Is it appropriate to say, "this is just a really good book"? The setting is familiar to me, which made reading this book a personal experience. Smith does a great job of creating and describing southerners without insulting or degrading them. The difficult and dramatic dynamic of the Bravo family was heart-wrenching, and I could not often predict the what decisions would be made and where the story would lead. This is a southern book that is different than most because anyone can enjoy it, not just those readers who enjoy southern fiction. I first came in contact with this book at the 2014 FLA conference in Orlando, where Laura Lee Smith was a featured author and spoke about her book. I was impressed by her passion about the book, and especially about the characters. That passion is evident when you read the book because the characters are so well developed, and they reminded me of people I might know. If Smith wrote another book I would read it. I'm trying to figure out what I liked about this Debbie-Downer book. Granted, the writing was excellent, but the Florida cracker characters were flawed to the point of deformity--physically, relationally, and emotionally. The setting was a scab of a town. And the person with the greatest transformation was a secondary character. Somehow, perversely, I liked those roughnecked characters, the dead-end town, and even the moral degenerate who God-only-knows-how pulled his life out of the crapper. 4.5 Stars
What do You think about Palmherzen (2013)?
Really Quirky dysfunctional family saga, but I found it interesting and enjoyable.
—Chieng
Really good first write. The plot and characters held me to the end.
—Combatvet
