It is a very sweet book, published in 1965, and a Newbery Honor Book. I had it in my pile of books to read before I moved, but it ended up being the “on the road book”. Every night in the hotel, my husband would gently remove it from my hands after I’d fallen asleep. Usually I’d read about two pages. It had nothing to do with the quality of the book though. I really liked it. One thing I enjoyed was how it changed point of view all the time, but was written in third person. Quite unusual for a book nowadays. Just try it and see how far your critique group will let you go with it…probably not far. It was, I guess, the style then and is not so much in style now.Anyway, back to Love, cajun style (caps are the author’s not mine…or lack of caps, I should say). This was a really great book. I have to admit, at the beginning, it seemed a bit…ummm…well, the back story seemed a bit forced, like the author was just trying to get it out. There was at least one scene where a character said, “Remember when…” and then they relived a memory that they just wouldn’t really do and you knew it was for the reader’s sake. And then on page four, the best friend was introduced…yep…red hair! However, I kept going and the forced feeling subsided pretty quickly.
The book has a slow, hot, sultry rhythm to it that just emotes the setting (small town, Louisiana). It did occur to me more than once that the author might’ve thrown in a y’all or something, but she chose to spell it all out as written. Characters said things like “you all” and in my imagination, I pronounce them y’all. I am currently writing books set in the south and so I understand the pitfalls of trying to write in a dialect. I have chosen to go for the occasional y’all or other bit of slang to get it across. She did some of that with the language, but nothing with the spelling. Still, it didn’t lack in any way. It was just a lovely, lovely book and if you know any southerners, or have lived in the south, you will appreciate its pacing to no end. It’s southern through and through. I highly recommend it
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