Book Review: 'Looking for Me' ... features Red River Gorge
Jul 3, 2013 6:34:53 GMT -5
Greg Stamper and Paul Sheppard like this
Post by Jiggy Gal on Jul 3, 2013 6:34:53 GMT -5
Book Review: 'Looking for Me' finds a strong Southern heroine
July 3, 2013 12:18 am
By Lorinda Hayes
Two weeks ago, a group of 15 women, all of us members of a chick-lit book club, had dinner together to discuss the book we selected the month before. The group consensus was that the book, by a fairly popular women's author, was "average," the characters were underdeveloped, and the ending unsatisfactory. Personally, I liked it.
At the time, I had just started Beth Hoffman's second novel, "Looking for Me," and was concerned that this could be women's fiction that falls into the "average" category. As I began to read, I wondered how this book about Teddi Overman, a Kentucky farm girl who sees potential in cast-off furniture and then makes that potential real, would appeal to me and to the book club readers I know. What I discovered was a lyrical, almost mystical story that reflects life on a Kentucky farm, the wildness of the Red River Gorge, and the genteel South of Charleston, S.C.
Teddi grows up on the Overman family farm in Kentucky with her loving father, her unhappy mother, her younger brother, Josh, and her Grammy Belle. Teddi's mother projects her personal misery onto Teddi. Out of necessity, Teddi becomes the caregiver of Josh, witnessing his love and affinity for the wildlife in the rugged environment that they live in. Josh is raised to become a farmer like his father, while Teddi dreams of a future restoring yard sale and flea market finds and making them into something beautiful. At her high school graduation in 1973, Teddi receives an old Ford Falcon from her dad and a brand new typewriter from her mother. In the middle of the night, Teddi leaves notes on the table for each member of her family, leaves the typewriter to gather dust in her closet and travels to pursue her dream in Charleston.
The book follows Teddi through the next 20 years, her adult life underscored by the eventual disappearance of her brother into the wilderness of the Red River Gorge, and of her mother's continual condemnation of Teddi for taking a chance at what she loved. She also unreasonably blames Teddi for Josh's disappearance and snidely voices those thoughts at every opportunity. As Teddi's life unfolds, she recognizes that the choices she makes are the result of the environment she grew up in and that often her good fortune is the result of serendipity and the grace of various souls in Charleston.
Read more: www.post-gazette.com/stories/ae/book-reviews/book-review-looking-for-me-finds-a-strong-southern-heroine-694093/
"LOOKING FOR ME"
By Beth Hoffman
Pamela Dorman Books/Viking ($27.95)
July 3, 2013 12:18 am
By Lorinda Hayes
Two weeks ago, a group of 15 women, all of us members of a chick-lit book club, had dinner together to discuss the book we selected the month before. The group consensus was that the book, by a fairly popular women's author, was "average," the characters were underdeveloped, and the ending unsatisfactory. Personally, I liked it.
At the time, I had just started Beth Hoffman's second novel, "Looking for Me," and was concerned that this could be women's fiction that falls into the "average" category. As I began to read, I wondered how this book about Teddi Overman, a Kentucky farm girl who sees potential in cast-off furniture and then makes that potential real, would appeal to me and to the book club readers I know. What I discovered was a lyrical, almost mystical story that reflects life on a Kentucky farm, the wildness of the Red River Gorge, and the genteel South of Charleston, S.C.
Teddi grows up on the Overman family farm in Kentucky with her loving father, her unhappy mother, her younger brother, Josh, and her Grammy Belle. Teddi's mother projects her personal misery onto Teddi. Out of necessity, Teddi becomes the caregiver of Josh, witnessing his love and affinity for the wildlife in the rugged environment that they live in. Josh is raised to become a farmer like his father, while Teddi dreams of a future restoring yard sale and flea market finds and making them into something beautiful. At her high school graduation in 1973, Teddi receives an old Ford Falcon from her dad and a brand new typewriter from her mother. In the middle of the night, Teddi leaves notes on the table for each member of her family, leaves the typewriter to gather dust in her closet and travels to pursue her dream in Charleston.
The book follows Teddi through the next 20 years, her adult life underscored by the eventual disappearance of her brother into the wilderness of the Red River Gorge, and of her mother's continual condemnation of Teddi for taking a chance at what she loved. She also unreasonably blames Teddi for Josh's disappearance and snidely voices those thoughts at every opportunity. As Teddi's life unfolds, she recognizes that the choices she makes are the result of the environment she grew up in and that often her good fortune is the result of serendipity and the grace of various souls in Charleston.
Read more: www.post-gazette.com/stories/ae/book-reviews/book-review-looking-for-me-finds-a-strong-southern-heroine-694093/
"LOOKING FOR ME"
By Beth Hoffman
Pamela Dorman Books/Viking ($27.95)