The Florabama Ladies' Auxiliary & Sewing Circle [Paperback]

Lois Battle (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 29, 2002

Welcome to Florabama, Alabama-a place where you can stop to sip a co'cola or iced tea and think about money and love. If you had 'em, you were free to think about other things. If you didn't, you couldn't think about anything else.

"We've been screwed blue and tattooed," quips Hilly Pruitt, upon hearing the news of the closing of Cherished Lady, the local lingerie factory where she's worked a lifetime. The same day the plant closes, Bonnie Duke Cullman, former-deb turned Atlanta-society-wife, has herself been downsized-right out of her marriage and picture-perfect life. In an unlikely alliance, Bonnie, Hilly, and the rest of the ex-bra seamstresses join forces in the "Displaced Homemakers Program" at a podunk community college. Together they endure a midlife survival course where the events of a single year forever alter the way they see the world and their places in it.

Hailed as "a fearless novelist" (Pat Conroy) and "a peerless limner of strong, complex women" (Anne Rivers Siddons), Lois Battle creates a rich tapestry of female friendships in this funny, heartfelt, and poignant story about the surprising power of a group of small-town women.

"The book is so full of good stuff it's hard to know where to start. It has a feel of Places in the Heart, a little of Norma Rae, and maybe a touch of Fried Green Tomatoes. But [it] stands on its own as an intelligent, poignant, funny, wistful novel of expectations, love and rebirth." (Richmond Times-Dispatch)

"This is just the kind of book you'd like to take onto the porch of a clapboard house, to read curled up in a wicker chair with a glass of iced tea at your side." (Houston Chronicle)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

That readers who pick up Battle's (Bed & Breakfast) eighth novel, with its folksy, long Southern title, will expect something along the lines of the Ya-Yas is understandable; what awaits is, in fact, a considerably more sober affair. At age 50, Bonnie Duke Cullman has run out of luck. Accustomed since birth to a country-club existence, she's divorcing her no-good husband, who's just filed for bankruptcy, and striking out on her own. Never having had a serious job before, she accepts a position at a community college in Florabama, Ala.--a position that, she later learns to her dismay, her father was instrumental in securing for her. A lingerie mill called Cherished Lady is being closed down, the work to be farmed out south of the border, and the college has hired Bonnie to run its program for displaced homemakers and workers. In a blind-leading-the-blind proposition, Bonnie is supposed to help the other women, many of whom are also middle-aged, figure out what to do with the rest of their lives--patient, religious Ruth wants to be a teacher; irascible, racist Hilly takes a job as a waitress in a Mexican restaurant. At times the novel feels like a stage set hammered together to support its pro-education message, but it compensates with likable characters and a core of compassion and independence. (Mar. 19)Forecast: A regional author tour will reinforce the novel's mostly local appeal, though its clever title may cause readers around the country to give the book a glance.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

In this eighth novel from Battle (Bed & Breakfast), Bonnie Duke Cullman, a displaced, wealthy, Atlanta housewife and socialite, is forced to find work after her husband declares bankruptcy and leaves her for a younger woman. Her best friend and her father conspire to get Bonnie a job teaching at a junior college in southern Alabama, where she will coordinate the program for displaced homemakers. On the same day that Bonnie leaves Atlanta for Florabama, the local lingerie factory closes, displacing the women who will become Bonnie's students. All of the women face adversity during this transitional year. Despite this promising premise, the novel fails to fulfill its potential; all the characters sound alike despite apparent class differences, and the story is predictable albeit sweet. Libraries with large romance collections will want to purchase, but otherwise the book is not recommended. Pam Kingsbury, Alabama Humanities Fdn., Florence
Copyright 2001 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: 384 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (January 29, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0142000361
• ISBN-13: 978-0142000366
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,468,462 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brava, Florabama Ladies!, April 9, 2001

By 

dikybabe "admeyer" (Houston, TX United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Florabama Ladies' Auxiliary & Sewing Circle (Hardcover)

Having never read Lois Battle, her newest tome is my first adventure into her writing. I will now go back and look for other titles she has written.

Do I recommend this story of middle-age women struggling to survive? Absolutely! The spirit of the displaced homemakers from Cherished Lady lingerie's now closed plant is led by an unlikely cultured and privileged lady, Bonnie Duke Cullman. Bonnie also finds herself in this displaced homemaker category, but for a much different reason: bankruptcy and divorce.

Rescued by her family connections, her daddy Duke is rich and influential, Bonnie finds work as a job counselor in tiny Florabama's junior college. It is there, with the help of her long time friend Cass that Bonnie also finds herself.

The Cherished Lady ex-employees comprise a mix of hard-working, down-on-their-luck seamstresses who have a new opportunity to go to college and learn the skills to get new jobs. Of course they must do this while drawing unemployment, raising their grandchildren, resisting their spouses attempts to keep them down, caring for disabled spouses and dysfunctional adult children. They are a colorful and realistic set of characters who grow on the reader.

Key to the plot are the women: Hilly, Ruth, Roxy, Albertine, Lyda Jane and Celia. Key to the women's lives are the emotional baggage they have accumulated by living and the individual tastes for life that both bring them together and separate them. Their small town plant has given them earning power and a sense of community. With its closing, as the plant owners seek cheaper labor in Mexico, they are at the mercy of a world that looks for education in its future employees. Their lives have to be upgraded and the local college has a government grant to provide that upgrade.

While one cannot help but laugh over the spirited and straight shooting expressions of Hilly, this novel also reflects the heartbreaks and disappointments that represent the dark side of the characters' lives. This is also a love story, the story of Bonnie with Riz, Cass with Mark, Hilly with Jess. Each partnership takes a different road, with the women coming out stronger and less dependent on romance or sex or men.

Bonnie is the protagonist: the divorced mom of grown, spoiled children, the daughter of wealth, the step-daughter of a restless, mouthy step-mom. First, she surprizes herself by learning to respect and love her displaced Florabama homemakers. Then she surprizes herself by realizing that independence is a good thing. Furthermore, she surprizes herself with her own entrepreneurial abilities. She lives through her time in Florabama and emerges realistically triumphant.

The love of friends is important in Battle's story: the love of Cass and Bonnie, and Hilly and Ruth. Author Battle understands that women do not have it easy in a man's world, but that they can survive and rise above life's challenges. This is a positive, can't-put-it-down read. Brava!

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Modern Southern Women, March 22, 2001

By 

Patricia Latimer (Jacksonville, FL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Florabama Ladies' Auxiliary & Sewing Circle (Hardcover)

I have been a Lois Battle "fan" for many years, and although I have enjoyed reading each of her novels, without reservation the "Florabama Ladies" is her best. To my good fortune, a local independent bookstore owner,seeking a genuine response, shared her advance copy . To summarize my reaction in simple terms, I could not put it down once I started it--emotional, truthful, and sprinkled with wit and wisdom.

The "ladies" represent the dilemma facing many dedicated working women caught within the boundaries of a "down-sizing-for-profit" business mentality, and the reality of survival. Each woman has her unique array of personal problems, coupled with trying to pursue a new occupation in today's competitive workforce.

Ms. Battle is a natural "storyteller", who smoothly captures her readers and carefully places them into the action. The story-line presents itself in such a way that one can easily recognize one of her characters, or identify with personally.

The Florabama Ladies' Auxiliary & Sewing Circle is not just a story, but a journey. I highly recommend this intriguing modern novel to those who appreciate a captivating well-written story. Certainly one I intend to purchase for my personal bookshelf and for friends.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful book !!, June 1, 2002

By 

Beverley Strong (Australia) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Florabama Ladies' Auxiliary & Sewing Circle (Paperback)

Before writing this review, I read all of the reviews previously written, and was horrified by the arrant snobbery of SOME of the reviewers. These, in particular, were Southern readers whose opinions left me flabbergasted by their narrowness of mind in condemming the factory workers who were left jobless by the closure of the factory in which they worked. One reviewer even suggested that these women, uneducated as they were, would never be capable of belonging to a quilting bee. Happily I know that this attitude is completely false having spent time recently as a guest of a number of Southern ladies who would be totally horrified to learn of attitudes like this.The female workers of a recently closed lingerie factory band together with the help of a recently divorced counsellor who is suffering from the shock and disillusionment of finding out that she now has to make her own way in the world--in her late 40's--as her husband became bankrupt and took off with a younger woman.Over the course of a year, these women learn not only how to support themselves, but also how how to gain strength and courage from mutual encouragement. I truly believe that this is a wonderfully inspiring book and I enjoyed it thoroughly.