“Whistling Past the Graveyard” by Susan Crandall
Published by Gallery Books
Finished 7/19/16 – 4/5 stars
I’ve heard this book compared to “Secret Life of Bees”, “The
Help” and “To Kill a Mockingbird” and it made me wonder if it could really
stand up to such comparisons. Those are
all wonderful books so that is quite a statement. I was skeptical because I’ve read other
comparisons in reviews that I found to be completely without merit, as if
trying to rope you in simply by mentioning a best seller when truly the books
are nothing alike. Well, in this instance I can tell you that
those comparisons are absolutely correct.
Starla can easily be compared to Scout Finch and Eula can easily be
compared to Aibileen Clark. These are
strong female characters in a story that takes place in Mississippi during
1963.
Starla is a feisty red-headed 9 year old girl living with
her grandmother while her father is off working on an oil rig and her mother is
in Nashville trying to become a singer.
When she gets herself in trouble, yet again, she decides to run away to
Nashville to live with her mother rather than be sent to reform school. That same evening, a black woman named Eula
is on her way home from delivering pies she baked, sees someone abandoning
a baby on the church steps, and decides to take it. While driving home, Eula comes across Starla
and stops to see if she’s OK. Starla
ends up climbing into the truck and from that moment on the two form quite a
bond, helping each other through various struggles over the next couple
weeks. You will laugh, you will tear up,
and you will fall in love with both Starla and Eula while you read about their
journey. And then I know you will
recommend it to your friends because you will love the book as well.
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