Amy
Hill Hearth (Having our Say: The Delaney
Sisters' First 100 Years) takes the reader back to 1962, when Naples,
Florida was a "sunbaked southern backwater town" and not what it is
today, one of "the richest, swankiest places on earth." The book is
told from the perspective of 80 year-old, divorced Dora Witherspoon, who
recollects a time when she was a postal worker and was caught, on the job,
violating postal regulations by perusing the latest issue of Vogue addressed to a glamorous newcomer in
town, a transplant from Boston, Massachusetts , Jackie Hart. When Jackie
catches Dora in the act and asks, "What else do you like to read?" the
encounter sparks the formation of the Collier County Women's Literary Society,
a group that draws an array of local misfits who gather to read and discuss great
books - and inadvertently reveal mysteries and secrets about their own lives.
The society grows to include the local
librarian; the town's one and only Sears employee; a woman who once did prison
time for allegedly killing her husband; a middle-aged poet; a token male
member; and a young "colored" girl, a maid, who is secretly whisked
to the meetings in the racially segregated town.
In the midst of it
all, the KKK is hard at work and Collier County becomes rapt by an anonymous
radio show anchored by Miss Dreamsville, whose mysterious identity spices up
life in the small town. Inspired by true events, Amy Hill Hearth has written a
heart-tugging story about how this band of colorful characters finds
liberation--and friendship--amid a time and place where "sameness"
was once revered.
Atria Books, $15, Trade
paper, 9781451675238, 272 pp
Publication Date: October 2,
2012
Please note: This review is
a reprint and is being posted (in a slightly different form) with the
permission of Shelf Awareness. To read this review
on Shelf Awareness: Reader's Edition (10/12/12), click HERE.