine Grace and Martha Ann are talking
about their memories of their mother, (which are few, since they were so young
when their mother drowned):
"It's funny how
you can take just one memory of someone and create a lifetime of feelings and attachments."
Not a complaint--just
distraction:
If I had one thing that distracted me while reading this
book it is the name of the narrator--Catherine Grace. I actually went to school with a Catherine Grace through
high school at which time she took off to follow her dream of living in another
part of the country. The girl in
this novel had an eerie likeness in character to my classmate. After many
years, my classmate did feel the pull and she did come back to a class reunion,
and then again to see the total solar eclipse last summer, but did not come
back to stay.
I learned to “can” while living in the south. Yes, Southerners are experts at
“putting up” tomatoes, green beans, strawberry jam, peach preserves, etc. I would have loved to have seen the
strawberry jam recipe that Catherine Grace and Martha Ann used included in this
novel. I lost mine when I moved--it substituted red wine for some of the sugar. Sound familiar, anyone????
No comments:
Post a Comment