Holly

this novel is more about a woman's coming of age in world war two south, then just about interracial relationships. her love interest, elias doesnt even come into the story until much later. but the effect he has on her is dramatic, making her realize that love is more than skin deep. the language mr. french uses is beautiful and does justice to the time and place the story is set in...

This is possibly the best novel I have ever read to date. You can truly lose yourself in this story--Holly is your best friend, your sister, your child and your lover, all at the same time. Albert French's prose is so simple yet so eloquent--it demands to be read slowly, you can imagine the narrator sitting across from you on the veranda with all the time in the world to tell you his story. If you liked this novel then you must read "Billy" and "I Can't Wait on God".

The beginning and the end of this book are brilliant. The beginning evokes time and place in a manner not unlike A Thousand Acres or a Faulkner novel: you can feel the dust, the heat, the hatred. No one is doing anything wrong, but goddamn no one is doing anything right either. And even though you know the end, you dread it while rushing to get to it. I would like to have known more about Elias, the black soldier who captures Holly's heart. I would like to have known more about the Hill family's reaction after the lovers' attempted escape. (I would liked to have known less about Holly's angst after Billy's death -- we got the point, let's meet Elias.) The issue which Mr. French tackles -- race relations between the sexes -- is so very sensitive, and yet Mr. French does not flinch . But I don't want to dwell so much on the plot, for as in most tragedies, it is predictable. Instead, savor the language and the poetry of the prose, for it is as lovely as the red flower Elias paints on Holly's turtle rock.

This is a great book that I found impossible to put down.The dialogue, although alien to my way of speaking flowed beautifully. I was captivated throughout the entire book