Girl from the South

Henry loves Tilly. What's not to love? She's beautiful, elegant, does everything to perfection. Henry has lived with her for the past 10 years. But he won't commit. And Tilly is getting desperate. Into this picture comes Gillon, a geeky American girl interning in London. Tilly meets her at a party, spills a drink on her and takes her out to dinner by way of compensation. Little does Tilly know this friendless, floundering girl from Charleston, South Carolina, will steal her boyfriend. To find out how this contemporary love triangle pans out, you'll have to read Girl from the South, Joanna Trollope's latest novel. Girl from the South is a departure for Trollope, a quintessentially British tale bearer whose work falls nicely onto the same subtle shelf as Barbara Pym's and Mary Wesley's. In her latest venture, Trollope takes the action over the Atlantic to Charleston. Trollope's Charleston is a world richer in ritual and convention than England ever thought of being. And Gillon comes from one of the city's most elegant families. Yet the Southern girl fails to drop neatly into the puzzle. At 30, she is still unmarried, childless, not even on the fast track to a high-powered career. Determined to search for her own unique destiny, she seems to have fallen far behind her popular, married sister in the game of life. However, things are never exactly what they seem on the surface in this intriguing Trollope novel. People who follow all the rules often have their own regrets. Like Tilly, Gillon's sister and grandmother are trapped in a regimen that defines who they are and how they will behave. To her conventional family, Gillon is a disappointment, but to Henry, she is everything Tilly is not. Where Tilly is brittle and demanding, Gillon is tentative, searching and formidably honest. She may never get her act together, she warns Henry. "It might take my whole life. I might drive you nuts while I keep thinking just this or just that will do the trick," she says. In exploring the differences between Tilly, Gillon and conventional Southern women, Trollope captures the choice that all modern women make-whether to take the easy path of fulfilling other people's expectations or the harder, more poorly marked trail of deciding what you expect of yourself.

Although thoroughly British writer Joanna Trollope has on occasion ventured into other venues (Italy and Spain), she has never set most of a novel in the United States. As one who has read all of her books, I admit I had a bit of apprehension about the change of locale...I expected a false American accent, if you will.To my surprise and delight, "Girl from the South" proved to be one of Trollope's best works to date. In a story that switches from London to Charleston, South Carolina, and back again, the author introduces us to a number of disaffected people in their 30s--none of whom seem to be able to make a commitment. It is only Tilly, the beautiful but conventional Londoner, who seeks a settled way of life. But her boyfriend, Henry, cannot buy into her view of domesticity, despite years of living together. Tilly and Henry's roommate, attractive and feckless William, is even worse--he has a blonde bombshell girlfriend, Susie, with whom he shares a bed and a quasi relationship, but his true feelings are elsewhere.Into this interesting mix comes Gillon, the "girl from the South." Stifled by the demands of her very proper southern family, bohemian Gillon, an art historian, flees to London to seek some sense of self. She provides the unwitting catalyst for a whole series of profound life changes among her newfound friends--and yet, seems powerless to make any changes herself.The story's denoument is at once a disappointment and a revelation, as the main characters find fulfillment in the most unexpected of ways. As always, Trollope remains true to her characters and her story. This is no happily-ever-after romance, as none of her novels are--but it is life-affirming and positive, nevertheless. Highly recommended!

I must say that this was a wonderful book! I liked the way the author went back and forth from London to Charleston - having visited Charleston on many ocassions, and being familiar with the city, I could imagine each scene that Joanna Trollope described in her book. I must say that the author wrote about the "situation" that a lot of Southern women face when and if deciding if they should put a career first or do the "traditional Southern thing" and marry, raise a family, and do the social obligations. It made me grateful for the choices I have made in my life. An awesome read!

Trollope (yes, an Anthony relative), writer of edgy, witty and penetrating novels of domestic life, often shakes up the delicate and complex balance of family relationships by throwing a spanner into the mix, an outsider who changes perspective, alters perceptions. In "The Men and the Girls" it's an elderly spinster; in "Next of Kin" it's a young free spirit; in her latest, "Girl from the South," it's a girl on one side of the intercontinental pond and a boy on the other.Though her themes are familiar, English Trollope's focus on a traditional American family of the deep South is a definite departure and, mostly, an interesting, thought-provoking change.Gillon Stokes, a daughter of the old South of Charleston, South Carolina, defies the expectations of her close-knit family in a series of ineffectual moves and new beginnings. She's not sure what she wants, just that it isn't what Charleston has to offer. As she explains to her boss in a small Charleston museum: " 'I want to know,' she said. 'I want to find something or someone that my mind just looks at and says, "Yes." No messing.'....'Books used to do it. I thought I'd found the Holy Grail with almost anything I read. But it doesn't seem to work now. I question too much.''You know too much,' Paul said. 'That's what happens when you get older.'Paul has arranged a job for Gillon in London. She goes reluctantly, but is soon taken up by Tilly, an arts magazine editor in a stalled relationship with Henry, a wildlife photographer unwilling to commit. Tilly and Henry's circle of young Londoners are footloose, adrift as Tilly sees it, fearful that they will all still be behaving as young singles in their dotage. But Gillon begins to gain a sense of belonging and happiness. " 'It might be,' she told Tilly with some diffidence, 'because I don't feel I'm letting anyone down.' "But Gillon goes home to be with her sister for her first baby and, on a whim, invites disgruntled Henry (also looking for some undefined meaning in his life) to see South Carolina. To her surprise and discomfort, he turns up and is captivated by her family.The first half of the novel explores the rootless, "is that all there is?" feeling of late youth with urbanity and wit. ("He eyed Tilly up and down in the assessing way so peculiarly arrogant in plain men.") The second half delves more deeply into family dynamics and relationships in crisis with mixed results.Oddly, Trollope contrasts the long tradition of family and community ties in Charleston with an unrooted, rather bohemian community in London. None of the young Londoners have close family though Gillon's preoccupations stir familial longings in Tilly and even Henry. Devastated by Henry's defection, Tilly turns to the aloof, near-stranger of a mother who left her and her father to go off with another man, a woman whose mistakes have made her wiser, though no different at the core.But Trollope herself seems captivated by Southern ideas of family with its strong reliance on rul

Joanna Trollope's newest novel, GIRL FROM THE SOUTH, has a few surprises in it for those who are expecting some of the same. I've always enjoyed the way she creates relationships in her books, whether it's platonic, romantic, or even the "old married couple." She does it well and continues to do it well here.This is not a romance novel. It's not a novel that takes you where you think it will, with two people utterly and totally in love with one another and giving up everything they love to be together. How refreshing! Henry and Gillon have their own interests, their own lives. They have found a passion in their lives and it isn't based on another person. I found this to be inspiring. And a good lesson for those who think you can only find happiness when you find the right person. This is different because it takes place in South Carolina (one of my favorite states) and England. An interesting change and even though there were times when the southerners spoke like they'd been raised in London, it wasn't something that detracted from the novel's plot or point. I found GIRL FROM THE SOUTH to have a more modern attitude of relationships. She introduced us to individuals who were still searching but learning their way through life with intelligence and adventure. I liked it. No disappointments for me at all.