by Elizabeth Stuckey-French
Libby eBook 23 chapters plus acknowledgements
Published: 2011
Genre: realistic fiction
I'm not sure how this book caught my attention, but I could not stop reading it even when I didn't like where it was going.
Part of the blurb (which I'm just reading now) says, "Told from the varied perspectives of an incredible cast of endearing oddball characters and written with the flair of a native Floridian, this dark comedy does not disappoint."
Marylou Ahearn is 77 years old and determined to exact revenge on Doctor Wilson Spriggs. "In 1953, he gave her a radioactive cocktail without her consent as part of a secret government study . . . "
I can understand the depth of her anger. She watched her daughter die, her marriage break up, and eventually received money for what was done to her while she was pregnant. But revenge . . . doesn't just destroy the person you're trying to wreak it upon. Marylou becomes "Nance" as she relocates to Tallahassee, Florida, to take Wilson Spriggs' life. When she realizes that his dementia has taken away his ability to truly understand the damage he has caused her, she decides to destroy the lives of his children and grandchildren.
Chapter 4 (Ava): "She just didn't like her own kind. She could understand why typical people avoided people with Asperger's. They were obnoxious know-it-alls."
Ava is the oldest daughter in the family. She resents being made to go to Asperger's Group, but her mother Caroline is insistent. Caroline is Dr. Spriggs' unhappy adult daughter who tries to live vicariously through the beautiful Ava.
Chapter 4 (Ava): "Ava knew then that Nance was no Miss Clavel from the Madeline books. Nance, unlike Miss Clavel, didn't care about something being not right."
This is where I started to hate the book (but also kept reading . . . sigh). Nance convinces Ava to go ahead and pose nude for the photographer who is shooting her for a possible modeling job. I wish Ava had stuck to her guns and refused! I was horrified that Nance would do such a despicable thing.
Chapter 5 (Otis): "In the book was a detailed diagram of a breeder reactor. Once he saw that drawing, almost a blueprint, he was hooked. Otis had never doubted that he had the persistence and focus and intelligence to make a reactor. Asperger's was good for something."
I'm curious about the author's connection to people with Asperger's, but not curious enough to do any digging. I wonder about Caroline's intense focus on Ava, but not on her son Otis, in regard to their neurodiversity and their futures. Otis' goal also reminded me of The Radioactive Boy Scout (and the author mentions this book at the end!).
Chapter 6 (Suzi): ". . . like one you'd fine (sic) in a fancy hotel . . . "
Ugh. Typos. I'm a bit surprised I highlighted this, but I definitely notice and re-read sentences like this several times. "Fine. Fine? Shouldn't it be find?" How ironic that I sometimes re-read my own blog entries and notice silly errors! But I'm not paid to publish, am I? And I'm often in a hurry to just dump my thoughts and move on to something else. Excuses, excuses, excuses . . .
Chapter 8 (Vic): "But Caroline never hesitated to throw those A-words out like firecrackers. Although she wouldn't admit it, she enjoyed the disturbance those words caused. If asked why she brought it up with people, she would say that she was only making people aware so they'd be more sympathetic to Ava and Otis, cut them some slack, realize that they weren't just weird but weird for a reason."
Vic wasn't my favorite character, lost as he was in his own fantasy world (where he had imaginary affairs and hurricanes tore through Florida). But I like his observation about his wife's obsession with the two older children and their place on the spectrum. The rest of his observation about all people being weird in different ways is something I can agree with!
Chapter 8 (Vic): " . . . he didn't want to add to the damage that had already been done by the everyday wear and tear of life with three kids, two of them with 'disabilities,' and an old man with dementia."
I can agree with Vic here. The "wear and tear" of life can definitely impact our marriages, personal well-being, etc. I didn't like his flagrant flirting with Gigi, though, even though he didn't actually have sex with her.
Chapter 9 (Caroline): "She despised July Fourth and all the forced gaiety around it, gaiety that required one to endure the heat, eat bad food, and subject oneself to fiery things that banged and popped and had been known to 'take out an eye' or 'blow off a finger.' She felt guilty about hating Independence Day, so she usually went overboard in the opposite direction - baking cupcakes with red, white, and blue icing; organizing a cookout buying tons of sparklers and snakes; forcing gaiety on everyone else."
I don't understand people like this. "Forced" gaiety? If you don't like a holiday, that's okay. I eat yummy food at picnics and barbecues, 4th of July or no! Guilt . . . I can understand that.
Chapter 10 (Ava): "And what would Elvis think of this church? He'd probably like it, being kind of a Christian and a showy guy, but she didn't like it. It reminded her of a poor man's version of one of Elvis's Vegas shows. There was too much going on at once with the screens and music and live entertainment and headline news, everything way too loud. It was like they were trying to duplicate what it was like in her own house. Why would she want to go to church for more competing noise? What happened to church being quiet? Did everything have to be like a video arcade?"
Ouch. All the Genesis Church scenes were so interesting. I think of the phrase "style over substance" in this scene. Then later, the fact that the youth pastor was a sex addict just made me so incredibly sad. If you're serving the Lord, you need to avoid sin, not seek it out in your position of authority. Good on Ava for refusing him and avoiding that church.
Chapter 11 (Otis): "In her bedroom they rifled through her old lady underwear and jewelry. Rusty helped herself to a pair of rhinestone clip earrings."
This was another scene I hated. I get that Rusty (the youth pastor's daughter) was a juvenile delinquent. I sort of understand why she was targeting Nance / Marylou with her pranks. I actually liked that Rusty befriended Otis in a manner of speaking! But when they go into Nance's house, they crossed a line. Their violation of her personal space and stealing from her is beyond a prank.
Chapter 12 (Suzi): "She liked going to Genesis, she'd accepted Christ as her personal savior and planned to start read the Bible, very soon."
Suzi was the most likeable character, but she was playing a role in her family. "The normal one." Even when she offered herself to the youth pastor - "Buff" - she said she was doing it to save Ava, but she secretly wanted more attention on herself. So sick.
Chapter 13 (Marylou): "She wanted to run over her options in her head once again, but she'd recently had trouble thinking clearly. Maybe it was the torpid subtropical heat here. It was hard to focus."
Marylou / Nance had to figure out what her new plan was once she decided not to murder Wilson Spriggs and she actually started to care about other family members. Florida heat making people not think clearly . . . that's a well-worn meme.
Chapter 13 (Marylou): "She liked Suzi. Plain and simple. In fact, she liked her so much that she wished she could adopt her. Who knew why you liked one person more than others?"
That question fascinates me. Sometimes I meet someone and just feel such a strong connection so quickly. It often doesn't make sense. I don't try to "play favorites."
Chapter 13 (Marylou): "She'd hoped that Suzi would embrace fundamentalist Christianity and become a zealot, but she was wrong there, too. She'd underestimated Suzi's ability to fold religion smoothly into her already well-rounded life like eggs into a batter."
This sentence is part of what kept me reading. Stuckey-French is a talented author and she uses language effectively.
Chapter 13 (Marylou): "Living well is the best revenge, he always reminded her."
Nance's husband Teddy had tried so hard to help her let go of her pain.
"That's what he'd said when she expressed to him her anger at her own parents, telling him how they'd abandoned her at her grandmother's house in Little Rock so they could go off gallivanting in Hollywood. Teddy, while not making light of her anger, had encouraged her to forgive them, and after a time she had. But forgive Helen's death? Never."
Nance had a lot of pain and a lot of anger in her. But her decision to exact revenge was incredibly destructive. I wish she'd seen a counselor instead!
Chapter 13 (Marylou): " . . . the same lady librarians working behind the counter, probably they were only in their forties but they looked, to Marylou, to be 140."
This made me laugh. Librarians as timeless, ancient old ladies. Yep, that's me.
Chapter 13 (Marylou): "Mostly she felt terrible for Suzi, because she knew, from her own experience with a nasty uncle, that this event would affect her the rest of her life. This sort of thing happened to a lot of girls, but that fact didn't lessen the pain of it, not one iota."
Ugh. I'm glad that at least Suzi only gave Buff a blowjob instead of having sex with him, but ick. An older married man with a sex addiction working in a church . . . and the consequence of revelations about him is to have a prayer service with the victims there to forgive him? Massive yuk!
Chapter 16 (Ava): "Why did the good and the bad have to come together? It seemed, often, that they did."
Liking Travis and realizing that she wanted to study history were counterbalanced with what had happened to Suzi and what Ava had to tell her family about (her nude photos). Plus a hurricane heading their way. . .
Chapter 18 (Suzi): "'By trying to get revenge, I hurt lots of people. People I care about.' She turned and smiled a suck-up smile at Suzi, but Suzi just made a disgusted face."
Good on Suzi for not instantly giving Marylou what she wanted. That was NOT a sincere apology!
Chapter 23 (Marylou): ". . . in the lobby while the Peabody's famous ducks waddled out of the fountain and over to the elevator to ride up to their penthouse coop . . . "
I've read about those ducks before! Fun. The ending was a bit too neat for me (and I usually like happy endings!) Everyone in Memphis and a surprise wedding announcement. And who tipped off the EPA? This was not what I expected. Weird book, but intriguing.
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