SPIT OF A MINUTE
****
By: Dixie Burns
Great
historical fiction of rural Southern life during the Depression.
What
a great story! It is set in a small rural southern town in
Tennessee, starting back in the 1930's Depression era. The author
does well describing the landscape with both vegetable farming and
the ever important Darkfire tobacco fields. This gives the reader
even better insight, background and understanding of the book's many
colorful characters. Being a Southerner myself, I absolutely loved
that the book was narrated in a fabulous southern dialect. The only
problem I had with the author's dialect is that it is a southern
BLACK dialect and the characters were (I think) white. Being a
Southerner born and bred, I recognize the very subtle differences in
the two. Use of the word “is” instead of “are” being a big
difference. (I was born, raised and remain in North West AL just 200
miles from the author's native Nashville, TN. The AL and TN
vernacular are pretty much identical, even for the Depression era
setting when the dialect was even MORE Southern. ( < Lawdt tha
yankees are laughin' at that. Bless they hearts.)
I was
confused and kept looking back for racial identity of the characters.
Although rare, I do think the author gave descriptive details of
caucasian characters. I gave up and just let the characters be
black in my mind. It simply fit the vernacular for me. The lives,
circumstances and choices could easily be either black or white.
15
year old Elizabeth Abigail Lane, Queenie to family and friends, is
full of dreams of her future. She knowns she's not meant for this
small town or these dirt poor farmers. She plans to live in a big
city and go dancing every night! Life seems to get in the way of
Queenie's dreams and she finds herself decades after her “shotgun
wedding” saddled with 3 children and a ne'er do well drunkard of a
husband. But things can change in the spit of a minute.
The
book is told from the point of view of Queenie, Eli (her husband) and
her 3 children, Abba Gee, Willy and Bud. All of their experiences in
life add to this fascinating story. The story is full of suspense,
anticipation, excitement, and you are drawn into the lives of the
characters, even if you want to jump into the book and jack slap some
sense into them at times. There are also heartbreaking moments where
you feel so bad for the way life treated these characters. I rooted
for Queenie and she did TRY to better her life circumstances, she
just fell into a habit or making bad choices. I am now left rooting
for Abba Gee. She is making better choices and seems destined for a
brighter future, even if it's still a hard and difficult life.
When
the author can make you want to jump into the characters lives and
intervene, then the author has done an excellent job making the story
and characters “real”.
This
is an excellent book for Young Adults and up.
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