Tied to the Tracks

I don't really know what to say, besides I LOVED IT!!! I thought that the characters were immensely relatable even though I am not from the south. I think the one thing that would have made it better was a more solid ending on Miss Zula's life. We know that the Tied to Tracks people get the real story, but we, the reader, don't get to know it. That was a bit disappointing. I think that Rosina Lippi has a very good handle on the neuroses and quirks that make people unique. I think that she does a very good job of giving us little hints to why people are the way they are without divulging everything in the first paragraph. The characters learn about each other at the same time the readers do. I like that. I'm glad that I have discovered Rosina Lippi. I hope she continues to write romantic novels like this one and The Pajama Girls of Lambert Square. I don't usually buy books, but I think these are two I will actually purchase so I can read them over and over.

First, I take exception to Publisher's Weekly who calls is a "humdrum" romance, and also, another reviewer classifying this book as "chick lit romance." Yes, the romantic elements are important, but the book far transcends the typical romance novel. The characters are fascinating, fallible, real three dimensional human beings whose stories you're totally drawn into. For example, one of the main characters (the male romantic lead), while handsome, rich, etc. he is also kind and unjudgmental. There is a scene where he (as the head of the English Department) is interviewing a new undergraduate, who is obviously overweight, and he offers her a cinnamon roll. "Lydia studied his face closely, but found no trace of mockery. She had the idea - and very strange it was, too - that she could sit here and devour a couple thousand calories and he wouldn't take any real note of it." And when his catty administrative assistant comments, "I saw Lydia Montgomery leaving just a minute ago. Isn't it a pity?" he replies "I don't see any cause for pity. She's here on a full merit scholarship, her writing samples are stellar, she's got excellent plans for her education." Often when I read books I do some skipping simply to see how the plot unfolds. But because this author is so gifted in the richness of her language combined with the fascinating personality of the characters, I enjoyed every step of the journey. While there was some predictability (caution: spoiler) in that the main characters were going to wind up with each other, there was enough tension and unpredictability in other elements of the plot to engage you to the end. This author writes under another pen name, Sara Donati. Don't miss her "Into the Wilderness" series.

I am so excited to write this book review because I absolutely loved Tied to the Tracks. The synopsis of the story doesn't really sound all that exciting: documentary company (Tied to the Tracks of the title) from New Jersey is selected to do the documentary of a famous southern writer, Ms. Zula May Bragg, in Ogilvie, GA. The catch is that the head of the documentary company, Angie, and the department chair of the college where the famous writer is a teacher, John, were once lovers, and John is engaged to be married to the youngest sister of the other rich family in the town. That said, the story was very exciting, fun to read, and enjoyable in all the right ways. The tension between John and Angie is so tight that the book fairly tingles with it. What I absolutely love about Lippi/Donati's work is her sense of language. She captures the cadence and rhythm of language in a way that makes the conversations and thoughts of the characters "sound" in your head. The telephone conversation between Tony Russo (one of the filmmakers) and his mother in New Jersey was a delight to read. I was also excited to see that Lippi accurately placed the origin of Frito Pie in East Texas. It's little details like this that make the world she built in Ogilvie, GA, feel as hot, humid, and muggy as it would be if it were a real town just an hour outside of Savannah. I know that a book I am reading strikes a chord with me when I start to have conversations with the characters and imagine what they would do in my world. The characters in TTTT came to life for me, and I had imaginary conversations with them all week. I am going to miss them now that I've read the book and have to place it back on my bookshelf.

If you are looking for a book to change your life, this is not it. However, if you are looking for more of a romantic comedy, not quite chicklit, definitely not a romance (little sex) then this could be for you. Recommended for someone who likes light fiction. The romance is predictable enough (that's not necessarily bad), but the secondary characters, especially the power hungry secretary and the iconic member of the English department are more interesting or nuanced than usual. Also, it gets into to the whys and wherefores of character motivation, which is a little more engaging than the genre's typical: mistakes, leading to romantic breakups, with the charcter then realizing, "Oh if I had only known...." This story has a bit more complexity than that and I recommend it. I gave this book 5 stars, not that it is the best book ever, but it does what it does very well.