Friendship Cake (Hope Springs) [Mass Market Paperback]

Lynne Hinton (Author)

Book Description

Series: Hope Springs | Publication Date: July 31, 2001

Five women, working together to create a church cookbook, share their passions, loves, and losses, including pastor Charlotte Stewart, who is suffering a crisis in faith; widow Margaret, the town confidante; and Jessie, the only African American in an all-white church.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

How many Southern women does it take to put together a cookbook? Five, in Hinton's sincere but frothy debut novel, in which several female congregants of the appropriately named Hope Springs Community Church in North Carolina decide to create a cookbook; each has her own special recipe to share and a story to tell. On the cookbook committee are pragmatic Margaret, whose down-home wisdom makes her the community confidant; 63-year-old Louise, nursing the unrequited love of her life, another woman, through Alzheimer's; Beatrice, with a finger in everyone else's pie; Jessie, the only black woman in the all-white congregation; and Reverend Charlotte Stewart, their first woman preacher. The project originates as a form of female bonding through food, but as the committee holds meetings to review their progress, a lot more is stirred up than soups and stews. Also on the table are death and sex, friendship and love. The characters introduce themselves in the opening chapters, and their voices are like a potluck dinner, unsophisticated and oddly comforting. Hinton, herself a North Carolina pastor, successfully endows Charlotte with all of the self-doubts that a cleric might feel facing her first congregation. Mostly, though, this is thin fare, with complex issues like interracial marriage and the tragic death of a child resolved by one easy remedy: love. There are 17 recipes included, but these are also pretty basic--banana pudding, relish, grits--leaving readers to wish there were something as satisfying as fried green tomatoes on the menu. Agent, Sally McMillan. 10-city author tour.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

The reaction of the Hope Springs Community Church women's group to the idea of writing a cookbook is lukewarm at best until Beatrice breaks down and confesses that she came up with the idea in hopes that sharing a project will make them better friends. They are an unusual group: Beatrice, the town gossip and make-up artist for the funeral home; Margaret, a reclusive widow; tough Louise, who needs the strength of others as the woman she's secretly loved for 40 years enters the final stages of Alzheimer's; Jessie, an African American, who attended a white church on a dare and found a stronger commitment to the Lord; and Charlotte, the young pastor, who tries to be everything to everyone and risks losing her faith along the way. As these women share recipes and a love of the Lord, they make a friendship cake to last till the end of their lives. Hinton (Meditations for Walking) tackles issues dividing churches today, particularly homosexuality and interracial relationships, in a caring and forthright manner. A deceptively simple first novel; for all collections.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Harpertorch (July 31, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0380820145
• ISBN-13: 978-0380820146
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,530,573 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars CHARMING! More, more!, June 6, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Friendship Cake: A Novel (Hardcover)

This is one of the most charming novels I've read in recent years. More than that, it is a satisfying, complete story of women's friendships that manages to avoid becoming sticky-sweet in the process. The author is to be commended for avoiding melodrama and cloying conclusions. I came to know and love each character in this book. Hinton's use of recipes, by the way, goes far beyond gimmickry; each recipe is a true reflection of its owner's personality, and the "cookbook" unifying plot of the novel further justifies their use. I would love to see sequels continuing the lives, loves, and misadventures of the delightful damsel denizens of Hope Springs, North Carolina!

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good book for summer reading., May 28, 2000

By 

Barbara O'Neill - See all my reviews

This review is from: Friendship Cake: A Novel (Hardcover)

In the style of Patricia Gaffney's Saving Graces, Friendship Cake is a real-life novel whose focus is women, the lives they live and the problems they face.

Friendship Cake takes 5 disparate church women and throws them together in the course of putting together a church cookbook. But, it's more than recipes that get tested. Friendship, love and trust are put to the test over and over as the ladies learn to accept the others --- and themselves --- for who they are.

I didn't know what to expect from this novel, which is written by a pastor in North Carolina and I have to say that I do hope Pastor Hinton has more stories like this tucked away, just waiting to be written. Quite a wonderful book.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Faith, hope and love still do work..., September 27, 2000

By 

Michele Caprario (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Friendship Cake: A Novel (Hardcover)

Through an endearing story of women in church community, Lynne Hinton helps prove that with faith, hope and love (and women friends' gooding cookin' and senses of humor!) all things can be survived- sometimes even brought back to be made 'shiny and new'.Loved this story and characters. Can't wait to read the author's next book...