A Gracious Plenty Published by Crown by Sheri Reynolds
on September 8, 1997
Genres: Adult, American South, Contemporary, Fantasy, Ghosts, Literary Fiction, Magical Realism, Paranormal
Pages: 205
Source: Purchased
Format: Hardcover
Find the Author: Website, Goodreads
Find the Book: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads
ISBN: 0609803875
Rating:
Badly burned in a household accident when she was a child, Finch Nobles grows into a courageous and feisty loner who eschews the pity of her hometown and discovers that she can hear the voices of the people buried in her father's cemetery. Finally, when she speaks to them, they answer, telling their stories in a remarkable chorus of regrets, explanations, and insights. A Gracious Plenty is like an extraordinary amalgam of Steinbeck and Faulkner, Spoon River Anthology and Our Town. It is a reading experience that you will not soon forget.
This was a book club read that we actually got at a used book sale. And I don’t think it was entirely what I was expecting–but I thoroughly enjoyed it.
For a short read–at around 200 pages–it was surprisingly fulfilling–for the most part.
The characters were diverse and incredibly real. I don’t think I’ve read a story where the characters and their flaws were so glaringly just out there. Yet, at the same time, that realness lent a beauty to the story that otherwise shallow characters, cannot.
My only real issue with this book was that the ending was just sort of– raw. Unfinished. I felt like I was taken on a journey with Finch and the rest–only to be left with so many unanswered questions.
About Sheri Reynolds
Sheri Reynolds is an author of contemporary Southern fiction.
Sheri Reynolds was born and raised in rural South Carolina. She graduated from Conway High School in 1985, Davidson College in 1989, and Virginia Commonwealth University in 1992.
Her published novels include Bitterroot Landing, The Rapture of Canaan (an Oprah book club selection and New York Times bestseller), A Gracious Plenty (98), Firefly Cloak (06), The Sweet In-Between (08), and The Homespun Wisdom of Myrtle T. Cribb (12) and The Tender Grave (21). Her first play, Orabelle's Wheelbarrow, won the Women Playwrights' Initiative playwriting competition for 2005.
Also Professor of English and the Ruth and Perry Morgan Chair of Southern Literature at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA, Sheri teaches creative writing and literature classes. She won the Outstanding Faculty Award from the State Council for Higher Education of Virginia in 2003. In 2005, she received a grant from the Virginia Commission for the Arts in playwriting. She has also taught at Virginia Commonwealth University, The College of William and Mary, and Davidson College.
Sheri lives in the town of Cape Charles on Virginia's Eastern Shore.
Great review, Christine! It’s too bad you were left with unanswered questions. I know I hate that too when it happens in a book I’m reading.
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What a lovely review you have here Christine. Its always the best when the characters feel so real.
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Thank you so much!!