Rec'd via PaperbackSwap.com

Macabre and unfunny so I did not finish this book.

Off to msjoanna.

This has arrived! I'll correct the label when I get home. Hope I like it better than you did.

A mostly unmemorable, but basically entertaining, account of two parallel stories. The first traces the zany escapade of a woman who kills her husband, then travels with his severed head out to California in an effort to seek her fame as a star in Hollywood. This storyline seemed intended to bring lightness and humor to the book, but didn't really appeal to me. The second story is that of Peejoe, a young boy witnessing the beginnings of the civil rights movement in his small town in Alabama.

This book suffered from what I've taken to calling the bookends problem. There is probably an official name for this, but I don't know it. Basically, the book starts with one chapter in the "present" tense, then the whole book is historical, followed by an epilogue that tries to tell what happened to everyone after that in a few pages. Occasionally, this is an effective way to cabin a story; more often, it seems a lazy way to get on and off stage for an author who can't be bothered to think of beginnings and endings that fit the bulk of the work. This problem seems to happen most often in debut novels, but it appears that Childress is an experienced author who should have known better.

Also, as a final warning, the book contained fairly frequent, and mostly unnecessary, sex scenes as part of the crazy-woman story arc. Readers who don't appreciate this should skip this one.

Arrived safely, thank you!