Gods in Alabama

The last book I read, The Bitch Posse was so darned good, as noted below. Then I got to read Joshilyn Jackson's Gods in Alabama. How often is it that even the acknowledgements make you laugh out loud in public? I picked up the book on the way to meet a friend for lunch downtown and sat outside reading and waiting. She was probably annoyed because throughout lunch I couldn't stop from opening up and reading bits out loud to her, even though I'd only gotten 5 pages into it while waiting. If she wasn't such a good friend, I would have been irked at her timeliness, in fact, because I would rather have kept reading than have lunch with anyone but a very good friend!

This book has everything going for it: humor, mystery, great characters, and writing that just flows. Arlene left Alabama 9 years ago after promising to give up fornication (as she politely puts it during prayers), to never tell a lie, and to never go back to the town she grew up in as long as a certain body was allowed to remain hidden. When she becomes convinced that the deal is off, she breaks all three of her promises, returning home with her boyfriend, fornicating on the way, and lying to her family that they're already married. Between flashbacks and the current scenes, you come to know the loving, albeit imperfect, family she left behind and the far-from-perfect gods in Alabama.

Now I'm finished Gods in Alabama and I'm at that point where I just know nothing can top these last two books. I hated each of them ending. While I was eager to know what happened, I wasn't ready to leave the characters behind. So now I'm stuck. I can't pick up another fiction book because the odds of finding a third as good as these last two are just astronomical. So I have to face disappointment, or at least risk it, in order to read another novel.

I've decided to solve that dilemna for now by going to nonfiction. I'm reading MFK Fisher's journals and letters in Stay Me, oh Comfort Me and they are delightful so far.

The Bitch Posse

I picked up The Bitch Posse by Martha O'Connor because it's written by a woman on one of my writing lists. But I read it nearly non-stop, complaining loudly when real-life intruded on my reading time, because it grabs you and pulls you in. The writing is fantastic. The story is one that will keep grabbing you days after you've finished the book, when one of the characters pops into your head and you find yourself thinking about her as if she was someone you knew, someone you might want to shake now and then and say "think about what you're doing!" Then you realize that not only are you having an imaginary conversation, you're having an imaginary conversation with a character from a book!

Three girls are spiraling out of control, holding on to their friendship above all else, surviving because of their friendship yet led down a dark path because of it at the same time, and eventually fleeing from each other in various ways. Yet, the impact of events from years ago continues to haunt them each in different ways and each are spiraling out of control again.

The language is harsh, but real. People do say f*ck in real life. The situations are bleak at times. The parents are not Ozzie and Harriet by any means--even Homer and Marge look good by comparison. But yet, it's not a dark book somehow. Martha O'Connor has written a gripping story that will interfere with your life because you will ignore things like hungry children to keep reading.