David and Carole M. (davidmartin52) reviewed The Improper Life of Bezellia Grove on + 35 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
After reading Gilmore's previous (and first) book, "Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen", and thinking it was one of the best first-effort books I'd ever read, I eagerly awaiting "Improper Life". While I found it amusing and mildly entertaining, it did not live up to the very high bar set by "Dairy Queen".
The story attempts to take on many of the stereotypical characters of the deep South in the 1950's and 1960's. This literary trend seemed to start with "To Kill A Mockingbird" (to a lesser extent) and carries through to today with stories like "Improper Life". All the blacks are kind, understanding, loving and accepting, while nearly all the whites are unfeeling, callous racists.
Bezellia falls in love with the college-bound son of a local black man and, of course, not another white person in all of Nashville approves. While racial prejudice was alive & well in the South during this period (that I lived through - in the south), the stereotypes were just a little too cut and dried.
For example, my own mother was a native white Tennessean, lacking in education, but brimming with opinions based on little but her own prejudices. However, her best friend in the world was a black woman to whom she would have given the shirt off her back. Given what I lived through and saw, I tend to bristle a little at such stereotypes.
To sum up, if you like Fannie Flagg, you'll like this book. If you're expecting a book as good as "Dairy Queen", as I was, you'll be disappointed. However, given how good "Dairy Queen" was, I WILL be reading Gilmore's third book, "The Funeral Dress", in hopes her brilliance will once again surface!
The story attempts to take on many of the stereotypical characters of the deep South in the 1950's and 1960's. This literary trend seemed to start with "To Kill A Mockingbird" (to a lesser extent) and carries through to today with stories like "Improper Life". All the blacks are kind, understanding, loving and accepting, while nearly all the whites are unfeeling, callous racists.
Bezellia falls in love with the college-bound son of a local black man and, of course, not another white person in all of Nashville approves. While racial prejudice was alive & well in the South during this period (that I lived through - in the south), the stereotypes were just a little too cut and dried.
For example, my own mother was a native white Tennessean, lacking in education, but brimming with opinions based on little but her own prejudices. However, her best friend in the world was a black woman to whom she would have given the shirt off her back. Given what I lived through and saw, I tend to bristle a little at such stereotypes.
To sum up, if you like Fannie Flagg, you'll like this book. If you're expecting a book as good as "Dairy Queen", as I was, you'll be disappointed. However, given how good "Dairy Queen" was, I WILL be reading Gilmore's third book, "The Funeral Dress", in hopes her brilliance will once again surface!
