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Summary: Loved these characters
Review: And I think I may know some of them here in NC. Didn't want the book to end. How do I get an invitation to dinner?
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Summary: Honest, Lighthearted Storytelling
Review: Because I'm a complete and total idiot I read this book and its sequel in reverse order. However, I found that my blunder didn't spoil the plot in the slightest bit. The two plots were completely individual--you needn't read one to understand the other.Egypt tells a story of an old woman named Mattie who's "slowing down." At 78 she fears she's getting careless and senile, however has too much pride to give up the lifestyle she's become accustomed to: watching her soaps at 1 PM everyday and making sure no one knows it. She won't even keep a dog because she's so set in her routines that she fears she won't have time to mind it. You know the sort: those Southern women whom would tell strangers fixing their shutters or delivering their mail what time they should stop by on a given day so that they can have a hot slice of pie waiting for them when they come by. Those strangers will inevitably show up, too (wearing a bib and carrying a paper plate and piece of tin foil to take some home with them). Mattie reminded me so much of my ever-servicing grandmother that I had to cringe. The monkey-wrench that gets thrown into the works is Wesley: a juvenile delinquent who oddly enough is willing to change his heathen ways in exchange for a piece of "the best pound cake ever" and the ability to take a hot bath. This blend of sinner and saint in novels is nothing innovative, but the extent to which Edgerton stretches it out it seems to be almost hyperbole. (I can assure you from my own experiences that it's not!) I loved this book. There's so much of the North Carolina I know in it that it makes me giddy
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Summary: Life in the South of the Past.
Review: Because of that dog, Mattie's life changed from complacency to a purpose which led to a friendship with the local dogcatcher and a fondness for Wesley, the grandchild she'd never have. He wanted to think that she was his grandmother, as he did not remember his mother.
Both her children (daughter and son) had remained unmarried and, like sons today, had little time to attend to her needs. After all, she is aging and having 'problems' coping; that is, until Lamar and Wesley take advantage of her good home cooking.
She not only saves Wesley literally, but the dog also, as she changed her mind about needing a companion in her latter years. She decided maybe it was her time to 'walk across Egypt' and get on with her life.
There were some Southern stereotypes like the Baptist preacher and nosey neighbors, but Wesley was an orphan of the world. He could be anyone's lost child who just needed to feel a bit of love and some direction of right and wrong. Mattie provides both. Each needed the other for different reasons and the ending proves that environment indeed does count more than genes.
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Summary: Clyde Edgerton puts on quite a dance with Mattie & Wesley
Review: First I read Raney. Then I read everything Clyde Edgerton has written. And I don't know why this book is classified as YA; I'm a good 5 decades removed from YA status, and I loved this book.
Walking Across Egypt, the title of church-going Mattie's favorite hymn, is southern folks, southern setting, southern cooking, and southern humor at their best. Once she's finished watching her soap operas, Mattie Riggsbee, a 78yo widow, decides to take in Wesley, a small-time juvenile delinquent, and determines to see if her pies and biscuits can make an honest young man of him. They need each other in wildly different ways, as rapidly becomes apparent. The plot gathers speed when Wesley high-tails it to Mattie's house when he escapes from a detention center - and the sheriff comes a-calling.
Highest recommendation - for adults, and yes, for YAs, too.
Rating:
Summary: Funny and Sweet with a Twist
Review: I have read all of Clyde Edgarton's books, and loved them all. This is still my favorite as all the main characters receive some kind of redemption and achieve some sense of meaning in their lives through interactions with each other. it's such a life affirming book that it should be read by anyone going through a troubling patch. The grandma in the story attempts to help a dilinquent teen, and has a number of mis-adventures along the way. It's an entertaining ditty with some good lessons in it for everyone.
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Summary: Not the best
Review: I have recently become a Clyde Edgerton fan so I'm reading a lot of his books. My favorite is Raney and I also very much enjoyed Killer Diller. What I really like is how real the people seem, products of their environment but rising above it with regularity. This one fell a little short. Mattie is spunky and her values are admirable as she tries to help Wesley, one of the "least of us." Some of the others in the story, however, seem a little brittle and stereotyped: Mattie's children, Robert and Elaine; the handyman, Lamar; the neighbors and the other members of the church. I finished the book wishing the best for Mattie and Wesley and the dog but with no regrets that the book was over. Not bad, but not, in my opinion, the best of this author.
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Summary: Fun, Fast Paced, but with a troubling end.
Review: I read this book while recuperating from surgery, and it was just what I needed- light and faced paced. Lots of funny moments. (Who can forget when Mattie got stuck in the chair?) It doesn't ask a lot of the reader, it just feels good to read it. Mattie just wants to be a good person. She understands that she has faults, but she just wants to do the right thing and strives to do it even when the odds, her age, family and neighbors, are stacked against her. She's a Christian lady, but Edgerton doesn't turn the book into a sappy testimonial, which is a relief. With all the trendy, schmaltzy evangelical books out there right now, it's hard to give a book with a Christian main character a chance, but Miss Mattie is as genuine as they come. The book's main drawback is the ending. A whole new crop of problems arises for the main character, 74 year old Mattie, and the book ends with her not understanding the severity of them. I closed the book expecting the kids to put her in a nursing home. Not the kind of ending I wanted for Miss Mattie!
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Summary: Intriguing
Review: I think this book was very good. Walking Across Egypt was my first book by Edgerton and I'm really excited about reading more of his selections. It was really down to earth and had a great message. I'm not to big of a book reader but it really grabed my attention and kept me interested. I would recommend this book to everyone.
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Summary: A Fantastic Story for the Whole Family
Review: Mattie Rigsbee, an older woman and mother of two children, lives alone in a small southern town. She is "slowing down" according to her, but keeps up a very lively pace for someone of her age. Her two children are middle aged and still single, something that she just cannot understand or change, no matter how hard she tries. Mattie's enjoyment in life comes from cooking for anyone that stops by, no matter who they are. This little bit of kindness gets her in trouble when she meets Wesley Benfield. Wesley is the local dogcatcher's nephew and a juvenile delinquent. Mattie cooks him some food and takes it to him in the detention center. This act of kindness towards Wesley makes him believe Mattie is his grandmother. She was only trying to be kind to " the least of [his] brethren" as it says in the Bible, but this little gesture begins a whole lot of trouble for Mattie and the residents of her small town. This book is a wonderful read for people of all ages. Edgerton does a magnificent job of conveying a story about family values and southern cooking in this outstanding novel. Anyone who has an older grandmother who is "slowing down" will sympathize and relate to this book immediately. Mattie is a wonderfully dynamic character, and this book is filled with delightful humor. This author does an incredible job of displaying old southern values and showing how one person, though a little "out there", can make a difference.
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Summary: Warm, offbeat humor dished up glorified and Southern-fried.
Review: The voice of the Southern writer, Clyde Edgerton, will dance a jig across your heart in "Walking Across Egypt." Edgerton's characters are more than realistic. They're alive and kicking and most definitely of the Southern persuasion. The widowed Mattie Rigsbee's belief that she must follow the Lord and "love the least of these my brethren," nearly gets her in a heap of trouble when she meets young Wesley Benfield, a pie-lovin', biscuit-eatin' juvenile delinquent who's not yet seen the error of his ways but relishes her cooking and likes taking a bath in her tub anyway. Mattie decides to help reform the boy, but only after she's finished watching her daily dose of "All My Children," gone casket shopping with her sister Pearl before it's too late for either one of them, and worriedly wondered whether her own two children will ever settle down and have families of their own. The book made this Southern transplant long for good ol' Southern meals and the pitch and timbre of the Southern accent. Even if you're not a Southerner, these are voices you'll want to hear
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