Customer Reviews

The Same Sweet Girls

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I wasn't very impressed with Cassandra King's first book, THE SUNDAY WIFE, and I expressed that opinion here. But for some reason THE SAME SWEET GIRLS appealed to me so I thought I'd give it a try. I'm glad I did. I love southern fiction and wasn't disappointed this time. The relationships between these six women are complex and unpredictable and I liked that. They are all very different as individuals and different in terms of what they're doing with their lives. This is no "Desperate Housewives" - it's better (and I like Desperate Housewives for the most part).

Being a fan of Michael Lee West (Crazy Ladies) and Rebecca West (Divine Secrets of the Yaya Sisterhood) I can't say that Cassandra King is quite there yet, but nearly so. I'm already looking forward to her next novel and am planning to go back and read her 2nd one that I skipped.

Try it - not too sweet and you might just like it!

The word "girls" is often used as an euphemism, and it is again in Cassandra King's touching second novel. The girls are six women who have been friends since college. To celebrate this bond they meet twice a year to fill each other in on what has gone on in their lives and enjoy each others' company. This story is told by three of the women whose voices are adroitly captured by actress Patricia Kalember. A veteran of stage, screen and television, Ms. Kalember inhabits the personas of a rambunctious, fun loving gal, a rather proper governor's wife, and an avant garde artist. She does all of this with grace and charm.

Ms. King is an author of considerable talent as she has the ability to both move and amuse with a turn of her pen. Many will remember with pleasure "The Sunday Wife," in which it was discovered that she had the ability to evoke Southern scenes as skillfully as her husband, author Pat Conroy.

The girls in Ms. King's latest novel are now reaching 50 and coming to terms with many of the decisions they have made in life. The first lady of Alabama, Julia Stovall, has joined her husband at the pinnacle of their state's political life, yet she has obligations that either bore or weary her and her husband's bodyguard may be irresistible.

Lanier Sanders is separated from her husband. Evidently, temptation was too difficult to resist. And, Corrine Cooper, while she has attained success as an artist is plagued by depression and an ex-husband who seeks to keep her from her son.

While these problems are challenging, they become almost inconsequential when one of the group faces what for all of us would be the most difficult crisis of all. How they band together at such a time is warm reminder of the value of true friendship.

- Gail Cooke

This is my new favorite book. I really enjoyed reading the point of view of several characters and really " got to know them" over the course of the book. I passed it along to others who felt the same. If you are interested in true female relationships, this book will touch your heart AND your funny bone. Excellent!

I marvel at women I know who still are friends with girls they knew in college, high school, junior high and even grade school. Many still have "girlfriend getaway weekends" with these pals where they do regular catchups on each other's lives. Others share weekly or monthly phone chats or emails. They have celebrated each other's weddings and children together, and yes, often shared many tears.

While I have lots of girlfriends, I do not have a posse of girls who I have traveled through life with. Thus, when a book like Cassandra King's THE SAME SWEET GIRLS comes along, I read it as a voyeur trying to get a handle on why these relationships thrive and what nourishes them over the years. The jacket of the book told me that King belongs to a real life Same Sweet Girls group, which reunites every year. Reading this book I know she is writing from the experience of being a lifelong girlfriend not just in name, but from the heart.

While I have never been a girlfriend like this, King has created characters who I related to, and enjoyed, and she crafted a story that I was eager to get back to each time I was called away.

There are six "same sweet girls" --- Corinne, Julia, Lanier, Astor, Byrd and Rosanelle. We quickly learn that Rosanelle is not one of the original six, but rather she has "replaced" Dixie Lee who died in a tragic accident. Readers are told that these remaining women felt that being five was not as complete as being six and the loss would be too huge unless they "filled in the gap" with someone else.

The women are paired like they were as roommates and certain bonds within the groups are tighter than others, much as you see when any group of women gathers. They meet twice a year for a reunion where they celebrate their traditions of electing a queen complete with a hokey ceremony and costumes. Sure it's corny, but you can visualize them taking part in it.

As the book begins the SSG are 48 years old, have been friends for 30 years since the day they all started college at a women's Methodist school, and are looking upon their upcoming "big birthday" at 50 with nostalgia and a sense of what has been done --- and a longing for what is missing. Each of these women has something to complete or correct, as the book opens. How they will do that is how the story takes its shape.

Narration comes from Corinne, Julia and Lanier, and they relate the stories of Astor, Byrd and Rosanelle. These three voices at the beginning are not distinctive enough for me, but as the story fleshes out they each do adapt separate styles and tones that work and allow the reader to hear them more clearly.

Corrine is a well-respected and well-known gourd artist. As an aside, creating this character to not just be an artist, but rather one with a specific talent, King gives readers background on this art and why it is special, which lends another dimension to the book. Julia is the first lady of Alabama who is trapped in a world of datebooks, schedules and responsibilities. Lanier is a nurse, who is living apart from her husband, and is trying to figure the direction her life will take.

One of the characters will go through a life crisis that "the girls" cannot solve --- even if they all band together. From this moment of reality each of the SSG will look at her own life and face what needs to be done. It's like this moment has served them all as a call to pay attention to all that matters to them. What they find more than makes up for what they have lost in previous years and also redefines and strengthens their friendship.

King writes great Southern women. She nails the voice, the attitude and the endless small nuances that make one sure that you are listening to Southern women instead of a woman from the North. There is a "right" way to do everything, and even when these Sweet Girls do not conform, they know they are breaking the rules that have been passed down by Mama and Grandmammy. This is one of my favorite lines from Corinne --- "The illusion of sweetness, that's all that counts. We don't have to be sincerely sweet, but by God we have to be good at faking it. Southern girls will stab you in the back, same as anyone else, but we'll give you a sugary smile while doing it."

I really enjoyed King's previous book, THE SUNDAY WIFE. In THE SAME SWEET GIRLS I feel she takes her writing to a new level. And now I really look forward to seeing her next book.

--- Reviewed by Carol Fitzgerald

If you love literature that examines and appreciates the value of female relationships, then you'll enjoy this book. Period.

No, it's not the Ya Ya Sisters. But it's a witty and funny story that will make you want to pick up the phone and call your best friends just to remind them how much they mean to you.

I liked it so much that I sent a link to the except to my girlfriends from childhood. I'm not sure that they read it - but I felt like I was sharing something special with them, nonetheless!

I loved this book almost as much as "The Sunday Wife" I hated to put it down.It was so real as each of the women were so different but so loyal to their little circle no matter what.I think Cassandra King is delightful.

I was so glad I picked up this book. personally i liked this book better than the ya ya sisterhood. To me it seemed like it had a little bit more to hang on to. I thought the characters were well developed and I couldn't put it down, always wondering what would come next. this is a definitely a have to read.

I just had to purchase this book! I grew up as one of five very close southern girls. Our little group formed in elementary school and we still are very close and we're all 33 now!
This book makes you look forward to growing old with close friends.
I really appreciated the way the author kept writing from the views of each of the women and honestly loved each character, save one, but that's self explanatory.
You MUST read this book if:
1.You're a southern woman who has a close group of friends that
you've grown up with or plan on growing older with
2.Ever relied on your friends for major life problems
3.You're wishin' you had such a girly girl group!
Do get this book and enjoy it!

Normally, I would be saying that a book like this, with a tried and true and much-overdone plot, is not worth reading. This time, it's quite the opposite.

All of us who like the genre have read our share (way too many, probably) of "older women who have been friends for umpty-million years and still care for each other" books...the most famous, of course, being the Ya-Ya's. And while there is nothing really different or earth-shaking about THIS one; again, Southern women of vastly different temperaments, again, looks at their pasts and present-day lives--there is something about Same Sweet Girls that won't let go.

The characters: Julia, the present First Lady of Alabama; Corinne, the hippy-dippy often-suicidal artist; Astor, the too-pretty-for-words-and-knows-it flirt; Byrd, the dear, religious housewife and mother; and clueless Rosanelle (the original Same Sweet Girl, a very funny story) make a whole that allows the reader to know them, understand them and most importantly, care about them.

The end of this book had me in tears, and that is very rare. Highly recommended for a good, strong story about women that does not insult our intelligence.

I love books about the bonds between women. It seems every story strikes a chord in me in regards to my own friendships. It's so with The Same Sweet Girls. The stories of six women who have been friends since college are all touching, yet earthy. These women make stupid mistakes, fight, ruin relationships but they still manage to maintain their friendships. King has a talented hand for storytelling. I hung on to these characters for a long time after the last page was turned.