A False Sense of Well Being

A native Southerner, I was so happy to read this new novel by a fellow Southerener -- and finally find a REAL Southern woman I can identify with. In so much Southern fiction these days (i.e. the books of Rebecca Wells) it seems like every character has to be so totally wacky & outrageous, almost to the point of parody. Believe it or not, not everybody in the South speaks in a thick drawl of an accent, and there actually are suburbs here as bland as where Jessie lives. She's self-absorbed, yes, but what woman isn't who's going through a mid-life crisis? Finding your true, authentic self is what it's all about, whether the search begins in adolescence or at midlife. That's what makes this book's theme universal -- not just for women, but for anyone doing some soul searching to determine what's really important in life. What I liked best about this novel was how it can make you laugh on one page and cry on another.

I just loved this book from the first sentence, which is undoubtedly the best opening line ever, and it stayed wonderful all the way through. It is very much about matters close to the heart -- love, death, family, marriage, the grief of childlessness, a search for happiness -- but it's also down-right, laugh-out-loud funny. As a fan of Southern fiction, I really enjoyed how this book manages to be uniquely Southern and yet universal in its themes and characters at the same time. This is just an amazing book, but especially so from a first time author. I hope she writes many more equally wonderful books.

Now that I'm a retired teacher and a divorced man in my 50s, I'm always trying to read so-called "women's books" to find out what women really think about things. And, wow, is it enlightening! A newspaper friend got an advance copy of this novel and passed it along to me. The book is a double pleasure (in addition to being an education for me) because it's so well written,wise,and witty. In this book the women are the ones in charge, whether they're misbehaving or just trying to figure out their lives. I laughed out loud at some scenes, & remembered some of my own lost loves in my youth. I'm telling all my friends and fellow readers about it. OPRAH, take notice! This one will really strike a chord with women readers, even if it does leave some of us men scared and a little worried to find out what's really on the minds of our women friends.

What an adventure this new novel is!! :-) I just got this new book and once I started reading it, I couldn't put it down!! I'm now buying copies for all my girlfriends and demanding they read this book!! Jessie's midlife crisis, and the trouble and boredom of her marriage to the straight-arrow banker Turner, is like a cross between something by Ann Tyler & Sex and the City, & a movie by the Coen brothers!! It's laugh out loud funny, but with real heart. Buy this one ladies!! You won't regret it!! :-)

I was lucky enough to read an advance copy of this new novel and it's absolutely WONDERFUL! The characters are funny and smart, and Jessie Maddox's desperate search for "well being" in her life takes some poignant and hilarious turns. Since that first experience with this story, I took the novel with me on a weekend trip to visit my parents and read it again, and enjoyed it all the more, learning even more about these complex and well drawn characters.Three cheers for this new voice in Southern fiction! I'm an aspiring writer myself, and so the blurbs by the novelists Kaye Gibbons, Lee Smith, Anne Siddons, Terry Kay and Mary Hood (and others) caught my attention immediately and told me this was going to be a great read -- and the book did not disappoint. This one's going to be a bestseller, I just know it. Now I can't wait for a sequel of some kind -- because I want to know where Jessie goes from here. But whatever this new writer turns out in the future, I'll be watching and waiting!