From Publishers Weekly
With young Bitsy Wentworth's nose-shattering blow to her philandering husband Claude's handsome face (motive: self-defense; weapon: frozen rack of baby back ribs), West launches this warm but overloaded chronicle of three generations of Southern female eccentricity and spunk. It's August 1972, and Claude is out cold, so Bitsy flees Crystal Falls, Tenn., with their baby, Jennifer, a move that will lose her custody of (though not contact with) her daughter while setting in motion her evolution from girl-wife to worldly interior decorator 20 years later. This follow-up to West's debut,
Crazy Ladies, reunites readers with familiar characters, including Bitsy's mother, Dorothy McDougal—who from a Nashville mental institution wages a letter-writing campaign to Pat Nixon on Bitsy's behalf—and Dorothy's sister, Clancy Jane, a hippie cafe owner. Despite well-wrought moments of reconciliation between estranged women throughout (Jennifer's ultimate gesture of forgiveness for Bitsy is especially understated and touching), the novel bogs down in endless female feuding and repetitive male faithlessness (i.e., Claude; Bitsy's second husband, Louie; and Jennifer's almost-husband Pierre). Quirky minor characters and subplots overcrowd this 500-plus page novel, but when West focuses on the complexities of familial or romantic relationships, the novel is at its most heartfelt.
(July) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Southern women grow wild in Crystal Falls, Tennessee. Bitsy Wentworth takes a whack at her philandering husband with a frozen slab of baby back ribs, then snatches her infant daughter, Jennifer, the keys to a Corvette, and runs off. There's no going home to mother Dorothy, currently incarcerated at a mental institution, or rowdy cousin Violet. It's hippie aunt Clancy Jane to Bitsy's rescue after Bitsy avoids prison by relinquishing custody of her daughter. Spanning 20 years and told partially through letters to First Ladies, this sprawling, colorful saga follows the four women and their hilarious and hapless relationships with each other and their men. Each suffers a major setback requiring the squaring of shoulders, sipping of sweet teas, and biting off of sharp retorts (and occasional visit to the "institution") that only true steel magnolias can manage. Although the plot meanders and could use some paring, fans of heartwarming southern novels with soap operatic plots liberally dosed with sass and spice will enjoy.
Kaite MediatoreCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
