Sullivan's Island (Lowcountry Tales)

Great character development and a strong sense of time and place. While I usually enjoy something more in depth, it gave me some things to ponder. I'd recommend it and can't wait to read the sequel.

Not my type of reading.

Under-the-weather. I sent my husband to the library to get me a book. How he picked this one has to be a miracle! I am about to attend the 3rd reunion on Pawley's Island with 6 childhood friends, the "Morningside Girls" from Knoxville, TN. who are now each 77 years of age! Our roots are in East Tennessee but we love our Lowcountry sojourns. I did an unprecedented thing for me: Came right to your Website and ordered 7 copies, one for each of us. I read -- no, devoured, this marvelous book laughing and crying and wanting my friends to also experience the joy of reading an author almost half our age who could capture so perfectly the mystery of family relationships that our generation appreciates, evoke the haunting magic of SC Lowcountry, introduce us to the Gullah musical cadence of words that speak love, and at the same time do it with such rip-roaring, hilarious vitality that I am inspired, renewed, and made in one fell swoop a forever admirer of Dorothea Benton Frank. It's the best novel I have read in years! Honesty, humor, history are combined to leave a memorable imprint and make me want to do the same thing for Appalachia!

I finished SULLIVAN'S ISLAND 3 days ago, and the characters have stayed with me constantly. I'm almost sad to have left them behind. I'll go to my reading chair with anticipation, only to realize with disappointment that the book's over.This story, with its wonderful cast of real characters, is a gripping tale of growing up and finding oneself amongst the craziness of life. I laughed and cried and several times thought, "gosh, I _know_ that person."I do wish we could have learned more about the father's death, and the conclusion of Susan's investigation--I thought it was wrapped up a bit quickly.Otherwise, I can still smell that salt water and the feel of the gritty sand under my feet. If Ms. Benton Frank doesn't give me a new book to read soon, I'm going to end up as one of those dreaded summer tourists on Sullivan's Island in the very near future.

Despite certain caustic Yankee comments, this is a WONDERFUL book about Southern women! I was raised in Virginia, not the South Carolina low country, but I can sure enough affirm that Dottie Frank has breathed pure life into the customs, language, mores, and insane rituals of the South. Truth to tell, I feel like I must have been raised in some parallel extension of the family depicted in the novel. I KNOW Susan's mother and father and grandmother! Susan and her sister Maggie are great characters, full of spit and vinegar and thick, stubborn backbones -- true steel magnolias. Which is a wonder, considering the simpering, ineffectual ninnies their mother and grandmother were. They overcame that, and their sadistic brute of a father, and taught themselves what NOT to be in their lives. This is a novel of strength and endurance, love and betrayal, and hope and optimism born of chaos and despair -- liberally laced with side-splitting humor and stunning imagery. I absolutely loved this book and hope to see more from this author.

Fans of Anne Rivers Siddons and Pat Conroy will love this story. It takes the best of both authors and sets this tale in Sullivan's Island. You will laugh and cry along with Susan, and I swear I can smell the salt air and feel the sand beneath my feet...