Customer Reviews

The Bad Behavior of Belle Cantrell: A Novel

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The Bad Behavior of Belle Cantrell is an outstanding novel that brings to life the small towns of Louisiana in the 1920s. I found the book a fascinating study of the time period when religious hypocrisy was clashing with such radical ideas as women's suffrage. It also treats the subject of anti-Semitism in the South in a very nuanced way, showing how prejudice can cut both ways. The parallels to today with the rise of the religious right and renewed racial tensions are profound. But aside from that, the book is a page-turner romp in the witty, sultry life of a headstrong woman trying to make her way in the oppressive world of the small town 1920s Louisiana and succeeding.
Don't pay any attention to the Publisher's Weekly review, written by someone who clearly did not read the book, not even the first page. That review said: "The book opens with Belle confessing she feels no guilt for `killing' her husband of 16 years, Claude". The book actually opens as follows: "Belle Cantrell felt guilty about killing her husband and she hated that." Also, the review said: "Despres's galloping prose and Belle's consistent liveliness effectively cover the lack of much else, including the substance in the predictably dashing but dangerous Mr. LeBlanc, the man who becomes Sissy's grandfather." Well, if the reviewer had bothered to read the book, he or she would have found that Mr. LeBlanc was unpredictably dastardly in an understandably small-minded and self-serving way and is one of the books villains and was not Sissy's grandfather. Sissy's grandfather was Claude, Belle's husband of 16 years.
I highly recommend this book as study of an historically fascinating time with clear lessons for today and for simply being a damn fine read.

Ever think about what was considered "bad behavior" in the early 20th century, and what might be considered scandalous doings now? Quite a difference, isn't there? Today Belle Cantrell would be considered well behaved but in 1920 in Gentry, Louisiana, she raised many an eyebrow when she bobbed her hair.

Talk had barely died down about her new haircut when she spent time in the pokey for swimming in an inappropriate bathing costume. Belle, Belle, what will you be up to next? Well, as it turns out almost anything because this gal had a backbone of steel, and no patience for the prejudices of small town Louisiana. She believed women should vote, and the Ku Klux Klan should be tarred and feathered.

On top of all that she sees nothing wrong with having male married friends. After all, she is unmarried and a person does need company from time to time.

Performer Zoe Thomas reads with vim, vigor and determination, giving Belle an unforgettable voice.

- Gail Cooke

If Chick Lit isn't your thing, disregard the cover and marketing of The Bad Behavior of Belle Cantrell. It's worth reading and it's worth discussing with your book club.
Author Loraine Despres is so celebrated for having written the "Who Shot JR?" episode of Dallas that those familiar with her work might anticipate a southern soap opera in the form of a book. But Belle Cantrell, while being a southern bell, is also a symbol for some of the issues we are still wrestling with in the 21st century in America.
In the 1980s you couldn't get on an airplane without seeing a paperback version of Michael Creighton's The Rising Sun in a traveler's hands. Despres may have had the same goal that Creighton did in writing and packaging her book. Both books are palatable and have broad mass appeal and both are built on cautionary tales that can't be missed through all the intrigue of the characters. Creighton deals with the economic threat of China to the United States. Despres deals with the decency of the human spirit in the United States.
This is a prequel to Despres' best seller The Scandalous Summer of Sissy LeBlanc. In writing her latest novel, Despres seems to be interested in scratching below the surface and looking into more serious subjects than the frivolous rules of behavior of women of the South gone by -- the chapter heading in all of her books.
Belle Cantrell is a trail blazing woman of the early 20th century. She stands up publicly for women's suffrage and the rights of blacks; she works as the overseer of a farm; and she is personally affected by anti-Semitism despite being a WASP herself.
She gets into messes without using her head at times. She believes a photo taken of her in a "compromising position" has caused the death of her husband (she's wrong). She can't shake the silly Scarlett O'Hara one-sided conversations in her brain about what self-respecting girls (especially those who have lifted themselves out of the trash) should do. And she is not the best mother in the world.
But the author has a "gotcha" with the pleasure. The reader won't get to the end of the book without thinking about the broader themes of the fights for rights of many groups a hundred years ago and the issues that folks have to face and fight today as well. This is a palatable history lesson and a romance interwoven with issues of decency that mothers can feel good about passing on to their daughters when they are finished reading it.

Belle has got to be one of the best characters I have read in a long time!Loraines writing is spot on with all the characters.It reads like great southern fiction & historical fiction all rolled into one!
I actually read this one first and think its sooo much better than Sissy,she just doesn't have her grandmothers spunk!
I recommend this book to everyone!!

Stayed up late last night and finished Bad Behavior which I really liked. A very unconventional love story with the KKK, anti-semitism, Chicago race riots, Southern social history and a lot of Southern proper behavior thrown in. Rules for women that we didn't know existed. We have the cutting of the hair, the cutting of the ties to the 19th century and yet, the infinite human need for love and/or sex. Our heroine is badly behaved but in a way that one can't help liking. And the Jewish man she falls in love with, unlike the 20th century Jewish male model celebrated by Seinfeld, Woody Allen and Saul Bellow--whiny, desperately in need of a mother and good cooking, narcissistic and pathetic, is more like the second generation Jewish male one pictures in the early twentieth century--self reliant, hard working, intellectual and urbane. Altogether a great read. Bravo.

From the getgo, this book was good. It was fast reading, flowing and kept me entranced with each chapter. I wanted to know more about Belle - what she was going to do next and how she viewed things in society. Set in an interesting era, this story is a gem. It was far better than the author's first novel and I look forward to more storytelling by Ms. Despres!

A history lesson, a romance, a comedy of manners - The Bad Behavior of Belle Cantrelle is a carefully layered, thoughtful, yet screamingly hilarious story from an an obvious insider.

I get the feeling that Loraine Despres lived, saw and/or heard every moment of this book.

Belle Cantrell, Bourreé LeBlanc, and Abe Rubinstein are as vividly etched as Scarlett O'Hara, Rhett Butler, and Ashley Wilkes.

I majored in political science and served in the New York State Assembly - and the detailed analysis of the KKK as a money-making pyramid, an elaborate Ponzi scheme, selling racism on commission (much like Mary Kay or Amway products) was a jaw-dropping revelation to me.

BRAVO, Loraine Despres! Your research and artistry gave me one HELL of a history lesson, and one DEVIL of a story!

Nelson Denis, Esq.
New York, NY

Written in the charming guise of pure fun, Loraine Despres' second novel delivers entertainment and a great deal more. While the book stands alone, elements its plot make it also a a prequil to her first book, The Scandalous Summer of Sissy Leblanc. With the character of Belle Cantrell we follow the picaresque path of a rebellious, feminist...murderess. Both books are written with great style and a confident elan. Both protagonists are role models for contemporary women in that they possess the rambunctious spirit of independence and what in men would be called balls. Both books share a set of "rules" and guidelines that introduce each chapter, which if published alone just as rules, would be most amusing little pocket books. But Despres gives us a great deal more. Thoough written in a style that is part tall-tale with much revelry in the plotting, (which makes them read as accessibly as romance novels)they contain far more nourishment and lasting flavor. She is a meticulous researcher, and we get a sure flavor of the interesting and challenging times in which Belle lives. There is terrific dialogue, inventive and involving story-telling, and instruction about how to live contained in the emotional DNA of all her characters.

It seems glaringly obvious that either and both of these novels would translate gloriously into films and would be sought-after roles for any of today's rising female stars.

Hal Ackerman
Screenwriting co-chair
UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television

This book was thrown in the bargain bin at a Food Lion. I was browsing through the barrel and found it gleaming at me. I picked it up and flipped to the first page... I was enthralled from the beginning. Belle is the perfect, powerful, Southern female character. I would recommend this book to any feminists or historical fiction fans, like myself. It will be the best read of your life.

A really enjoyable story that gave me an insider's look of an era of change. I was entertained throughout and felt like I had a history lesson at the same time. Belle was a woman lived by her own rules that were fairly scandalous back in the 1920s but certainly not in today's climate. This was a fun read that book clubs would enjoy.