Customer Reviews

She Flew the Coop: A Novel Concerning Life, Death, Sex and Recipes in Limoges, Louisiana

5 star:		(43)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book centered on the womenfolk of 1952 Limoges, Louisiana, will charm the tar out of you while making you think. There is the doomed Olive Nepper, daughter of Henry and Vangie, ignobly impregnated by the ersatz Baptist preacher. And there is the blowsy DeeDee Robichaux, grasping wife of the paralyzed Renny and mother of the utterly charming and guileless Billie. We meet Edith Galliard, Vangie Nepper's widowed sister-in-law who is a transplanted New York artist, and their busybody neighbor Harriet. Little Fannie epitomizes innocence and will break your heart. Sophie Donnell works as a maid for many of the white ladies in town, most of whom love and respect her and pray nightly for the death or maiming of her brutish husband, Burr.

When Vangie learns of Henry's sordid affair with DeeDee Robichaux, she moves out to the cotton plantation she inherited but which Henry never allowed her to spend a penny of her inherited money on. It is a joy to watch Vangie reborn at the age of 40, taking a stand for the first time in her life, learning to drive, modernizing her appearance, siccing her dog on Henry, and doing what has to be done all by herself. This book portrays a microcosm of small-town life with all its banality, sense of community, pettiness, goodness, gossip, and cohesiveness. It is as well a tender commentary on new love, old loves, and illicit love. There is plenty of poetic justice to go around as each woman flies her own unique coop.

The evolutions of Vangie and Sophie were in my opinion the most powerful. Each of the pivotal characters reaches deep within herself in time of crisis to find her strength and courage. The feminist theme is subtle in that these women don't burn their bras and swear off men; rather, they learn to solve their own problems with a little help from God and their friends. This novel is rich and funny and irreverent, to say nothing of chock-full of comfort food recipes. I was completely captivated and didn't come up for air 'til I finished it.

Michael Lee West has written a wonderfully insightful book about life in sleepy Limoges, Louisiana. The story takes place in 1952 and opens with the attempted suicide of a pregnant local teenager. It then moves forward from the viewpoint of eight very colorful citizens and you learn all about Limoges town life, secrets and idiosyncrasies. Each narrator's story line moves the plot forward from a different direction and then Ms West ties it all together, very satisfyingly, at the end. The writing is terrific, witty and irreverent. The scenes and settings, vivid. And both really capture the tone of the deep south. And as an added bonus...recipes. For what would the south be without great cooking. All in all a terrific book, chock full of emotions, to read more than once and share with others.

This is only the second book I have read by Ms. West (first being American Pie) and I was totally enthralled. It took me a few chapters to get the ball rolling, but after that I couldn't stop reading. I loved every single second I spent in Limoges, Louisiana with Vangie, Henry, DeeDee, Harriet and the others. Some of the storylines were quite sensitive (i.e. Reverend Kirby) but I really didn't mind, it only made the book seem more real. I have her other two books, Crazy Ladies and Consuming Passions, and I can't wait to start on them. Thanks and kudos to Michael Lee West!

I am a southern woman who now lives in the Pacific Northwest, and reading this book was like a visit back to my hometown (Hattiesburg, Mississippi). I fell in love with this book and I want to recommend it to anyone who enjoys gorgeous, entertaining fiction. It is very much a companion book to Rebecca Wells' fabulous novel, DIVINE SECRETS OF THE YA-YA SISTERHOOD, and also to the works of Ellen Gilchrist (THE AGE OF MIRACLES, LIGHT CAN BE BOTH WAVE AND PARTICLE, etc). The writing of these authors is different and the plots and characters are unique; however they are mind altering if read back-to-back. These authors write books that are both delicious and different, yet of a similar genre.

All of these novels are set in the Deep South, have a bevy of outrageous, hilarious heroines, lush, vivid settings, and humor that will make you laugh outloud.

She Flew the Coop is the first book I have read written by Michael Lee West and I enjoyed it so much that I'm planning on reading American Pie. The story was able to captivate me even though I really didn't like most of the characters in this book. My favorite character was a little girl named Billie, who had a terrible domestic life but seemed to overcome this obstacle and represented hope for the citizens of this town.

Limoges Louisiana is a town where gossip rules and the wholesome life is anything but wholesome. Adultery, wife beating and even the town's minister is raping young girls are some of the problems this town faces but its the gossip that I consider its doom. There is one part where the author compares gossip to a disease spreading that I thought was brilliant.

This book was captivating and I enjoyed reading this one even though I couldn't like more than two or three character, but the story is what we will keep you interested. The recipes sounded good and I loved the way the author inserted them into the book as if they were part of the story. I would recommend reading She Flew The Coop.

Although this book takes place in small town Limoges, Louisiana the characters could be from any location. Ms West takes you inside the the heads of several of the locals of Limoges. I found the book hard to put down; and during the course of the day when I wasn't reading it I wondered what was going to happen to Olive the girl in a coma pregnant by the local Baptist preacher, Harriet the town gossip, DeeDee the oversexed counter girl at the drugstore and her sweet child Billie, Sophie the maid and her abusive husband Burr and of course Vangie--Olive's mother, and Henry Olive's daddy the druggist. Thanks Ms West for providing me with some great entertainment---I loved Limoges!

We read this book in July of 2002 and our average rating rounded out to 4 stars.

This book is set in the steamy southern town of Limoges Louisiana where gossip rules, everyone knows your business sometimes even before you do. Most of us didn't like the people of this town there were very few that were likable, with the exception of one little girl Billie.

Most of us thought the this was a good book and here are some random comments from our members, "Just like a good Soap Opera", "Captivating", and "an amazing jewel of Southern fiction"

This book has all the things found in a small southern town, sex, spousal abuse, gossip, town tramp etc. The graphic sex scene was a bit much for me, but the story overall was great. I grew up in the area of the fictional town of Limoges & found myself wishing it were a real town. If you like southern lit. this one is a winner.

I was enthralled and captivated my the eccentric characters in Michael Lee West's book. I found myself relating to all of the characters in the book. By choosing to tell the story from more than one characters point of view it gave the book much more depth and provided the reader more incite into the events of the book. West is able to create stories that really touch you yet bring out life's funny moments as well tragedies. I also read Crazy Ladies and found this book to be even better. I cann't wait for her next book. She is definitely one of my favorite authors!

This is the second Michael Lee West novel I have read this week. I liked "Crazy Ladies" a lot, but this volume, despite its graphic scenes of sex and violence is an artful piece of writing. There is a lot of talent in West's prose, as her characters seem larger than life, though real. And, again, this is a novel about strong women and their men, of whom there are MANY feet of clay.

The Nepper family, with Vangie, Henry, and Olive, are the core of the book. Vangie is a poignant woman whose naivete shields her from seeing the truth about her daughter and her husband, but who finally flies the coop and demonstrates her strength when she has had enough. It is Vangie who keeps the home fires burning, and her flower gardens growing, who assumes her pharmacist husband is the faithful, truthful man she believes she married. Together Vangie and Henry face the suicidal poisoning of their only child. Apart, when Henry has violated all the principles of his wedding vows by falling in total lust with DeeDee Robichaux, each meets his own destiny.

The town's solidarity around the lone Baptist church sets up the downfall of the hypocritical church leader, the young, and dashing bachelor preacher, Reverend T. C. Kirby, whose personal secrets lurk in the background, as he seduces women of all ages to suit his own devilish whims.

The right and wrong social sides of town are made clear, with the tragic Robichaux family living among the outcasts of Hayes Street, and the Neppers, Galliards, Hoopers, and LeGettes residing as neighbors on Cypress Street across from the oxbow of water known as Lake Limoges. In the fictional Limoges, all streets are either named for U. S. Presidents or for flowers and trees.

Linking all the upper and lower class families together are the children, especially red-haired Billie Robichaux, the enterprising daughter of DeeDee and her miserable Korean War veteran Reney, now a wheel-chair bound paraplegic. DeeDee's Aunt Butter is their landlord. Butter, owner of a town eatery, provides a home for the ingrates that are DeeDee and Reney. She sacrifices her home's sanctity for the drunken destruction of Reney who feeds off the hatred he has for DeeDee, his whoring wife. Butter is the refuge that Billie deserves, however. And Billie, in her efforts to survive her poverty and the dysfunction of her parents, finds ways to work for the well-off ladies of Cypress street.

Knitting the families of Cypress together is Sophie Donnell, the black maid to Vangie Nepper, Waldean LeGette, Harriet Hooper, and Edith Galliard. Sophie is the ultimate survivor, as she is the brutally abused wife of Burr, a wife-beater any reader will love to hate. As a day maid and cook, Sophie, knows the business of all the households, and they in turn wonder why she continues to take Burr's abuse, even sheltering her whenever they can. She is one of the noble characters of the novel.

Israel, the black mortician's helper at Beaulieu's is another noble character. As an old bachelor, he does his work taking in the dead to prepare for burial, and lives a solitary life of independent respectability.

There is rich humor in this book, some of it laugh out loud in nature, a great comic relief to the rougher scenes. An especially endearing comic narrative comes from the owner of the town's funeral home, Cab Beaulieu, as he explains his sexual history. Even more delightful is his encounter with Vangie's sister-in-law, and his neighbor, the widowed older woman, Edith Galliard. His entanglement with this widow is one he cannot escape.

Each part of this novel is laced with the real heart of life in northeastern Louisiana in 1952, the recipes that feed the very soul of the populace. Those recipes reveal the joy of food, the importance of its sustenance in a story that is rich and calorie laden.

Third person chapters are interspersed with first person narratives of the many characters. In these narratives, West executes exceptional skill. The voice and dialect of each person according to their race, class, age, is right on the mark.

One feels like they have lived four months of 1952 in Limoges, learning its most human secrets, good and evil. These people of West's fiction are hauntingly real, just like the recipes that they share.