Sharon D. reviewed on 12/3/2005 + 224 more book reviews

Welcome to Petal, Mississippi, a real place on the map, but in Melinda Haynes' firt novel, a fictional one as entangling as kudzu. In language as profuse and vigorous as that Southern vine, Haynes tells the story of Valuable Korner, a fatherless girl named after a real-estate sign... this is a real heart thumper. Capturing all the rueful irony and racial ambivalence of small-town Mississippi in the late 1950s, Melinda Hayes' celebrated novel is a wholly unforgetable exploration of family, identity, and redemption. This story revolves around twenty-eight Eve Grade, a black man who grew up an orphan, and Valuable Korner, the fifteen-year-old white daughter of the town whore and an unknown father.
Both are passionately determine to discover the precious things neither experienced as children, human unconditional love. A startlingly accomplished mixture of beauty, mystery, an tragedy.

Back to all reviews by this member
Back to all reviews of this book
Back to Book Reviews
Back to Book Details