Dairy Queen Days: A Novel [Paperback]

Robert Inman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 2, 1998

Over the course of the summer of 1970, 16-year-old Trout Moseley wrestles with powerful ancestral traditions as he struggles to forge his own identity in the Georgia town than bears his family name.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In the summer of 1979, 16-year-old Trout Mosley finds his life turned upside down. His mother has been hospitalized in Atlanta for depression; his preacher father has been scandalizing his parishioners with strange comparisons of Jesus and Elvis Presley, and Trout himself has been packed off to the small Georgia town that bears his family's name. Here, he becomes reacquainted with a number of eccentric relatives, gets involved with a strong-minded girl named Keats Dubarry, and lands a job at the local Dairy Queen.

But Trout's summer is hardly idyllic. Keats's father is involved in trying to unionize local mill workers, and his efforts will pit the Dubarrys against the Mosleys in a final confrontation that will change everything. Alternately sweet and sad, Dairy Queen Days is, as Trout's father says of a spoonful of ice cream, "good for the soul." --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

A passive protagonist and a bloodless story line make this third novel by Inman (Old Dogs and Children) a sluggish affair. Trout Moseley turns 16 in 1979, just as his mother heads for a mental institution and his father, a preacher, starts wrestling with his beliefs. Father and son retreat to the small Georgia hometown founded, named after and still dominated by their clan. There, Trout discovers a heavy ancestral burden and feels the need to right his family's past wrongs: "He could see that he was a product of a great aching history.... People with mills and trucks and money and power over other people's lives." Unfortunately, he does little besides rehash and bemoan his situation. The family's prominence?"When a Moseley farts, everybody smells it"?isn't convincingly established, and Trout's inherited moral responsibility for a town, even a failing one, doesn't come across as a compelling challenge. Inman's talent for natural dialogue and astute local coloring remains intact here, but it would have been put to better use in a story with a clearer, more dramatic conflict. Author tour.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Back Bay Books (July 2, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316418374
• ISBN-13: 978-0316418379
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #900,515 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars classic eccentric south, July 19, 2002

By 

disheveledprofessor (the home of the Blue Angels) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dairy Queen Days (Hardcover)

Robert Inman combines two classic genres in his delightful novel, "Dairy Queen Days": the coming of age story [young Tout Mosely, 16 years old in 1979 Georgia], and southern storytelling [a las Eudora Welty, Carson McCullers, etc.].

There is a saying that "In the southern we are proud of our eccentrics. We don't ask, 'Is anyone in your family crazy?" We ask, 'Which side are they on?'" This novel has enough eccentrics [Trout's father, Joe Pike, for one] to keep you chuckling. But you will recognize these people, and the dilemmas they face:growing up; facing mid-life crises; coping with change in society, loss of jobs; death and loss of loved ones; asking "What is my place in my world?"

Robert Inman, a columnist for the Charlotte Observer, has the talent for observation and detail which makes the mill community of Moseley and its inhabitants come alive. You will be entertained and provoked; you will laugh, and you will contemplate these same questions.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Delicious!, May 3, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Dairy Queen Days (Hardcover)

When I was a teen-ager, attempts to reduce the number of calories in my diet were often devilishly derailed by soft-serve ice cream from The Dairy Queen.

Robert Inman's new book "Dairy Queen Days" is as tempting a read and as deliciously satisfying.

Joe Pike Moseley is a Methodist minister who is falling from the church's grace as his son, Trout, watches. After Joe Pike leaves his congregation during the Sunday service and roars away on his motorcycle, the bishop sends him to the small church in his hometown. Both the church and the town were built by his grandfather. In Moseley, Ga., Joe Pike is forced to confront the demons of his past. Trout, too, struggles, as he fights to be his own person while constantly being reminded to "remember who you are."

Readers will laugh out loud when Joe Pike Moseley stuns his congregation by comparing Jesus to Elvis Presley, and sympathize with the son, who learns the difficulties of living in a town that bears one's last name.

It's a coming of age story, for both father and son. Joe Pike Moseley must stop running from his past; Trout Moseley must piece together the family puzzle pieces to understand it.

Both father and son find solace in the Dairy Queen, in the forms of chili dogs, ice cream, large chocolate shakes and a summer job.

Readers who enjoy the Southern genre will savor this delicious summer treat.

"Yea, verily," as Joe Pike would say.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A funny story about family dynamics and small towns, August 27, 1999

By 

Stacy Y. Correll (Owings Mills, MD United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dairy Queen Days: A Novel (Paperback)

I was given this book by my mother, who had randomly bought it at a bookstore while on vacation. What a find! This book has some seriously funny moments that everyone can relate to. The main character is a teenage boy who should be in the midst of high school theatrics but instead is forced to be the Rock of Gilbraltor in a family gone mad. The ending is a little abrupt but it is a clever, amusing book.