Cold Sassy Tree was number 33 on The List. After reading it, I was surprised that it's on the list at all, let alone in the top 50. It's not that I didn't like it, I just wasn't blown away by it. At my book club meeting when I told people that I had just read it, there were gasps and exclamations about how truly wonderful the book is. I wonder if I am missing something?
PLOT SUMMARY
This book takes place in 1906 in a little town called Cold Sassy in Georgia. Cold Sassy is named after a Sassafrass tree that stands in the town. Hence the book's title. The author writes the accent of the characters in - ex: "What we go'n do, Will Tweedy, we go'n line yore grandma's grave with these here roses." This goes on throughout the book and you get used to it, though I know one of my readers didn't like this and quit reading it early on. It had the effect of making me feel an overwhelming urge to speak in a Southern twang the week that I was reading it, which I only surpressed when other people were around.
The story is told from the first-person perspective of Will Tweedy, a 14-year-old boy. He's a likeable character, which greatly enhances the story. There is a sharp contrast between the way he behaves and the way modern kids behave. No talking back at all, they worked their asses off pretty much non-stop and unquestioningly obeyed their elders.
The main event in the story revolves around Will's grandfather. His wife, Will's grandma has very recently died. She was a hugely important figure in the family, and her daughers and grandchildren miss her very much. It is a great scandal when Will's grandpa announces that he is getting married only three weeks after Grandma is buried.
I probably need to emphasize again how much of a scandal this is. It's 1906, and people still are expected to observe a full year of mourning when someone close to them dies. Mourning entails wearing nothing but black, and abstaining from pretty much every fun activity. It would be scandalous for Will to play football, so that might shed some light on how scandalous it is for Grandpa to actually marry someone else. Not only is it way, way, way too soon, the woman is very young, not even 30 years old - she is younger than Grandpa's oldest daughter.
Grandpa is an eccentric man who enjoys success as the owner of the town's only general good store. He gets away with a lot, including picking fist fights and drinking whiskey in the middle of the day. He's a complex character and I'm not sure whether I like him or not. He seems wise because he doesn't let the opinion of others, or social propriety influence him, but he also has the ability to be very mean to people. His son-in-law, a man who is chronically unsuccessful, slow and maybe even stupid, takes many harsh, public criticisms from Grandpa. Will is a favorite of his though and from his perspective, you also see Grandpa's many good qualities.
The woman he's planning on marrying - Miss Love -- is very pretty and the object of Will's desire, although he never acts upon it. Everyone wonders why in the world she would marry the old man, and assume it is because she is after his money. In truth, she marries him because he tells her he'll leave her his house if she will marry him. He says he wants her to be his wife in name only and to act more as a housekeeper than wife. She has had a very hard life, and to her this sounds like a good deal.
The town shuns the couple, despite the fact that Miss Love is very sweet. She brings many positive changes to Grandpa's life, including getting him to improve his appearance, make changes to the store and to the house. This only makes Grandpa's daughters angrier, as she is given things that Grandma never got - like a brand new car and indoor plumbling.
Eventually it comes out the Grandpa is very much in love with Miss Love, and they start a love story, all of which is witnessed and narrated by Will.
REVIEW
The book is charming, and captures the differences between life back then and life
today. There are things that seem like they were so much better - people knew each other, helped their neighbors, lived a simpler life. There are things that sound intolerable - you were judged for everything, life was harder and there was an endless amount of work and a very finite amount of freedom. It was fun to read about how an entire town would get wildly excited about one person buying a car. THere's a subplot that involves Will's love for a girl who is very much from the wrong side of the tracks and therefore completely forbidden. That was interesting and sweet. Interesting things happen in the book -- Will is run over by a train and you find out that Miss Love had a VERY sordid past. Still, I found the plot to be a little slow, and all in all, was just left with a feeling of being underwhelmed by the book.
RATING
I have to give this one && -- Two ampersands
I know this review is totally boring, but eh -- that's what happens when the book is kind of boring. Stay tuned. I'm currently reading #65 - Enders Game...and LOVING it..
41 down, 59 to go -- woohoo!
