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3.94 AVERAGE
3.94 AVERAGE
“My parents loved so wildly, they destroyed each other. My father was a tormented man. My brother betrayed my trust. My mother is a self-centered hypocrite. My grandmother has secrets so dark she’d lose me than reveal them. I’m afraid if I love you, you’ll destroy me.”
A coming-of-age tale reminiscent of Glass Castle. Set in Mississippi during the 60s, this book deals with mental illness, the civil rights movement, and dysfunctional family life.
Tallulah returns home after seven years, when her young brother is accused of a crime. She ran away years ago with hopes of forgetting her stormy past but now it’s time to forgive and make peace with it all.
This is the perfect southern summer read for those wanting a beautifully crafted story with heart and soul. Grab a tall glass of sweet tea and this book on June 19th!
A coming-of-age tale reminiscent of Glass Castle. Set in Mississippi during the 60s, this book deals with mental illness, the civil rights movement, and dysfunctional family life.
Tallulah returns home after seven years, when her young brother is accused of a crime. She ran away years ago with hopes of forgetting her stormy past but now it’s time to forgive and make peace with it all.
This is the perfect southern summer read for those wanting a beautifully crafted story with heart and soul. Grab a tall glass of sweet tea and this book on June 19th!
I was glad to pick this up and get back to some Historical Fiction. I love it as I always reiterate every time I do a review on a Historical Fiction book. Two pages in and I was already getting hooked. My obsession with the Manson murders is real and on page one, Tallulah starts speaking of how people can be brainwashed into doing senseless actions. I stated thinking of the Manson murders, and then as I turned the page, it was brought up itself. I wss hooked instantly. This instant connection was lost quickly though as the story had very little Historical Fiction aspects and little murder. It was more about a very dysfunctional family and how people's lives are changed and molded based on these experiences.
The story goes back and forth from past and their present. The past part started a little slower for me than their present time. There was a lot of background information needed to understand character dynamics and so forth. The children's' lives were sad and it helped make sense of the current events. Tallulah's relationship with Maisie was so innocent and naive for the time making it hard to read knowing the underlying issues that their friendship would eventually endure.
The chapters that take place in the past are indeed important and necessary but I didn't find myself as interested. In the first half of the book, it was a large chunk of information that I wasn't really loving. I actually felt like I got more of a sense of important happenings in the past that shaped their present in conversations between Tallulah and Ross that are taking place in the more recent time period chapters.
As the book continued, I felt a tad let down. It was definitely interesting and I did enjoy the story in its entirety but it definitely veered away from the murder brought up in the beginning and focuses more on Tallulah and her life making her who she is and her siblings are in the present chapters. There's nothing wrong with this but I was looking more for what would be going on with that entire situation.
As the past chapters are important, the information is necessary but I feel like much of these chapters have extra "fluff" as I call it. The Civil Rights Movement is of little importance to the novel itself and the Maise relationship is unfortunately underdeveloped making it seem kind of pointless all together.
With that being said, I was still interested in what I was reading. I was just expecting something a little more suspenseful maybe. I set myself up for that though and that shouldn't take away from reading this novel.
Crandall does do a good job with some character development and then leaves some characters (possibly intentionally) very vague. As for the story itself, it's interesting to notice some differences in the time period as Tallulah's dad was screaming manic depressive disorder from the beginning for me. As the book centers around the dysfunctional family, it's also very sad that much of the dysfunction really centers around mental illness. The taboo of being mentally ill is so strong especially in our novel's time period. It's disheartening to recognize this in the novel not only with the father but other characters as well.
The ending for me was a bit rushed. Everything fell into place all at once and randomly. Things came back to the surface that was long forgotten about and the solution was thrown out immediately for all of it. I would have liked more of a an buildup to the end and less information and stories that didn't have a direct hit to the problems and solutions.
I still think the novel is pretty solid and enjoyed the read. I do suggest it.
4.5 stars for a well done Southern gothic family drama. I was immediately drawn into Tallulah’s world in Lamoyne Mississippi. The story is told in the past and the present and it slowly reveals the family secrets. Tallulah and her older brother Griff are largely responsible for their younger twin siblings, Walden and Dharma while their erratic father is a history professor and their mother who insists they call her by her first name runs off to volunteer for various causes. This book addresses small town gossip and mental illness in an excellent manner. There is a touch of romance, a bit of suspense, along with the drama. While all the family secrets are revealed, the ending leaves room for speculation which I enjoyed.
The Goodreads app is glitching and only shows this as 1 star, but I intended to give it 4 stars.
This book had my attention after reading the author, the synopsis and the first page. I've heard great things about the author of this book, Susan Crandall. She is for me a local author and my local independent bookstore has great things to say about her storytelling ability. The backdrop of the book also caught my attention. The town described in the synopsis seems to be the kind of town where differences of any kind too far outside of the "norm" are frowned upon. I think it is fantastic that an author has built a story around the stigma of mental illness in small town America and has brought to light the fact that mental illness has touched many people, either directly or indirectly. Also, the last line of that first page: "Wow"!
emotional
medium-paced
A very poignant story about a lot of things, life in the South, mental illness, activism, and the resilience of the feminine spirit, both in the main character and in her "Gran." Taking place in Mississippi, Louisiana, and California but with consistent characters kept it engaging. I particularly liked the fact that it didn't have purely just a happy ending or sad ending, but a bit of both. Like IRL, not everything can be overcome.
Another wow moment for me. This book made me feel about the life, times, and characters the same way The Secret Life of Bees did, or even To Kill a Mockingbird. Yes - I said it - I thought it was as powerful a novel about family dynamics as the great "Mockingbird." Now - it tackles a very different subject matter (although rape does sneak a small moment in this) - mental illness and how this can destroy a family.
Oscillating between the childhood of Tallulah and her foray into a adulthood, Crandall deftly highlights the major strides necessary to understanding mental illness and its effects on not only those suffering, but those caught in its devastating wake. Tallulah James wears the weight of the world on her shoulders, specifically the James's family legacy and doesn't understand why her grandmother fights to protect it so when the rest of the small town of Lamoyne seems to hate them all so much. She is one of four siblings, and her older brother Griff has learned to ignore it, and the twins - Dharma and Walden - have as diverse approaches to life as they come; Dharma exactly like the horrible, awful, terrible mother Margo, and Walden, quiet, introspective, and desperate to belong. Tallulah though, bless her heart, has made everyone's struggle her struggle and everyone's pain, her pain. There were times I became frustrated with her because she wanted to control the situation so much and in doing so, she was actually causing more harm than good - but then I had to remember she was a child trying to manipulate adults and adult situations...an understanding she did not yet possess.
The real heart of the matter though digs into the lack of understanding people had about mental illness. Tallulah is being raised in a time where things were simply "swept under the rug," or people were sent off to asylums with other excuses as to why they were suddenly gone. I'm grateful that I live in a modern age where mental struggles are diagnosed and handled. Being a person that personally suffers from anxiety and poor stress management, I can only be glad I don't live in a time that didn't recognize mental struggles and illnesses are real and raw and certain.
This novel is powerfully driven by plot, characters, and the deep setting of the South. Crandall writes with expert ease about the oppressive and sticky heat, the moss, the insects and their never ending swarm to attack; and she also captures the true trapped feel of small town Southern life - where the tea is always sweet and the secrets always salty.
The Myth of Perpetual Summer is as fully satisfying a read as sweet tea on a hot summer day, and as deeply uncomfortable as a mosquito on a mission. Its characters drag the reader deep into the heart of a Southern summer and a family desperate to perpetuate a myth of sunshine and laughter from behind a dark, dark cloud of storm.
Oscillating between the childhood of Tallulah and her foray into a adulthood, Crandall deftly highlights the major strides necessary to understanding mental illness and its effects on not only those suffering, but those caught in its devastating wake. Tallulah James wears the weight of the world on her shoulders, specifically the James's family legacy and doesn't understand why her grandmother fights to protect it so when the rest of the small town of Lamoyne seems to hate them all so much. She is one of four siblings, and her older brother Griff has learned to ignore it, and the twins - Dharma and Walden - have as diverse approaches to life as they come; Dharma exactly like the horrible, awful, terrible mother Margo, and Walden, quiet, introspective, and desperate to belong. Tallulah though, bless her heart, has made everyone's struggle her struggle and everyone's pain, her pain. There were times I became frustrated with her because she wanted to control the situation so much and in doing so, she was actually causing more harm than good - but then I had to remember she was a child trying to manipulate adults and adult situations...an understanding she did not yet possess.
The real heart of the matter though digs into the lack of understanding people had about mental illness. Tallulah is being raised in a time where things were simply "swept under the rug," or people were sent off to asylums with other excuses as to why they were suddenly gone. I'm grateful that I live in a modern age where mental struggles are diagnosed and handled. Being a person that personally suffers from anxiety and poor stress management, I can only be glad I don't live in a time that didn't recognize mental struggles and illnesses are real and raw and certain.
This novel is powerfully driven by plot, characters, and the deep setting of the South. Crandall writes with expert ease about the oppressive and sticky heat, the moss, the insects and their never ending swarm to attack; and she also captures the true trapped feel of small town Southern life - where the tea is always sweet and the secrets always salty.
The Myth of Perpetual Summer is as fully satisfying a read as sweet tea on a hot summer day, and as deeply uncomfortable as a mosquito on a mission. Its characters drag the reader deep into the heart of a Southern summer and a family desperate to perpetuate a myth of sunshine and laughter from behind a dark, dark cloud of storm.
hopeful
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
To be honest, the plot of this book didn't appeal much to me, but I chose to read it because I really liked one of Susan Crandall's previous books, Whistling Past the Graveyard. I should have just listened to my first instinct, because I didn't enjoy The Myth of Perpetual Summer. I appreciated that there was some good writing in it. I thought the title was very apt, and liked the way the author referred to it a few times in the novel. But the storyline was just such a downer! I don't mind reading books about harsh reality -- mental illness, dysfunctional families, traumatic events, etc, but I like to see more hope at the end of the tunnel than this story gave me. I came away from this thinking, "Wow, life can really mess you up...."
3 stars.
3 stars.