Customer Reviews

The Goddess Of Fried Okra

5 star:		(44)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This story follows the traditions of the best southern writers. The characters are offbeat, fascinating and all have skeletons in their closet and yet they are immensely entertaining. This is a fast paced story that you just don't want to put down. When the novel was finished I immediately hoped that Jean Brashear would continue the story line in subsequent novels about these characters. This book is full of strong women determined to make their way in the world and find the only thing that really ever matters - family. Any person who identifies with strong women or loves the south will love this book.

THE GODDESS OF FRIED OKRA is the kind of book you always hope to find and rejoice wildly when you do.

Full of humanity, humor, fearless creativity, and deep,genuine emotion, this is the story of Eudora "Pea" O'Brien. She is eccentric, vulnerable, and absolutely heroic in ways she herself can not begin to suspect at the beginning of her startling journey.

The book introduces you to a host of vivid characters who will make you care and care deeply, especially "Pea," a woman who truly deserves the title of "heroine." She takes chances, she makes mistakes, she learns,she dares; she is unstoppable--and unforgettable.

Jean Brashear has created a story that works on many levels. It is wonderfully new and original and filled with the local color of Texas. Yet it is also rich in timeless themes and with matters that transcend region or place.

(And, hey, how often do you find a story that seamlessly blends the heroic importance of fried okra as well as a woman's mastery of sword play? A story that is hysterically funny and yet will make you blink very hard to keep from crying?)

This is a keeper. Grab it and cherish it.

The story was ok, but I couldn't find myself liking the main character. There wasn't much depth to any of the supporting characters and most of them were cliched. It read more like a screenplay than a book, and it just wasn't believable. The story had a sweet premise - if it had been longer with more character development it would have been easier to like. However, it's much better than a lot of free books, and not too bad for the price.

definetly a book for and about women. women who are young and old, women who are strong or are learning to be strong. women helping and learning from each other. the main character, eudora, embodies all these ideas. she is a care giver, teacher, student, and learning to love herself and how to live, really live. each chapter begins with a short factual paragraph about a strong women. i enjoyed this book, i was captivated by the first 2 chapters.

I'm in the middle of this book and I'm hooked! I keep thinking I'll put it down and go to bed, but then I can't help myself and have to read just a little more. This is one of those kinds of books - you know the ones where you can actually smell the smells, taste the tastes and feel the very sweat running down your forehead. I'm there, right there on that crazy road with my beloved Pea. A front row seat to to her quirky, whimsical, sometimes sad, but always real and honest journey. I have a feeling I won't want this book to end...

This book got some good reviews so I was excited to read it. It is very disappointing. Although the story has some good points, the main character, Eudora, is ridiculous. A thirty year old acting this way is just plain stupid. Getting on the road with so poor a plan, so few resources and making such stupid decisions along the way is crazy. Reading a cheap romance novel and embedding the fiction with so much power is silly. She acted like a 10 year old throughout the whole story except for the sex part. Would have been a good story if Eudora wasn't so exaggerated.

Imagine yourself in the greeting card section in your local drugstore. Your assignment is to read every card on the shelf. Now string together all the cliches and romantic notions you found there, throw in an enormous dose of editorializing, add some English usage problems and you have "Goddess of Fried Okra." It's a shame the book is so cliche because it has the rudimentaries of a good book in southern tradition. But it never really becomes anything more than a joke on the reader. If you are looking for good fiction, this isn't it. If you just want a silly read at a 10th grade level, this may be the book for you.

I wish someone had warned me before I spent good money on it.

The Goddess of Fried Okra is the story of Eudora "Pea" O'Brien who strikes out across modern-day central Texas in search of her dead sister's soul, gambling on the chance that reincarnation will reunite her with the last vestige of family. With Texas road markers as her milestones, Pea's fascinating journey becomes one of self-discovery and empowerment as she looks, on a deeper level, for forgiveness, for a place to belong, for strength, for folks to love -- for Home.

From the opening sentence, "Nothing else could have put me on the road again, not after eighteen years of being dragged all over creation," you know you're in for a memorable ride with the "professional" convenience store clerk at the wheel. Because she is desperate--and poignantly brave--Pea drives on in blind faith that the road will eventually be her salvation. As Pea searches every face for "Sister's spooky eyes," she encounters and adopts an assortment of unique-yet-believable souls.

Like Larry McMurtry's writing, the quirky Texas details and hilarious/touching inner dialogue give Goddess its original, appetizing flavor. The presence of Conan the Barbarian and kick-ass women wielding swords in the Texas Hill Country are prime examples. The unforgettable characters that befriend Pea on her mesquite-pocked odyssey are beautifully and frankly etched. As Pea, novelist Jean Brashear writes with an authentic Southern woman's voice, subtly examining themes common to stories of unforgettable women: abandonment, regret, redemption, sisterhood, strength and acceptance.

This book is a mish mash of oddball ideas, unexpected characters, and historical road markers that somehow works. That a 32 year old woman with only six hundred bucks in her pocket should take off for New Mexico in search of her dead sister's reincarnated soul (here we are at oddball) is whacky enough. But then she takes up first, with a stray kitten, then a pregnant teenager and finally a con man named Valentine (a few of the unexpected characters). Feeling somehow responsible for all three, Eudora"Pea" O'Brien, hauls them along with her (making regular stops to read markers) without a clue about how they might impact her journey - or her finances. But thank God (or the goddess) for the cranky old car she's driving. The poor thing breaks down just outside of Jewel, Texas, where more oddities, secrets, unexpected characters, and fried okra await this motley crew.
I did enjoy the read but there are a couple of things I'm not quite sure I liked. One was the abrupt introduction of Valentine, in third person (with the rest of the book in first), and though brief, it kind of put a kink in the smooth reading of the story. The author does it again when this character departs Jewel for a while, then returns, again abruptly, at the wrap up. In addition, the goddess idea wasn't quite fleshed out especially since the fried okra angle was not a big part of the story, or didn't seem so to me. Be that as it may, I gobbled up the book and I think you will, too.

I absolutely devoured this book!
The narrator's engaging tone captured me right from the start ... and continued to captivate me through the novel. A lovely story that ends perfectly.