The power of friendship and family transforms life.
22 met at the home of Ann Ireland to discuss this month’s selection and enjoy our Bookers’ thespian extraordinaire, Jean Alexander in the character of Eleanor, bring this story alive. Please keep Virginia Gandy in your prayers as she broke her leg while in Oklahoma attending her brother’s funeral.
We welcomed new members, Cathy Hernandez and Jeana Cunningham attending their first meeting and were delighted to have Melba Holt and Debbie Ellsworth join us today. There must have been news in the “Pinnacle Social Graces” column that Jean was “performing” today as Carol Pinkus surprised her life-long friend witnessing an Oscar-worthy performance.
The Production
Jean began with a short review of this wonderful book, excusing herself while I detailed the author’s profile, reemerging as the dowdy, spinster Eleanor, who had been elderly since she was twelve, donning a curly gray wig and white apron. In Ann’s kitchen Eleanor was rolling out dough and musing about her life. The more she talked about her long-time fiancée of twenty-nine years, Jimmy, the angrier she got with their situation, vowing to transform fuddy-duddy prim, dull, Eleanor into a carefree, modern, sassy version of herself starting with the sounds of Les Baxter’s music filling the room with the sweet sounds of strings. She imagined she was dancing with a man, maybe Les himself even though he looked like an insurance salesman, but maybe his fortune cookie once read, “You will meet a Methodist woman with chubby legs who makes great pies and owns, not one, but two very sassy but also modest bathing suits.” After dipping and swaying to the music, Eleanor declared she was done, done with Jimmy, done with her life as she had lived it. She would be a woman to be reckoned with.
The Summary
All Bookers either liked or loved the book and the characters…with only one on the fence.
When the Brooklyn Dodgers beat the New York Yankees in the seventh game of the 1955 World Series, Sheriff Winston Browne’s life replayed before him…what he had, what he had lost…the family he never had. The novel, rich in storytelling and profound insights into the human condition, tells the tale of a dying man who achieves peace with his life; a runaway girl who finds a family; a wayward teenage boy who discovers his place in the world; and a devout Methodist spinster. We were treated to a heavy dose of the celebration of the everyday hero; of how a small act of kindness can change a life; of ice cream socials, baseball, love, and death…all part of everyone’s life. Winston’s profoundness reflected on the essence of boyhood – life happened now…there were no tomorrows and yesterdays were a photograph. “Children were much wiser than adults in many ways.”
Winston Browne experienced a tender, genuine, sweet love story with the new and improved spinster, Eleanor; a family type bond with the runaway girl, Jessie; served as a father figure for Buzz, a troubled teen; and endured a split that healed with his lifelong friend, Jimmy. The fictional town of Moab in Florida’s Panhandle, said to be so small the city limit signs could both be nailed to the same post, could conjure up images of Mayberry with Sheriff Browne as Andy Taylor – good-hearted, wise, and levelheaded living up to the “protect and serve” motto of law enforcement. The worse the town folk were guilty of was gossip.
On Amazon out of 898 reviews, there were only two critical reviews, one saying it was too folksy.
About the Author
Sean Dietrich was born in Missouri as was Samuel Clemens aka, Mark Twain. He was twelve when his father killed himself and the family moved to Florida’s Panhandle. He didn’t start writing until he was an adult, after going back to school at Okaloosa-Walton Community College and only began at the urging of his teachers and his wife. Growing up he did read a lot, using it as an escape from a childhood that “was not good.”
He’s also a skilled musician and artist and has been married to the love of his life, Jamie, for eighteen years. They first met in a bookstore, but the second time she laid eyes on him, he was standing on stage at her church, holding a guitar and singing and she told a friend she was going to marry him. On their first date riding in his restored MG to the bookstore where they first met, he confessed he’d always known he would marry an older woman. On the next date, he asked her how she felt about him saying, “I’m looking to get married and I think you’re it.” Six months later, they tied the knot.
Discussion
Which character affected you the most? Was there one you see yourself in? Eleanor won over the majority…some asked what was wrong with her that she just didn’t boot Jimmy to the curb…it was a different generation, there were not a lot of options in the small town…might have been a comfort to know she had “someone.” When she transformed into the new and improved Eleanor because of Winston’s attention, she didn’t give a hoot what the town said about her – she felt good about herself for once in her life. Jessie resonated with the tomboy in one of our members who confessed she played in the mud, learned to shoot, and tried to join the Boy Scouts. Buz was a favorite because of what he had to survive, his loyalty to his mother and his needs and his values. Because the author fully developed the characters into “living beings” we could relate to, we could see their flaws and identify with our own.
Did Moab remind you of any place? Pinnacle and every small-town USA especially in the 1950s and Andy Taylor’s Mayberry. We talked about the “gossip column,” Social Graces, in the local newspaper which detailed who did what with who and when. It became a character in the book as did the columnist. This book also reminded us of Fannie Flagg’s novels.
We discussed some of the book’s Pearls of Wisdom and our own input on how we should strive to live our lives – you don’t have to make a huge impact on someone to make a difference – small gestures of kindness are equally appreciated and cherished. Winston realized at the end of his life he had been wrong…it was not a kind of walk, it was not a journey, it was art, like a flower…it was a gift. We talked about cigarettes and their role in the novel and how the military furnished them to the soldiers, the addiction, and how difficult it was to quit.
What about the closing chapter when the story’s characters reunite at the annual Winston Browne Classic?
I loved seeing the happily-ever-after scenario paying tribute to a man who had a profound impact on the town and the residents. It wrapped the story up in a neat package announcing even after tragedy, life goes on, but we never forget those who loved big and dearly. When asked what “we” can do for you, Winston, said, “Don’t forget me.” And they didn’t. We liked knowing what happen to those characters that we were emotionally invested in. It also described how the town itself had changed from a local café to chains of fast-food restaurants – much like Athens.
Winston’s go-to book was always Mark Twain’s Life on the Mississippi. It served as an analogy to the solitude of steamboating to Winston’s own struggle with his death sentence. The river was full of variables and Twain spoke of it as living, breathing being requiring the pilot to know the Mississippi blindfolded. With Winston’s diagnosis his life was full of variables, of unknowns and unforeseen challenges with the outcome totally out of his control. He was the pilot of his own ship going quietly up and down his medical journey navigating in darkness with great mastership, succumbing to his impending death with dignity splashed with humor. His version of Twain’s memoir might be titled, Strike Three You’re Out.
Jean handed out gold-wrapped coins as a tribute to Winston’s routine saying, “That’s a million dollars in sugar.” I’m going to leave you with this analogy as shared by one of our members:
An old man was walking on the beach one morning and saw a young boy gently picking up starfish and throwing them back into the ocean. He asked him why he was doing that, to which he responded, “If I don’t they will die.” The old man remarked, “Don’t you realize there are miles of beach and thousands of starfish. You can’t possibly make a difference.” The young boy listened politely, picked up another one and threw it in the ocean saying, “I made a difference for that one.”
Happy Reading,
JoDee
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