Month: May 2018

Eudora, a famous writer from Jackson Mississippi has had many biographies and books dedicated to her memory and focused on her life. Many of these biographies hold details of her writing life and her incredible love for books. There has even been a visitors center open in her dedication detailing her life and how she wrote her books. Her house is open to the public, and we easily get a glimpse of her life. However, many biographies do not go in to detail heavily about her personal life and beliefs. Carolyn J. Brown tried her hand at Eudora Welty and the end result was a wonderful depiction of Eudora.

The biography begins with details about Eudora’s home life in Jackson. She brings the topic up with the statement that Eudora had a teacher who when the first snow fell drew out her black cape and caught a snowflake “running up and down the isles showing the flake before it melted”. Eudora had such a small town life, much like most people do in Mississippi. She didn’t get her groceries from a store, instead she grew her own food and killed her own meat for the house. If they needed anything they didn’t have Eudora would have the task of going out to the small country store and buying it as well as one extra dollar for a peice of candy. This small life was so well conveyed and understood to readers.

Many people who have been to the visitors center do not know much about Eudora’s family members. Eudora held her family close, however, most people in her family died at a relatively young age. Her father was the first to pass away after complications. Her brothers both enlisted in the army and died shortly after for other problems not related to the army. Her mother was too weak for her to care for and was later put in a hospital. When she lost her mom she continued in her footsteps addopting her garden outside of the little house in Jackson. This became her way of expressing herself, and she considers herself as more of a creative person not just a writer. The garden still stands outside of the house in Jackson and there are always flowers budding throughout the years. The garden is beautiful, and holds a strong reflection of both Eudora and her mother. It was wonderful for the garden to be mentioned in the biography due to the underlying fact that the garden was important to Eudora’s life.

The book itself was outlined in a way that held the readers attention. It was split up into different chapters that showed different time periods in her life. From her life in Jackson, to her education, to the serious times during war when her brothers were fighting, to her career, to friendships, and to the Eudora house, the chapters all held something special. The book also was scattered with quotes from Eudora herself and some special pictures of her as well as artistic work that was never really paid attention to outside of the biography. In the end there is also an outline of her life in order of the time it happened. This is essentially interesting as well as helpful for people who wish to learn more about Eudora. It was all beautifully arranged and just the way Eudora would want it herself.

SUMMARY

Erin Tierney has been married to her husband, Kevin for years, and for every one of them, he’s been physically and emotionally abusing her. She finally manages to escape him through careful planning. She changes her name to Katie Foreman and flees to the small town of Southport, North Carolina. Her house is shabby, and her waitress job pays little, but she isn’t complaining. Visits to the general store introduce her to Alex, a widowed father of two children. A romance forms between the two of them—but Kevin is searching for Erin.

REVIEW

I have read several Sparks books before, and this one is probably my favorite. It is not particularly stunning in any regard, especially not the romance. It can hardly be called terrible, but it isn’t a classic fairytale or anything. It’s kind of what you expect when you have four/five different plots going on in one book and one of them is romance—not the worst, but you have to squeeze it in with everything else, and in the end, you’d be lucky if it didn’t end up rushed. It’s awkward introductions, then awkward conversations, slowly warming up, and then love. Pretty much what you would expect.

The ending of the novel is actually very suspenseful, as it bounces from one character to another. Knowing Sparks’ tendency for bittersweet endings, it can definitely be concerning. And the ending actually is bittersweet, but it wraps up everything nicely enough. The thing I enjoyed best in the book was the detail and images. They were all wonderfully detailed, and though it does go overboard at points—like this one scene where a character says “let’s sit on this bench,” followed by a full paragraph describing the bench and its origin—I could imagine everything perfectly.

Something that I also praise the book for is its handling of Kevin’s character. Though we are not at all meant to sympathize with him, we are terribly reminded that he’s human. That is, his moments of actual affection for Erin, followed by his need to hurt or kill her, makes him all the scarier. The fact that he’s actually pretty smart also makes him a genuine threat.

There’s a twist in the book that is very divisive for those who have read it. Some think it’s genius and came out of nowhere, others think it was obvious and ruined almost everything. It did not ruin the whole book for me, but I can say that it was certainly unnecessary. It’s a twist for the sake of having a twist; it doesn’t further the plot, and it only has one effect. It also raises a couple of plot holes, but nothing unforgivable. The fact that this subplot is wrapped up last also kind of feels like it was a loose end that had to be tied up.

If you’re looking for a standard boy-meets-girl love story, this one will suit you just fine. It has romance, it has beautiful images, and the emotional tension that you need. I guess the most I can say is that you’d find more than you were looking for, but it may be that you can brush these things away in favor of the good of the story.