Backseat Saints

Whether or not you've read GODS IN ALABAMA, this book will grab you from the start and make you want to go find out all about Arlene Fleet as soon as you finish discovering Rose Mae Lolley. I must admit that I've been a fan for years, but this book sparkles and shines with voice, plot, wit, and insight into why women stay--what holds them there or pulls them back--and, truly, why we all have some sort of "Thom Grandee" in our lives whether it's cigarettes, food, stress, or an actual person. Great author. Great read.

From the first sentence, Backseat Saints is a grab onto a live wire I couldn't let go of until I reached the last page. The day sweet, perfect Ro Grandee spots the tarot cards tumbling to the floor in front of an airport gypsy is the day realizes that her beautiful, abusive husband is going to be the death of her. Ro gets a gun and begins to dig deep for the tough, smart-mouthing girl she once was, Rosa Mae Lolly, the girl who can save her own life, that same Rose Mae who dated the infamous Jim Beverly in Jackson's popular novel, GODS IN ALABAMA. Racing from her relentless husband Thom, Rosa Mae runs looking for her disappeared high school boyfriend Jim, and then her long-lost mother to help find a way to finish off the man who both loves her and wants to murder her, running for her life from Texas to California by way of Alabama. She revisits her bruised-up childhood and knocked-around marriage to understand her flat out run toward a terrifying future before she finally lets herself love and trust. I tend to shy from a dark subject like abuse in my entertainments, but Jackson's Rose is funny and smart, flawed and confused in a way that inspires compassion. She is messed up in the ordinary way many of us find ourselves in, and who wouldn't be, when every important person in Rose's life either abused or abandoned her? It was satisfying to watch her unravel her life and her choices and put the pieces back together in way that leads to the hope of a happy future. Jackson's amusing wit, sharp characterizations and lovely use of language make Rose's moving and suspenseful story a joy to read.

You will remember Rose Mae Lolley from Jackson's stunning debut, GODS IN ALABAMA (2005). A minor character in GODS (the high school girlfriend of the unfortunate football god, Jim Beverly), Rose Mae is back as the main character in BACKSEAT SAINTS, along with her alter-egos, Mrs. Ro Grandee and Ivy Rose Wheeler (all one-and-the-same, in a surprisingly complex and multi-layered plot). Mrs. Ro Grandee of Amarillo, Texas, at the warning of a mysterious fortune teller, has finally had enough of her bad-boy husband's physical abuse. After an aborted attempt at cold-blooded murder, the second-generation battered wife runs, intending to find freedom with the assumed identity of her neighbor's long-dead baby, Ivy Rose Wheeler. Before she can take on life as Ivy Rose, Rose Mae travels back to Fruiton, Alabama to confront her alcoholic, abusive father and then sets out on the trail of the mother who ran away and abandoned her when she was eight years old... Did you get all that? With her unique southern blend of pathos and wit, and her trademark outrageously original characters, Jackson crochets a bright lace doily of humor over very serious, decidedly non-funny, subjects: domestic abuse, alcoholism, abandonment, split personality and a host of other mental health issues. Like a modern-day Flannery O'Connor, somehow Joshilyn Jackson makes it all work and the effort is spectacular. -- Sherri Caldwell, Humor Columnist & Reviewer at [...] Co-Author, The Rebel Housewife Rules: To Heck With Domestic Bliss!

I seldom buy or keep fiction. I am not a re-reader, so it seems a waste. I keep nonfiction to look back on and take notes in. Novels I borrow from the library. That said, I now own all four of Joshilyn Jackson's books. I even managed to snag the first two in hardback and signed. Backseat Saints did not disappoint. As usual, Jackson takes on a tough subject and adds in enough humor and magic to make it an enjoyable read instead of a heavy sack to carry. I loved getting a peek inside another life from Gods in Alabama.

Backseat Saints is the story of 3 women - Rose Mae Lolley, Ro Grandee and Ivey Rose - the twist is that they are all within one woman. No, she's not schizophrenic. Each of the personas represents a different piece of herself. Rose Mae is the girl from Alabama whose mother left her to grow up alone with an abusive, alcoholic father. Ro Grandee is the beautiful, perfect wife of Thom who likes to take out his anger with his fists and uses her as the punching bag. Ivey Rose is the woman who has reached her breaking point and is on the run from her husband and her past. Rose is, like most of us, a mixture of all three and constantly at war with herself over which is the "right" one. Her husband's abuse finally forces her hand and she has to run back home. Returning to Fruiton, Alabama also means facing the father she had left behind and the memories of a mother who left her alone. It's not the same old abused woman trying to rebuild her life story. It is fresh and different and the plot is always twisting so you never know what to expect. This novel was truly gripping. I finished it in about a day's time. Rose is a character that you can really identify with. The descriptions of her inner struggles are so vivid - the feelings she has for her husband, her fear of leaving him, the pain of her mother leaving her and the memories of her love for a boy in high school. It's like listening to a friend pour her heart out. You feel like you understand why she's done the things she has and you want to help her as she struggles to find a better life. You see yourself in her at times. I have been a fan of Joshilyn Jackson's since gods in Alabama. She is a wonderful writer. Her descriptive powers amaze me. At one point in the book, she is writing about Rose's trip across the country in search of her mother. The line reads, "Desert air whirled through the car in a constant cyclone, catching up our hair and rifling through it, blowing all the Alabama off our skins." The words actually transport you to that car and that moment with Rose. I love it. In case you couldn't tell, I would highly recommend this book to fans of women's fiction or Southern fiction. It's a great book from a very talented author.