"Saint Roch tried to speak, and I said, 'Shut the hell up,' to him. He didn't know how Gretel was. None of them did, this chain of saints bobbing in my wake, and these saints all came from her, too, didn't they? She was the one who had always called them. They'd answered her in ways they'd never answered me before today."
-Ro Grandee, from the novel
I enjoyed this novel though not as much as the others I have read by this author. I began by listening to the audio format in my car, read by the author. It was off-putting at first since the main character starts out planning to kill her abusive husband. However, I was intrigued enough to start reading the print copy at home which I could finish more quickly. Be prepared for a surprise ending! I will rate this one a 4.
Ro Grandee is the main character and narrator of the story. She has an alter ego---Rose May Lolly, her feisty teenaged self, who comes to the forefront when a tarot card reading by a gypsy woman predicts a frightening future. Ro has had a rough life, from being abandoned by her mother and beaten by her alcoholic father to marrying a very violent man. After her plan to kill him goes awry, she runs away from her husband Thom, takes on a new identity and sets out to find her first love and later, her enigmatic mother. In this process she revisits her father, who has not aged well, and will not be the protector she had envisioned.
Jackson furthers her southern settings by starting this story in Texas. Previous novels I have read were set in Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi.
The theme of the novel is pretty intense with family dysfunction, domestic violence, and revenge but thankfully there was some humor now and then. In describing the interior of a Krispy Kreme in Alabama Jackson says "It was a rathole in Fruiton's small and seedy downtown, with bright blue-green Formica counters and pumpkin-colored vinyl on all the stools and booths. It looked like a demented and slightly color-blind Auburn fan had been cut loose in there to decorate." As an Auburn fan that made me laugh. When the character named Parker is described wearing "floppy black pants that look like pajama bottoms" and "fighting nothing in slow motion" I visualized my husband's tai chi moves. I was reminded of the comic strip "Rose Is Rose," obviously because of Rose May Lolly's name but also cartoon character Rose has alter-egos---a biker babe and a little girl. The similarity ends there since the comic strip is never ugly or violent.
If you read the novel, I would love to know your thoughts!
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