At first I felt a bit like Anna, the main protagonist - a bit alienated and wondering what I was doing in this book. But then, also like Anna, I came to feel as if I were “almost home” - loving the place and all the characters in it.
The story begins in April, 1944 in Blackberry Springs, Alabama, close to Childersburg, which in real life was the site of the Alabama Army Ammunition Plant, operated by DuPont. It produced nearly 40 million pounds of munitions a month, as well as heavy water for the development of the atomic bomb.
When Dolly and Si Chandler needed income, they began to operate their large home, inherited from Dolly’s grandmother, as a boarding house. Anna and Jesse Williams came from Illinois, so Jesse could work at the plant. Jesse was taciturn and withdrawn, even from Anna, because he couldn’t make their farm succeed back home; he hoped to save enough here in Alabama to try again. He thought Anna couldn’t possibly want a “failure” like him. She doesn’t feel that way at all, of course. The Chandlers and the other boarders immediately sensed the problem and set out in subtle ways to help them find their relationship again.
Anna bonded almost immediately with the women in the house as well as with Daisy Dupree, a young widow who lived nearby. Daisy carried so much hurt over her loss, as well as guilt that she didn’t insist her husband not go off to war (not that he had a choice, in any event). Another young boarder, Reed Ingram, is a war veteran with a bad leg injury, PTSD, and carrying his own guilt, that he - a medic - couldn’t save his best friend.
All of these people carry hurts with them, and need to learn how to let go. As one character finally realized:
“No matter what troubles you and me have got, we’re alive. We’re here on this earth, an we’re meant to make the most of it. . . . We’ve been throwin’ time away . . . .. And time’s a gift. We oughta be usin’ every minute we’ve got.”
There is not only the question of adaptation and the evolution of the relationships among the characters, but tension with some former criminal boarders and health issues. The ending will satisfy everyone however.
Evaluation: Although this is “Christian fiction,” the references to belief and spirituality were well-integrated into a story set in a Southern fundamentalist culture. I would say the “women’s fiction” aspects predominated, and it is a good representation of that genre. The side plot about the original owners of Dolly’s house was most captivating.
The story begins in April, 1944 in Blackberry Springs, Alabama, close to Childersburg, which in real life was the site of the Alabama Army Ammunition Plant, operated by DuPont. It produced nearly 40 million pounds of munitions a month, as well as heavy water for the development of the atomic bomb.
When Dolly and Si Chandler needed income, they began to operate their large home, inherited from Dolly’s grandmother, as a boarding house. Anna and Jesse Williams came from Illinois, so Jesse could work at the plant. Jesse was taciturn and withdrawn, even from Anna, because he couldn’t make their farm succeed back home; he hoped to save enough here in Alabama to try again. He thought Anna couldn’t possibly want a “failure” like him. She doesn’t feel that way at all, of course. The Chandlers and the other boarders immediately sensed the problem and set out in subtle ways to help them find their relationship again.
Anna bonded almost immediately with the women in the house as well as with Daisy Dupree, a young widow who lived nearby. Daisy carried so much hurt over her loss, as well as guilt that she didn’t insist her husband not go off to war (not that he had a choice, in any event). Another young boarder, Reed Ingram, is a war veteran with a bad leg injury, PTSD, and carrying his own guilt, that he - a medic - couldn’t save his best friend.
All of these people carry hurts with them, and need to learn how to let go. As one character finally realized:
“No matter what troubles you and me have got, we’re alive. We’re here on this earth, an we’re meant to make the most of it. . . . We’ve been throwin’ time away . . . .. And time’s a gift. We oughta be usin’ every minute we’ve got.”
There is not only the question of adaptation and the evolution of the relationships among the characters, but tension with some former criminal boarders and health issues. The ending will satisfy everyone however.
Evaluation: Although this is “Christian fiction,” the references to belief and spirituality were well-integrated into a story set in a Southern fundamentalist culture. I would say the “women’s fiction” aspects predominated, and it is a good representation of that genre. The side plot about the original owners of Dolly’s house was most captivating.