Without redundancy, the book alternates the first-person point of view between the three women, chapter for chapter.

Even in a society steeped in Christian faith (all the women are fervent believers who frame their self-awareness within a relationship to God) prayer may not adequately address the obstacles faced in these pages. The patriarchal structure of the Deep South is built to excuse the evil in the most upstanding of its citizens, forcing some sins to be answered with violence. Within the attention to the details of heat and geography, however, Spera excavates the deepest truths of how these women have suffered profoundly at the hands of men. How to kill an alligator, (“You got to watch for the weakness, and take your shot to the back of the head.”), the “pudding” that is the soft, savory product of pig’s intestines, and more home cure remedies than you can shake a stick at. They also share the traditions associated with place and time that are hallmarks of Southern literature. Gertie, a swamp-dwelling mother of four daughters, escapes brutal physical abuse at the hands of her husband, Retta, a freed slave who still works for The Coles, the wealthy family who once owned her family, and Annie, the wife to Edwin Coles, the paterfamilias.Īll three women share the pain of loss: Retta a daughter, Annie a son, and Gertie seems to be losing herself, even while she fights to survive with a fierce determination. She presents three South Carolina women who reside in the same low country region but who occupy distinctly separate social stations even while they eventually live and work side by side. Louisville native Deb Spera may not yet earn a spot in such august company, but her engrossing debut novel is a rich and evocative tale that examines early 20th-century rural southern culture through the lens of early 21st-century reactionary feminism. The literature of the American South has been a dominant strain in American letters for several generations, and from Flannery O’Connor to Carson McCullers, women have been significant contributors to this genre.

Deb spera author