Miss Dreamsville and the Lost Heiress of Collier County: A Novel - Couverture souple

Hearth, Amy Hill

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 147676574X ISBN 13 : 9781476765747

Editeur : Atria Books, 2015

A propos du livre

Extrait :

Miss Dreamsville and the Lost Heiress of Collier County One

Dolores Simpson was a woman with a past. Now, depending on your age and where you’re from, you might interpret that in a number of ways. Let me assure you, however, that in the southern part of the United States of America, in a certain era, this could mean only one thing: man trouble.

This affliction spares few women. Even maiden ladies and great aunties—the ones who smile and nod on the porch, contentedly snappin’ peas—have stories of youthful turmoil and shattered dreams.

Dolores Simpson, unfortunately, had what my mama used to call serious man trouble. After leading a questionable life in Tampa, Dolores came back home one summer day in 1939 with all her worldly goods in a satchel under one arm and a brand-new baby boy in the other.

Yes, indeed. Serious man trouble.

Home, for Dolores, was one hundred and twenty miles south of Tampa in God’s forgotten paradise, Collier County, which is bordered by the Gulf of Mexico on one side and the edge of the Great Everglades Swamp on the other. In those days, Radio Havana in Cuba was the only station that could be heard on the wireless and alligators outnumbered people by at least ten thousand to one.

Dolores’s destination was an abandoned fishing shack that once belonged to her grandfather. The shack sat on stilts on a tidal river which was so wild and forbidding that no one with an ounce of sense would try to live there. Still, it was all Dolores knew. She had failed at city life. She had failed at pretty much everything. The river was a place where she could protect her secrets and nurse her frustration with the world.

And there she stayed, alone except for the son she raised, for twenty-five years.

· · ·

I, TOO, HAILED FROM COLLIER County, but instead of the river or swamps I was raised nearby in Naples, an itty-bitty town with a sandy strip of beach on the Gulf.

I barely knew Dolores Simpson. She was, shall we say, reclusive to an extreme. My only knowledge of her was that she had once been a stripper but now hunted alligators for a living. If she had been a man she would have been admired as a fearless frontiersman.

I wouldn’t have known even this much, nor would I have met her, if not for her son, Robbie-Lee. In the late summer of 1962, he and I became friends when we joined a new book club called the Collier County Women’s Literary Society. To its members, the club provided a sanctuary of sorts. Each of us was a misfit or outcast in town—in my case, because I had come back home after a divorce—but in the book club we discovered a place to belong.

It is one of the ironies of life that being part of a group can, in turn, lead you to find strength and independence as an individual. That’s exactly what happened to Robbie-Lee and me. After a year in the book club, we decided it was time to follow our dreams.

For Robbie-Lee, who loved the theater, the only place on his mind was New York City. He spoke endlessly of Broadway and was determined to get a job there, even if it meant sweeping sidewalks. Dolores, whose maternal instincts kicked in with a mighty roar at the idea of him leaving Collier County, objected to his planned departure, but lost the battle. Robbie-Lee caught a northbound bus on a steamy August morning in 1963.

At the same time Robbie-Lee went north I set off for Mississippi. I was hoping to learn more about my mother, who was born and raised in Jackson. Mama had died without telling me certain things. She never talked about her family, or how she met Daddy, or when and where they got married. All I know is they got hitched at a Methodist church because Mama insisted on having a bona fide preacher conduct the ceremony. They left Mississippi and came to Florida because Naples was Daddy’s hometown.

What I hoped to find was kinfolk. An aunt or uncle, perhaps. Or maybe a cousin. Since I was a small child, Mama and I had been on our own. It’s painful to say, but Daddy up and left us. At least I hoped to find out why my name is Eudora Welty Witherspoon—“Dora” for short. I could only guess that Eudora Welty, the famed Mississippi writer, had been a friend of Mama’s when she was growing up.

As I said, Mama never told me certain things.

I figured I’d go to Jackson for a few weeks or at most several months, but before I knew it I’d been away from Florida for a year. I had made more progress finding out about Mama and her people than I ever could have imagined. All I needed was a little more time to wrap things up and settle them properly. I had a job shelving books at the Jackson Library and I rented a small room in the home of a widow named Mrs. Sheba Conroy. I planned on giving proper notice—I didn’t want to leave anyone in the lurch—then head home to Naples.

And then the telegram came.

Revue de presse :

Praise for Miss Dreamsville and the Lost Heiress of Collier County:
“Hearth’s sound writing and wit create a story featuring a wealth of eccentric characters.” (Kirkus Reviews)

“Radiating southern grace and charm in the manner of Fannie Flagg and Mary Kay Andrews, Hearth’s uplifting novel, a sequel to Miss Dreamsville and the Collier County Women's Literary Society (2012), is a story of how several very different women learn to navigate the shifting mores and niceties of southern society on their own terms.” (Booklist)

"With this follow-up novel about the colorful women of Collier County, Florida, Amy Hill Hearth has proven herself to be one of the most talented fiction writers on shelves today. Her characters are developed with such authenticity, readers are reluctant to leave the page, and her sensory details pull us straight from reality into the lush swamp lands and southern communities that never fail to thrill us. Bravo for yet another masterpiece by Hearth, whose works are about as close to perfection as any I’ve ever read.Funny. Charming. Inspiring. And downright delightful. This is a story that’s sure to please." (Julie Cantrell, New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author of INTO THE FREE, WHEN MOUNTAINS MOVE, and THE FEATHERED BONE)

"Amy Hill Hearth delivers another bighearted story filled with small town flair. Lovers of quirky Southern characters will want to move to Collier County and settle in for this delightful ride!" (Lisa Wingate national bestselling author of THE SEA KEEPER'S DAUGHTER)

"This is not only a delightful diversion, but also a lively and wise deliberation on the dynamics of friendship, change, and self-realization, not to mention a charming representation of 1960s cultural history."
(Southern Literary Review)

“Hearth has a deft way with dialogue, capturing Southern rhythms subtly without resorting to clumsy dialect writing. She also finds the comedy (and occasionally the danger)in gossip, that power source of small-town society. Judging by Miss Dreamsville and the Lost Heiress of Collier County, Naples was a lot sweeter, and a lot more fun, back in 1963.” (Tampa Bay Times)

"They’re back! Dora Witherspoon, Miss Dreamsville, and the gang. So rejoice—Amy Hill Hearth his written another beauty aimed right at your funny bone and your heart."
(Peter Golden author of Comeback Love)

"The stories in Miss Dreamsville trade in serious and provocative issues, and the misfit characters within are authentic and true...a vivid, vibrant plot in a journalist’s efficient prose." (Inside Jersey magazine)

"In the mid-1960s, change comes slowly to Naples, Florida -- a small, Gulf Coast town on the edge of the Everglades. Miss Dreamsville and the Lost Heiress of Collier County is Amy Hill Hearth's latest episode about a book club composed of Naples' dreamers and misfits who see a better future but want to hold on to their slower, small-town way of life. Miss Dreamsville is an antic and heartfelt romp through family secrets and land developers' schemes, funny and warmhearted and a pleasure to read."
(Ruth Pennebaker author of Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown)

“The memorable members of the the Collier County Women's Literary Society are back together again in Amy Hill Hearth's warm and satisfying sequel. Facing new challenges in rural Florida, 1964, these friends continue to help each other, and their community, as development threatens their natural world and family secrets are confronted.” (Mollie Hoben, Founding Publisher, Minnesota Women's Press)

À propos de cette édition

• Éditeur: Atria Books
• Date d'édition: 2015
• ISBN 10: 147676574X
• ISBN 13: 9781476765747
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 320