Another pickup at the local book exchange; great title (even if I didn't have some sort of long-ago family connection in Sleepy Eye) and I looked forward to seeing how a book written today would handle a teenager of 1975.So... mixed feelings about this. I think it partly fits in a category I've noticed seems to be popular these days, books about quirky, dysfunctional-yet-amusing female-centric families. I'm not opposed to that sort of theme--I'm more interested in how the theme is carried out. In this case, the opening gambit involves wacky mother persuading responsible adult daughter to locate a long-since-sold car in order to return it to its original owner (the daughter's father, supposedly dead, is now revealed to be alive; thus the mother had STOLEN the car rather than inherited it). While this certainly had some comic potential, the conventional narrative style made me suspicious that this was merely a far-fetched attempt to grab reader interest.The book subsequently did hold my interest in an undemanding sort of way; mother and daughter end up spending the summer of 1975 (supposedly on the way to California for the daughter to start college) stuck in a small Colorado town tending the local mortuary. The book is supposed to be a growing-up story about both of them, and interesting friendships and events do occur. Yet while it does grapple with some serious themes, the balance between comedy and seriousness (there is little tragedy) didn't really work for me. In particular, while initially the daughter's religious leanings are handled with a light touch, somewhere in the middle it begins to be clear that she is very devout. I was curious how that would play out. And it seemed to me that while to a large extent we got a believable first-person account of a nice young girl's growth and religious faith, it was not at all clear how we went from a few throwaway references to religion to Amy successfully faith-healing her epileptic hippie-child friend after even the nice minister decided to steer clear of dealings with dirty hippies and their young. By the end of the book, I felt a bit as though I had read a more entertaining version of the moralizing fare that the Moody Bible Institute used to (probably still does) publish.Bottom line: the author has some talent and potential, but limits what she can do by sticking too closely to convention both stylistically and spiritually. Telling this story solely through the adult Amy looking back on the summer of 1975 seriously limits what can be conveyed about the characters and situations, as even though Amy grows, she remains a person of rather limited ideas (which she at least recognizes). I don't seek out fiction about religious themes or people, but I can imagine this novel--differently written, not so high-schoolish--breaking free of its more conventional trappings and being simultaneously darkly hilarious AND a compelling bildungsroman about a girl who takes Christianity very seriously. Now that would be a pretty amazing book. Might not sell to the same women's book-group audience, though. This was such a good book! I read it in two long sittings and didn't want it to end. A sad but hysterically funny story of a young girl, her mother who is not exactly mommy of the year but not exactly mommy dearest, either and a Pontiac. Amy and her mother leave Sleepy Eye, Illinois on a road trip to take Amy to college in California. Amy is terribly carsick and, when she wakes up from some dramamine that mom has given her, they are headed EAST. The Po0ntiac's transmissin gives up the ghost and they are stuck in the small town of Cordial, Colorado. All they need is the new tranny delivered and they can be on their way. Right. Mom has other plans....The summer spent in cordial reminded me so much of growing up in the North Fork Valley of Colorado (where Cordial would be if it existed). I loved the book and, since Mrs. Hill is a local author wil lbe reading all of her others in turn!
What do You think about The Queen Of Sleepy Eye (2008)?
Liked it all right to begin with, but it grew on me as I read. Loved it!
—Amndsamands
This book is well written and has great characters. I loved it!!
—hayhay
Great book when you want something a littel deeper
—sydney
Slow start...but then I couldn't put it down!
—Quark
