Ladies,
I have loved reading your comments. I agree with all y'all about Dena's lack of self-awareness ("she is so shut down" just like Kate in Crow Lake) and the importance of turning-points in our lives (again like Crow Lake). I loved the prayers and faith and small town goodness that filled the book. I also loved the characters. I laughed so hard in various scenes that Rod would look at me to see what was so funny :) Fannie Flagg definitely has a gift! I had to call my son, Eric, the policeman to read the scene (pages 190-195) when Gerry was pulled over by the Highway Patrolman. I could hardly get through it :) And I loved how it came back it to play at the end of the book when Gerry sends a memo to Officer Childress with the "rest of the story." (pages 389-390)
On a more serious note, I realized that one of the overarching themes of the book was "truth" -- what is it? who has it? what are its ramifications? what happens to liars? what are the ramifications of their lies? Dena is such a liar at the beginning of the book. I don't think she ever thought about the fact that she was lying. The Paparazzi were supposedly reporting the "truth," but they were liars, too. I also was sickened by the realization that our society IS in a feeding frenzy for the WORST in people and people's lives are destroyed by lies and innuendo. An untrue accusation is damaging and so is the truth, particularly when it is misrepresented.
Flagg also demonstrates that people like Dena's boss, Ira Wallace, and the scum bag he worked with, Sidney Capello, (I thought his death was soooo poetic) and Julian Amsley, president of the network, can't stand anyone being better than they are so they have to drag them down somehow. It is so sad! I guess it's an extreme example of the "natural man." The irony of Dena trying so hard to become an "investigative reporter" when that was exactly what had destroyed her mother and her mother's family was huge!
One other thing I wanted to comment on is the plot. I actually thought that somehow Dena's mother was going to end up being part of the Rosemond family that Sidney Capello destroyed. At first, I was underwhelmed when I found out that her mother was living in hiding because she was African-American because I thought that wasn't awful enough. Hopefully, that shows that we have come a long way as a result of the Civil Rights movement. I have African and African American friends, as well as students, that are wonderful. However, when I put myself back in that era, I could see how devastating the "N" was. I felt such a great sadness for Theo and "Marion."
One question . . . Did I miss this? How did Dena live as a 15-year-old with no mother? Who paid for school? Why didn't someone report her mother as missing? Who paid the rent on the apartment? Dena didn't pose for the magazine until she was 17, right? How did she register for school, travel, etc.? Just wondering . . .
Loved the book!!
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2 comments:
I didn't think about the irony between Dena's job and what happened to her family, but you're absolutely right. At least Dena finally had the integrity to NOT try and humiliate people for things in their past - if she had gone down this way, imagine her guilt when she found out the truth about her mother...
Her grandparents were still involved with her so maybe they paid her way. Or maybe she got scholarships. Her mom was listed as a missing person. There was no apartment. she spent christmas in a motel by her own choice. It is amazing how much the US changed in those twenty to thirty years. What once was the norm was now foreign and inconceivable to the new generation of kids. A wonderful change. Dena mentions how the laws were changing and had even changed by the time her mom disappeared. And yet at the same time Dena didn't know any other black people besides her therapist and Christine still lived in a black neighborhood...
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