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'Between, Georgia' is a love story as much as it's a war story
Between, Georgia By Joshilyn Jackson Warner Books July 3, 2006 $22.99 ISBN 0-446-52442-5
There's just something about the South that is conductive to storytelling. We have so many things just waiting to trigger the imagination of the next author at large: the violence, racism, religious fanatics, southern belles, chain gangs, fire flies, catfish ponds and fried tomatoes; you can find all of them here. Flannery O'Conner did, so did William Faulkner, Mark Twain, Fannie Flagg, Sue Monk Kidd and Harper Lee.
Recently, an ex-Pensacola resident, Joshilyn Jackson added herself to that list of best-selling writers with a story set in the south with her first novel, "gods in Alabama." The former Pensacola resident followed that first success with another southern tale entitled "Between, Georgia."
Although I enjoyed "gods in Alabama" immensely, I feel that her first book barely does the second one justice. In this book, Mrs. Jackson has taken her talents and built on the experience she gained with her first book to create a novel so good its difficult to say goodbye to the characters once the story is over.
The novel follows the story of Nonny Frett; a young woman born with Crabtree blood and raised by a deaf, half-blind woman from its feuding Frett family in the miniscule town of Between, Georgia.
Caught in the middle of a divorce with her smoothtalking husband that keeps getting her back into bed, Nonny gets an unexpected call one day from her Aunt Bernese to tell her terrifying news. A horrible act of violence has ensued and Nonny needs to come home immediately for the sake of both of her families and the town that can be redeemed only by her.
What comes next is a story of vengeance, passion, truth, deception, violence, racism, identity and faith. Nonny is a woman with strength she doesn't know that she has. She is every woman and at the same time a brand new character unique to herself. Joshilyn Jackson has found in Nonny a character with depth, insecurities and weaknesses to rival any of the worst cases out there.
This is a love story as much as its a war story. Characters are colorful and vile, arrogant and selfish; they are people that all of us know and despise/love. This is a town set in its way and a woman on her way to changing everything.
With glimpses of other Southern classics in these characters (To Kill a Mockingbird's Scout could be compared to Fisher Frett and the Frett sisters are reminiscent of the three sisters living together in The Secret Life of Bees) Joshilyn Jackson has taken characters and thrown them into a chaotic world destined to grab readers by the eyeballs and make them stay on the couch (or in this case under the beach umbrella) reading until they have finished the very last page.
All of us have something in our pasts we do not wish to return to. Here is the story of one woman that did just that; and in the process, learned a way to stand her ground and let the world know that she's not just going to go with the flow anymore. This is a woman's search for herself; and the struggle all of us have with introducing our separate lives to one another while still maintaining our sanity.
Rating: A+ for this fastpaced page turner about feuding families in a Southern town and an illegitimate childgrown woman on her way back to a place some might call hell. It'll make you laugh, cry, and bite your lip until it bleeds. Make sure to bring the sunscreen with you. Once you start reading this book on the beach you won't want to leave.
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