Pamela M. (Pyan) reviewed on 7/18/2006 + 106 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 1

One of the ways I measure a book is the amount of time I spend thinking about it afterwards. Each time I see or hear the name WalMart, I think of Novalee Nation and how she must have felt hiding, waiting in a nameless town, for the store to close so she could sleep. I think of her carefully making a list of things she needs each night, so she can remember to pay for them in future. I think of what I might have done at the tender age of 17, and know I would not have been as brave.

Sister Husband, who was probably my favourite character, came into Novalee's life at the right time. Sister is ditsy and good and honest and everything delightful. Her prayers over the buttermilk and cornbread lunches provide wonderful insight into her sense of humour! She provided laughter when the book tended towards heavy, and good when the world tended towards bad.

Novalee Nation, Moses Whitecotton (who took pictures of baby Americus), Sister Husband and her Welcome Wagon Baskets, and Forney, among others, add up to the goodness and can-do attitude of America. Ms. Letts does a wonderful job of weaving together a tapestry of the way things CAN be. Great read!

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