Beth Fish Reads: Today's Read: Lowcountry Summer by Dorothea Benton Frank

30 April 2013

Today's Read: Lowcountry Summer by Dorothea Benton Frank

Can you imagine how difficult it would be to realize that your family may be looking at you to guide them now that the family matriarch has died? Caroline Wimbley Levine finds herself in just such a position. And everything is complicated by that strange combination of jealousy, competition, and fierce love that can be found only among relatives:

It is a generally accepted fact that at some point during your birthday, you'll reassess your life. When you are young, and by "young" I mean the sum of your years is under twenty, your whole life is still in front of you. Your un-juandiced eyes are sunlit and wide. Your lungs rise and fall with breathless optimism. Whom will you marry? Who will you become? Will you be blessed with good children? Live in China? Climb Everest? Visit the Casbah? Sail the Amazon? Will the riches of the world find their way to your door? The details of your future life are still shrouded in the opaque mists of time's crystal ball and you, the anxious and impetuous young you, hopping from one foot to the other, cannot wait to get there.

But, darlin', when your years creep north of thirty, your assessing eye blinks, drifts to the past to scan your scorecard because your future is pretty much a foregone conclusion. Or is it?

—Lowcountry Summer by Dorothea Benton Frank (HarperCollins, William Morrow, 2010, p. 1-2)

Quick Facts

Setting: Tall Pines Plantation, South Carolina
Circumstances: family problems come to the surface just as summer blooms; Caroline wonders what her mother would have done
Characters: brothers and sisters; family friends; lovers new and old; children, neighbors
Genre: women's fiction, Southern fiction
Themes: family, love, finding oneself, coming to terms with the past; facing the future
Miscellaneous: features the same characters as the novel Plantation
Personal: I love the way Dorothea's personality shines in this short video about the novel

Buy Lowcountry Summer at an indie or at a bookstore near you. (Link leads to an affiliate program.)
ISBN-13: 9780061961175
Copyright © cbl for Beth Fish Reads, all rights reserved (see review policy).

20 comments:

Melissa O., 4/30/13, 6:07 AM: This sounds like an interesting read! Thanks for stopping by my teaser, too! :-)
(Diane) Bibliophile By the Sea, 4/30/13, 6:32 AM: That's a great intro, I like the writing -- enjoy
Laurel-Rain Snow, 4/30/13, 6:53 AM: Ooh, fascinating...and I love the expressions about age, like "north of thirty," and the future being "shrouded in the opaque mists of time's crystal ball...."

I don't know why I haven't yet read this author, but I love the look and sound of this one. Thanks!

Here's MY TUESDAY MEMES POST
Shelley Munro, 4/30/13, 7:03 AM: I know exactly what she means. Thanks for visiting my teaser.
bermudaonion, 4/30/13, 8:04 AM: Her books are always good for a comfort read and great for the beach!
Kaye, 4/30/13, 8:16 AM: OOh, I just love DBF. Read her book, Porch Lights, not too long ago and thoroughly enjoyed it.
Catherine @ Book Club Librarian, 4/30/13, 10:09 AM: Love the intro and would definitely read on. I met the author last year at Book Expo--she is a very nice person.

Here is my First Chapter/Tuesday Teaser: http://www.bookclublibrarian.com/2013/04/first-chapter-first-paragraph-11-and.html
Literary Feline, 4/30/13, 10:15 AM: This is an awesome teaser! I'm definitely on the other side of thirty. I've never read a book by this author, but I think I'll have to check this one out further.
Anonymous, 4/30/13, 10:36 AM: That sounds excellent. The last line "or is it?" was what really drew me. Everything sounds routine (as in what happens rather than boring) and then that. Brilliant.
Alice Audrey, 4/30/13, 11:47 AM: I'm certainly hoping my future isn't a foregone conclusion, even when the years left to go can't be nearly what's already been used.
JLS Hall, 4/30/13, 11:47 AM: This sounds wonderful. I love the phrase "north of thirty" -- of course, I've been WAY north of there for a really long time! Great tease.
Heather, 4/30/13, 11:59 AM: Have heard a lot of good things about this one--enjoy!
Sandy Nawrot, 4/30/13, 12:10 PM: I love reads like this that entertain and pull in the South, but I've never read any of her books! I did meet her though at SIBA a couple of years ago and she is the nicest lady. I need to get busy.
Nise' , 4/30/13, 2:04 PM: I have Porch Lights on my stacks. This one sounds good too.
kayerj, 4/30/13, 2:09 PM: sounds like a good read, I'd probably stick with it. kelley—the road goes ever ever on
Ellie @ Ellie Reads All the Books, 4/30/13, 2:51 PM: Sounds interesting! Thanks for stopping by :)
caite, 4/30/13, 7:44 PM: love that cover...
Pooch, 4/30/13, 8:57 PM: Enjoyed this excerpt and am drawn to the author's writing style.

:)
Margot, 4/30/13, 9:23 PM: I like this type of book - one that is a fun summer read but also one with some depth to it. It's on my list.
Booksnyc, 5/2/13, 10:16 AM: I recently read this and really enjoyed it - Caroline is a great main character - lots of personality!