Customer Reviews

Plant Life

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Bravo!! This is an extraordinary book. I loved Moon Women so much,that I couldn't wait to read Plant Life. I was not disappointed. This book is full of amazing images and characters that once again demonstrate Duncan's unique understanding of the beauty and strength of rural women, who despites some bad life choices, discover their true purposes and strengths.

This book was so good it inspired me to write my first review. It is an exceptionally well-written perspective of small town southern life. The author develops interesting characters that make you feel as if you are living life through their eyes. She bring you to tears with sadness then buoys you up again with humour and the absurdity found even in bad times. If you are looking for an easy-to-read book that will engross you from the first few pages then you have found it with Plant Life.

While the novel started out pretty formulaic (and to some degree continued that way throughout the book, but hey--some people like their books that way) I liked the fact that it focused on and told the stories of working class southern women. These type stories are really just starting to be published in any sort of critical mass. While she doesn't pack the punch of a Dorothy Allison, Pamela Duncan does spend the time to flesh out the characters and focus on the issues that affect their lives. Anyone who's spent any time on that rung of the socioeconomic ladder will recognize the personality politics, the paycheck to paycheck existence, and complete lack of security or knowledge of what the future will hold.

That being said, did anyone else wonder what the point was to have Hap Luckadoo as a character?! Overall the book is a good foray into southern chick-lit and it's an easy read.You can put it down for a day or two and when you pick it up again you don't have any problems picking right up where you left off.

I loved this book. I became connected to the characters so much that I missed them once the book was finished. I felt as if I had been to this little town and wanted to stay there awhile longer. I'm off to order Duncan's first novel, MOON WOMEN, which I hear is just as good.

A GREAT BOOK ABOUT WOMEN FROM THE SOUTH. WHAT MOST IMPRESSED ME WAS THE DIALECT BETWEEN THESE WOMEN, I FELT THAT I WAS THERE, LISTENING, AND WATCHING, AND SHARING THEIR LIVES. IF YOU LIKED MOON WOMEN, YOU'LL LOVE THIS SECOND NOVEL FROM A MOST TALENTED WRITER. WHEN I TURNED THE LAST PAGE, I FELT THAT I WASN'T READY TO "GIVE UP" MY FRIENDSHIP WITH THIS WONDERFUL GROUP. I JUST HOPE MS. DUNCAN IS HARD AT WORK ON HER THIRD NOVEL. I FOR ONE CAN'T WAIT.

If you want an accurate portrayal of "plant life" then this is it. Having worked in a plant in younger years everything rang true. Pamela Duncan is a wonderful author. Don't pass this one up!

Laurel is far from the stereotypical character in women's lit that looks to take revenge out on mankind for screwing her over or dumping her. However, her indecisiveness and tentative reactions made her less than fully likeable for me. I did appreciate her strength in handling rejection by suitor Joe and found her outburst with her ex-husband's new wife Deedee in the store to be quite realistic (I felt embarrassed for her). Those moments of embarrassment made her seem like a true woman: imperfect.

I found Duncan's secondary character asides to be mostly dull and lacking any information necessary to supplement a vigorous plot. Though well-intentioned, these reminiscences spun the older generation of woman characters do little to help the reader get into the heads of them. The secondary characters, particularly Maxann, were conceived well enough to not need the additional background provided in the memory asides.

Duncan's gentle capture of local dialect proves that her ear is well-honed to the sounds around her. I could hear Maxann drawling, Idalene chastising, and Pansy speaking as if they were in the room with me.

I enjoyed the small details that Duncan obviously planned long and hard. The Lurch-like attendant in the rest home that thinks he still works in a funeral parlor and becomes frightened each time a patient moves is so creative as to have to be a real event in Duncan's life.

Although it seems that Duncan avoided anything too "dirty" or controversial (i.e. sex) to the point of being painfully obvious, it was nice to read a book where I couldn't predict that ending (for instance: the reaction of one character who gets shot in the stomach by her drunken husband). There were a few "broken links" in the story that while made me think "You go girl!" at the time, made my mind race at the end. "Well, what happened?"

Mostly, I enjoyed Plant Life. At times it was tough to wade through all the flashbacks. I would have enjoyed it more 100 pages shorter and perhaps with an epilogue that seemed less a jagged edge: this one was sort of "Thelma & Louise" for my cut-and-dry taste. It puts a period where a comma should be, though you can't help but to smile to wonder the characters' futures.

Plant Life has everything you want in an engaging novel: warmth, humor, quirky characters, a small town you'd like to visit, and some down-home observations about life and love. Thoroughly enjoyable! As an author myself, of NEW PSALMS FOR NEW MOMS: A KEEPSAKE JOURNAL, I especially appreciated the loving and complex bonds between mothers and their children. Plant yourself on the front porch, put your feet up, and head south!