This Jackson Mississippi author of The Help is back with a very new massive tome set in Oxford Miss. in the deepest part of the Depression i.e. 1933. Extreme poverty, racism, misogyny, religious fanaticism and hypocrisy, mental anguish, alcoholism, family separation, eugenics, unemployment -this novel has all of that and much more.
The author switches seamlessly from writing from the viewpoint of an adult to the limited world view of a bright but charming persecuted and simple11 year old uneducated orphan, apparently, abandoned by her single mother, and confined to a cruel religious nut’s orphanage.
The plot is very complex with a host of characters but they are generally not hard to keep straight.There are many suprise twists almost all unpredictable but realistic. The title comes from a secret temporary brothel run by desperate women out of the house of a temporarily absent high society lady, unbeknownst to her.
Ole Miss University, the alma mater for my daughter’s master degree figures prominently, so she may wish to comment, but I really, really enjoyed this book and learned a lot about the deeply flawed past culture of the old South.
A long read but worth every minute.
5/5
Thanks, Carolyn.
The Passionate Reader 