Like the Moon

Like the Moon –by Mary Lewis Foote

Fiction / Humor

148 pages / 516 KB

5 Stars

I keep track of the books I read, and this is the 40th book I've read so far this year (2014) and also the 41st. Yes, I read it twice, and it truly was better the second time through as I knew what was going to happen.

Ms. Foote accomplished quite a feat in that she successful wrote in dialect, and carried it off beautifully. I've lived in the South, and traveled through the Carolinas many times, and the dialect brought back many fond memories. And while Hart County may be fictional, I swear I've been there.

Humor is difficult to write, and often seems forced. This story is a delight filled with chuckles, outright laughter, and a few sad and thoughtful places. The people are real, and are treated with respect. This is not put-down humor, but build-up humor.

As the book description says, it invites you to pull up a rocking chair and set a spell with some delightful people and listen to their stories. The story takes place in fictional Hart Country, North Carolina and is told by Lulu Quillen in her own inimitable style. The story centers around Willis Bone, Lulu and Red's neighbor, and his death and how his wife, Mattie Mae and their daughter Cherryldine, and his father, Old Man Bone settle the "estate" and keep on living.

While these people may live a hardscrabble life, their lives are filled with love and humor, collard greens and ham hocks, coon dogs, and Beethoven. Yes, Beethoven. The composer, not a kitchen hound (his name is Curtis). If you're a Yankee, it may take you a page or two to get into the dialect, but just relax, enjoy the ride, and get ready to smile and laugh out loud. 

This is the kind of book that, when you reach the end of it, you will feel better for having read it. And jolly well may be ready to start over again. I did.