Of the many barrier islands that pepper the coast of South Carolina’s Lowcountry, Pawleys Island, the “arrogantly shabby” family playground for generations, might be the most mysterious and charming of them all. It is here and in the surrounding area that Dorothea Benton Frank has placed her latest Lowcountry tale, Pawleys Island. Meet Huey Valentine, the owner of Gallery Valentine, catering to interior decorators and, heaven save us, tourists. Huey resides on his family plantation on the shores of the Waccamaw River, where he cares for his mother, Miss Olivia, a wise and irresistible octogenarian. And meet Huey’s great friend Abigail Thurmond, retired attorney from Columbia, who has laid claim to her family’s home on Pawleys Island. Huey and Abigail are complacent in their fat and sassy lives until the stormy advent of the artist Rebecca Simms. Rebecca has been catapulted from her home, her marriage, and her children. She has escaped to Pawleys Island to hide herself from herself. But after Miss Olivia pries Rebecca’s secrets from her, Huey and especially Abigail are challenged to reenter life outside the dream state their idyllic geography evokes. They will see that Rebecca has her day in court, but they never expect to provoke a national forum for discussion. With characteristic humor and a full cast of eccentric and wonderfully lovable characters, Dorothea Benton Frank brings us her most honest and entertaining story to date. People have secrets they never want anyone to know. People have pasts they would prefer be left out of conversation. In Frank’s nimble hands, it all comes spilling out to be examined and reconciled.
Pawleys Island (Lowcountry Tales)
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Bestseller Frank's fifth Lowcountry Tale is a lively story about friendship and family, Southern-style. On the small South Carolina barrier island that gives the book its title, semiretired attorney Abigail Thurmond spends most of her days playing golf and gossiping with her best friend, the portly, lovably aristocratic Huey Valentine. But their comfortable lives of leisure are turned upside-down with the arrival of one diminutive Rebecca Sims. Becca's obvious artistic talent and poise make it easy for Huey to show her art and hire her to manage his art gallery, but when his 86-year-old mother unearths Becca's tragic past, Huey can't help sticking his aquiline nose in her business. Once an attentive wife and loving mother of two in Charleston, Becca became the victim of her abusive husband, who turned her children against her and then filed for divorce. Abigail and Huey must help their new friend, of course, and as they draw closer to one another through Becca's tribulations, Abigail is finally able to examine the ghosts that have haunted her for years, and Huey gets to reveal a (pretty unsurprising) secret of his own. Frank's absorbing narrative manages to feel both authentically Southern and universally empathetic.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Booklist
Frank's fifth book in her Lowcountry series (following Shem Creek, 2004) focuses on the tight-knit community of Pawleys Island, an "arrogantly shabby" oasis off the coast of South Carolina. Shifting first-person narratives invite you into this charming southern isle that, behind its decorum, is the kind of place that you don't go unless you want your life shaken and stirred. Rebecca Simms naively seeks retreat there, but she soon realizes just how tangled and involved island life can be. Her new employer, his feisty mother, and their ex-lawyer friend all drag out Rebecca's painful past. Through these newfound friends' curiosity and genuine concern, Rebecca soon finds that she cannot hide from her recently shattered marriage. This compulsively readable novel tackles the weighty topics of marital infidelity and self-transformation, but its warm conversational tone will give it appeal to fans of both Fannie Flagg and Larry McMurtry's Terms of Endearment. A true southern comfort. Misha Stone
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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More About the Author
I am the author of eleven novels placed in and around the Lowcountry of South Carolina and thanking God for my chance to speak. When I'm not writing, I'm reading or gardening or cooking. Love to travel, shoot the bull with people and most of all, be with my husband, children and dogs - not always necessarily in that order. Just finished my eleventh book - Lowcountry Summer for William Morrow and it will come out June 15, 2010. Love to have company so come visit at www.dotfrank.com. And by the way, serious huge gushing thanks for everything - your kind words and emails. Writing saves me, but without your support it wouldn't mean much. (So I'm a little sappy and sentimental - big deal.) xxoo Dot
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
25 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Another Winner From The Charming and Witty Dot Frank,
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This review is from: Pawleys Island: A Lowcountry tale (Lowcountry Tales) (Hardcover)
Wonderful characters who spout witty dialogue, the luscious South Carolina setting she is famous for, and hefty helpings of the food and manners bred as only the South can breed, make this latest offering from Dot Frank a true gem for lazy summer days. Even if you're not reading it on the beach, you will smell the salt air and experience the sand between your toes. The author puts you there as she has in her four previous books because she does local color better than most anyone writing today.
But it is the wonderful characters that will stay with you long after the last page is turned. Perhaps, Dot's most memorable creation to date is the inimitable Huey Valentine. He's the true Southern gentleman, dedicated to his art gallery and his menu planning, a devoted son to the aging and delightful Miss Olivia, and with a surprising twist that will leave you open-mouthed at the novel's spectacular ending. It is Huey who takes in runaway wife Rebecca and calls in his best friend, retired attorney Abigail Thurmond, to help Rebecca dissolve her marriage and get custody of her two children. Abigail is quite a creation herself, a middle-aged woman battling depression and shouldering huge amounts of guilt over the deaths of both her son and her husband. How Huey and Abigail find a purpose in life in helping Rebecca, how magnificently-drawn supporting characters like Charlene, the ultimate Redneck Woman, move the story along, and how life on Pawley's Island changes for the better, make this a most entertaining book. Thank you, Dot Frank. You've done it again!
16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Divine Miss Dottie Strikes Again!,
By Wendy Kaplan (Houston) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Pawleys Island: A Lowcountry tale (Lowcountry Tales) (Hardcover)
Dotttie Benton Frank's Lowcountry Tales are so much fun to read, so perfectly charming, that I snapped this new one up the minute it was available. I was not disappointed.
This fifth entry in Frank's wonderful Lowcountry series takes place on South Carolina's barrier island, Pawleys Island (I have learned so much about South Carolina's low country since reading these books and I want to visit so much!). Here we find the quirky, one-of-a-kind Huey Valentine, owner of an art gallery, and a throwback to the fine gentlemen of the Old South--with a very modern twist (I'll let readers find out for themselves). He lives on an impossibly elegant and beautiful plantation with his grand dame mother, Miss Olivia, and his houseman, Julian. Best friend and former high-powered family law attorney Abigail Thurmond is there too, having retired from her practice in Columbia and come home to her family's shabby but much-loved cottage. Abigail is nursing deep wounds and is in danger of sinking into a depression when newly single mother Rebecca stumbles upon the scene. Immediately, Huey, Abigail and Miss Olivia take this wronged wife under their collective wings...worming the story out of her as only genteel gossips can--and then opening up their homes and hearts to help her. The process of undoing the wrongs Rebecca's vile ex husband has heaped on her bring Abigail back to life, helping her, Rebecca, Rebecca's wronged children and everybody else in the process. As always, the story is told with enough humor to make the reader guffaw, and enough truth and sensitivity to sooth any heart. An absolutey PERFECT summer read; snap it up!
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
AN ESPECIALLY PLEASING LISTEN,
This review is from: Pawleys Island: A Lowcountry Tale (Lowcountry Tales (Brilliance Audio)) (Audio CD)
Author Dorothea Benton Frank reads her fifth Low Country tale with confident charm, carrying listeners to a small South Carolina island. Those who enjoy low-key stories centering on family and friends with a touch of surprising excitement will find much to relish in this story. Abigail Thurmond and Huey Valentine are an idyllic if unique pair. They're the best of friends, enjoying each other and the lazy-hazy days on Pawleys Island. Abigail, a retired attorney, came to he island from Columbia; Huey has lived there for some time with Miss Olivia, his 80-plus year old mother. Their home is he family plantation, and his business is Gallery Valentine, a shop that caters to decorators and all who enter there. Enter Rebecca Simms, a gifted artist whose works Huey is happy to display. However, Rebecca isn't just visiting the Island, she's running from what has been too painful for her to endure. Leave it to Miss Olivia to find out exactly what that might be. Then leave it to Huey and Abigail to help heir new found friend. An especially pleasing listen. - Gail Cooke
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