Small town, "Big" characters
As previously explained, this was recommended to me by my grandmother, who rather accurately implied that I wouldn't otherwise normally pick this book up.
Ave Maria Mulligan has just turned 35, and according to the ancient Chinese art of facing-reading, that means something huge is going to happen to her sometime this year. But there's not much to expect when you're a single woman living in 1978 Virginia in a mining town that no one knows about. There's always the chance that Ave will find love, but after being rebuffed by her best friend Theodore, she starts to doubt that. Maybe the big event will be that Elizabeth Taylor will be visiting Big Stone Gap with her politician husband, or maybe it will be the annual production of The Trail of the Lonesome Pine, of which she's the director. But then Ave discovers her dead mother's life-long secret: Ave's father is not who she thinks he is. With the help of the flirty librarian, Iva Lou, Ave starts investigating a past and a present she never knew she belonged to. As she stands up to petty relatives and malicious gossips, she hatches a plan to leave Big Stone Gap for Italy. And nothing - not even a proposal from nice-guy Jack Mac (who has known her their entire lives and has never showed any interest in her) - can convince her to stay. Or so she thinks.
The tone and story of this book falls somewhere between "quirky" and "quaint" without ever carrying the bloat of either quality. To say that this is an easy read is not meant to be insulting, but to praise the warmth and friendliness of the story. This is a book that's meant to be comfort reading and doesn't aspire to be anything more. And that's a really great quality for any book to have.
Gap boasts a main character who is ordinary and unique at the same time: Ave is the typical everyday woman, a little bit neurotic and analytical, too hard on herself, but friendly and a hard worker. As an independent, unmarried woman who appears foreign-looking in a town that sticks to tradition, she definitely brings a unique perspective to the goings-on. We see not only how she interacts with the characters that populate Big Stone Gap, but also how Ave perceives herself along with them. Different interactions with Iva Lou, shy teen Pearl, the town lawyer, and her old pastor are enjoyable and contribute very nicely to Ave's character arc. In my mind, the only area where the story disappoints is the way the love interest(s?) is (are) handled. We never get a sense of the history that Ave says she has with Jack Mac, who doesn't make a huge impression on the reader, or Theodore, whose friendship with Ave is not as affecting as Trigiani intends. Plus, Jack Mac's actions, which evolve from a place of affection, come across as meddlesome. I was much more intrigued by Ave's search for her real father and the family she is dying to meet - and I loved her wonderful independent streak.
The moral of realizing the true meaning of home is a bit generic and I think not exactly earned. But we are meant to like Big Stone Gap, and I was very charmed. Enjoy it for what it is. Rating: 3.5 bottles of Emeraude cologne out of 5.
The tone and story of this book falls somewhere between "quirky" and "quaint" without ever carrying the bloat of either quality. To say that this is an easy read is not meant to be insulting, but to praise the warmth and friendliness of the story. This is a book that's meant to be comfort reading and doesn't aspire to be anything more. And that's a really great quality for any book to have.
Gap boasts a main character who is ordinary and unique at the same time: Ave is the typical everyday woman, a little bit neurotic and analytical, too hard on herself, but friendly and a hard worker. As an independent, unmarried woman who appears foreign-looking in a town that sticks to tradition, she definitely brings a unique perspective to the goings-on. We see not only how she interacts with the characters that populate Big Stone Gap, but also how Ave perceives herself along with them. Different interactions with Iva Lou, shy teen Pearl, the town lawyer, and her old pastor are enjoyable and contribute very nicely to Ave's character arc. In my mind, the only area where the story disappoints is the way the love interest(s?) is (are) handled. We never get a sense of the history that Ave says she has with Jack Mac, who doesn't make a huge impression on the reader, or Theodore, whose friendship with Ave is not as affecting as Trigiani intends. Plus, Jack Mac's actions, which evolve from a place of affection, come across as meddlesome. I was much more intrigued by Ave's search for her real father and the family she is dying to meet - and I loved her wonderful independent streak.
The moral of realizing the true meaning of home is a bit generic and I think not exactly earned. But we are meant to like Big Stone Gap, and I was very charmed. Enjoy it for what it is. Rating: 3.5 bottles of Emeraude cologne out of 5.
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