Customer Reviews

Southern Women

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Three generations of Southern Women - matriarch Nonnie, mother Lucille, and daughter Cordy, struggle with their own difficulties while trying to maintain a sense of normalcy for those around them. Set in Savannah, with a side trip to New York City, this is an interesting study of relationships and life in mid-1980s America; pre-9/11 and pre-Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. It's difficult to imagine Savannah having "sleepy, almost empty streets" now.

In any event, most of the story concentrates on Cordy, a young woman whose marriage is in trouble and who looks to her hometown and grandmother, Nonnie, for guidance and support. The problem I had with the construction of the novel was that Nonnie's story, only briefly alluded to here and there, seems much more interesting than Cordy's. Nonnie rose from difficult circumstances, had a passionate marriage and lost a child in the Second World War. These events are only briefly mentioned, while Cordy's angst and efforts to spread her wings are described in great detail. This wasn't uninteresting, but I believe Nonnie's life would have been a more fruitful subject on which to concentrate.

Lucile, Nonnie's daughter and Cordy's mother, is only a small part of the story, and her subplot is a rather silly one. I found her character fairly unlikeable, and would have preferred that someone take a stronger hand with her at some point.

All in all, Southern Women is a good read for it's accurate description of southern life and Savannah locations. Generational sagas have always been a firm favorite of mine, and I'm not sorry I read it. Lois Battle is an excellent writer and I'm looking forward to reading more of her novels. I'm only disappointed that a different generation from the one I was hoping for was explored.

Lois Battle is quietly but steadily moving up the ladder as one of America's great writers. Her stories are well-written; characters are so well-defined the reader is sure to feel as if they've known them since childhood. And her books are about real situations that many of us can relate to. And no, this isn't a book just for women. Although it is ABOUT women, Southern Women is sure to give men a new perspective of the female gender - how they sometimes think and act. Grab a cup of hot apple cider with a cinnamon stick and curl up on the couch. You won't want to put this one down until the very last page.