Book Blurb:
"My life was close to being perfect until my brother Alex got killed. Then my mother started drinking and my father started having sex with Donna, my best friend's stepmother. She's not even thirty years old."
Andi St. James's privileged Atlanta life is turned upside down after her brother's tragic death. As the relationships around her crumble, Andi embarks on a poignant and sometimes laugh-out-loud journey of self-discovery, when she learns the devastating consequences of deception and realizes that making the most of what you've got is a big part of all that is true.
My thoughts:
Andi is from a very affluent family. Her father is a well known attorney who makes a generous living, affording their mother the comfort of staying home with a maid/cook and a gardener/driver. Andi does not know the meaning of doing without the material things in life.
When Andi's brother is killed in a hazing gone wrong - the family begins to show cracks. Andi's mother starts drinking, her father begins an affair with the next door neighbor and her sister shows signs of discontent with her soon to be husband.
But everyone retains their manners.
This is where I have my 'what' moments. All That's True is a lovely book, full of humor and the coming of age story of a young girl - however, the time period does not ring true for me. This book is set in 1991 - but it reads like 1971. Everyone is so mannerly and the girls seem so naive. I know this is before cell phones and the internet craze - but '91 was not tame by any stretch of the imagination.
I enjoyed All That's True as much as I've enjoyed the previous books I've read from Jackie Lee Miles, because let's face it, Ms. Miles is a wonderful story teller and her books do take you to another time and place.
M
4 comments:
Hi Michelle!
Okay, I don't read chick lit, I mean I read a little just so I can say I'm not ignoring the genre, but it's not my favorite, and it seems to take me a long time to finish. It sounds like good story telling here.
Thanks for an honest review!
D :)
Hi Michelle,
So very true, she is a wonderful storyteller. But that which you said made me think, perhaps she should just have set the date as 71 instead
Dottie,
I'm not much for chic lit either - but every now and again, it makes for a nice change. :)
B,
That was the feeling I got from it - like it should have been in an earlier, less 'mtv generation' time.
M
Hello from author Jackie Lee Miles.
Thanks for the great review even though it sounds like I got the era wrong in which I wrote the novel. Maybe next time I'll get it right. I keep trying.
Best,
Jackie Lee Miles
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