Quite a Year for Plums: A Novel [Paperback]

Bailey White (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 6, 1999

Anyone who has read the best-selling Mama Makes Up Her Mind or listened to Bailey White's commentaries on NPR knows that she is a storyteller of inimitable wit and charm. Now, in her stunningly accomplished first novel, she introduces us to the peculiar yet lovable people who inhabit a small town in south Georgia. Meet serious, studious Roger, the peanut pathologist and unlikely love object of half the town's women. Meet Roger's ex-mother-in-law, Louise, who teams up with an ardent typographer in an attempt to attract outer-space invaders with specific combinations of letters and numbers. And meet Della, the bird artist who captivates Roger with the sensible but enigmatic notes she leaves on things she throws away at the Dumpster ("This fan works, but makes a clicking sound and will not oscillate").
  
Heartbreakingly tender, often hilarious, Quite a Year for Plums is a delectable treat from a writer who has been called a national treasure.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Bailey White's dry, low-key drawl is a familiar (and welcome) sound to millions of National Public Radio regulars. On the radio, her intimate vignettes of small-town life are loosely held together by their subjects, who are themselves tightly held together by love, family, and idiosyncrasy. This episodic mode suits her just as well as a novelist. In this audio version of Quite a Year for Plums--which, aside from the occasional bit of atmospheric banjo music, features none but the author's voice--even the temporary denizens of her fictional southern Georgia town have their oddities. A bird artist is obsessed by a vanishing breed of chickens. Another character dreams obsessively of typography. The permanent townsfolk include a woman who believes in little spacemen, a pair of bookish retired schoolteachers, and plant pathologist and banjo picker Roger Meadows, whose peers would like nothing better than to see him settle down with the right woman. The author has an eye--and, of course, ear--for the telling detail and the decisive, domestic moment, and listeners will no doubt enjoy her adept storytelling skills. (Running time: five and one-half hours, four cassettes) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

National Public Radio essayist White's raspy voice is so distinctive that no one else could narrate this, her first novel. Rather than tell us about her relatives and neighbors, as she does in her radio stories, White introduces us to a group of people who could well be her kin. In a series of vignettes, we meet Roger, plant pathologist and peanut virologist, whose well-being is the subject of much concern on the part of retired schoolteachers Hilma and Meade. Roger may be falling in love with newcomer Della, an artist who specializes in painting birds, whom he meets because of the explanatory notes she affixes to items she consigns to the town dump ("This fan works, but it makes a clicking sound and will not oscillate."). People in this community treat one another to strong opinions and with loving respect. Outsiders may consider them eccentric, but in their view they are getting through life as they should. The author's humor is gentle, and the listener will smile often during this recording. Recommended for public libraries.ANann Blaine Hilyard, Lake Villa Dist. Lib.,
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 220 pages
• Publisher: Vintage; 1st Vintage Books Ed edition (April 6, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679764925
• ISBN-13: 978-0679764922
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.6 x 8.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (71 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #430,183 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What a charming little book, May 2, 2000

By 

Roz Levine - See all my reviews

This review is from: Quite a Year for Plums: A novel (Hardcover)

Bailey White writes a very small, understated story that takes place in a little south Georgia town. The joy of reading this book is spending time with a very unusual cast of characters...a peanut disease specialist, wildlife artist, collector of electric fans, to name just a few. While reading, you get to watch, unobserved, the comings and goings of these quirky people, as they go about the business of their lives. This is a beautifully written book. It's funny and witty, especially the dialogue. How wonderful to spend time with these people. Ms White doesn't disappoint.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, March 26, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Quite a Year for Plums: A novel (Hardcover)

Reading Quite a Year for Plums is like walking among the residents of a small town, becoming part of their lives and they part of yours, without ever being seen. Bailey White has an uncanny knack for creating characters that come alive. When I finished reading Quite a Year for Plums I was left with the same empty feeling in the pit of my stomach that I had the day I moved from my childhood home in rural Virginia.

Like moving to a new locale, it takes a while to get to know each of the characters. My only criticism of the novel is that during the first few chapters I often found the need to refer to the list of characters. When I purchased the book, I believed that a cast list for a relatively short novel was presumptuous. I later learned that it was a necessity.

I highly recommend Quite a Year for Plums, as well as Mama Makes Up her Mind and Sleeping at the Starlite Motel.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Charmer, December 18, 2004

By 

Miss Lively "catering to nobody special" (Metro Atlanta) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Quite a Year for Plums (Audio Cassette)

I loved this book from start to finish. Life isn't about plot, it's about the little events that shape your life each day. Sometimes you can only see the plot when you get to the end and look backwards, and I think that's the style captured so gracefully here. It's a book with no heroes, no villans, just people with fragile human hearts. The humor is very dry, you will miss it if you aren't paying attention. But the effortless storytelling is very engaging.
If you want something to HAPPEN, if you want some grand GESTURE, and if you have to have everything about life EXPLAINED to you before it makes sense, pass on this book. If you like sitting on the porch with a good friend and listening to the events of their day over a glass of iced tea, then this book will suit you. It's about being in the company of quality people, and knowing that whatever they say will be worth the time to listen.