Rating: 
Summary: Zero stars -- blech, blech, blech!
Review: I read a lot of Southern fiction and enjoy quirky characters (see Ann B. Ross's "Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind" for a great read). But this book is a real letdown. The author gives you no reason to care about the characters. She doesn't even seem to know whether her main character is the mother or the oldest daughter; she switches the point of view back and forth between the two characters repeatedly from paragraph to paragraph. Then, just when she has gotten the cast of characters into a real jam, she abandons them there and jumps a few decades ahead in time. There is no explanation of how those people got out of the jam, how they reached their destination, or the interpersonal consequences (reaction of the husband) when they somehow completed the cross-country trip. The end of the book hints at a fire overtaking the mother's home, but doesn't give any payoff. I felt cheated -- cheated out of a potentially good story, cheated out of the money I spent on the book, and cheated out of the time I could have used reading some better book. Don't waste your time on this one. I believe the only reason this author got published is that her husband is movie mogul Jerry Bruckheimer, and the book publisher hoped to [kiss] up to him.
Rating: 
Summary: An entertaining characterization
Review: I read this book in just a few sittings in a Kentucky hospital. My husband was dying, and this book provided an escape from the stress.And I could have sworn Lila Mae was back from California and was working in the cafeteria. Her or her twin. Yes, these characters do exist.
Rating:
Summary: A genuinely funny and entertaining novel
Review: I thought this book was pretty good, and the characters were well-developed and funny. However, I didn't like how halfway through the book their cross-country trip just ended and Lila Mae was suddenly in her old age, in California. But the book kept me wanting to read more.. and not wanting to put the book down. I'd recommend it to you
Rating: 
Summary: Great story up until the last part
Review: I was really enjoying this book to the point where I couldn't put it down. The characters and plot were fascinating and different. It was fun reading about this family's adventures as they traveled across the country. Then right when it got to the point where they were about to finally reach California, the author shifted gears and jumped ahead 30 years into the future. There was no explicable reason for this, and it really hurt the flow and point of the book. By that point, the reader couldn't relate to or even care about the characters anymore. This was an extremely disappointing and confusing ending to an otherwise good story.
Rating:
Summary: Great at the beginning, but....
Review: I'll keep it simple. The first two thirds of the book was great. It was all about the (mis)adventures of a 1950's wife and mother driving a carload of kids (and others) from Kentucky to California, via every side trip imaginable. I couldn't even finish the last third of book, leaving about 30 or so pages unread. SPOILER WARNING -- we never even get to find out how they made it to California! What happened between the Grand Canyon and Los Angeles? How did her husband react to her arriving weeks (months?) late? The book just jumped to present day Los Angeles. This ruined the book.
Rating:
Summary: Great at the beginning, but....
Review: I'll keep it simple. The first two thirds of the book was great. It was all about the (mis)adventures of a 1950's wife and mother driving a carload of kids (and others) from Kentucky to California, via every side trip imaginable. I couldn't even finish the last third of book, leaving about 30 or so pages unread. SPOILER WARNING -- we never even get to find out how they made it to California! What happened between the Grand Canyon and Los Angeles? How did her husband react to her arriving weeks (months?) late? The book just jumped to present day Los Angeles. This ruined the book.
Rating:
Summary: Boring at times, easy to put down
Review: If you are looking for a book to take on a vacation where you won't have any problems putting it down for a while, then you have found it! The book's very weak plot is about Lila Mae and her relationship with her four children. The first 2/3 of the book is a long, drawn out story of their trip across country to meet up with Lila Mae's husband & the kids' father in California. She literally drags the children along on a wild goose chase all over the country with no apparent desire to get to their destination. A trip which took her husband three days takes Lila Mae over a month. The second 1/3 of the book is one long chapter about Lila Mae in her old age, skipping around at some of her memories throughout her life, none of which are particularly engaging. I only stuck with this book because I didn't want to leave it unfinished, but had I done so I would not have missed much.
Rating:
Summary: Booo
Review: If you like a bunch of methaphors and a story that doesn't go anywhere, this is the book to read. If you like some depth to a book, meaning, interesting plot, I wouldn't recommend Dreaming Southern.
Rating:
Summary: Everything There but a Plot
Review: In many respects, this was a well-written book with a cast of cleverly crafted, interesting characters who set off on a journey from Kentucky to California in the late 50s. They have plenty of adventures along the way, largely due to the spur-of-the-moment decisions of the mother (whose motivation I never actually figured out), but to be honest, there simply was no real plot and no particular direction to the book. I feel this could have been such a good book if only a stronger plot had been constructed.
Rating: 
Summary: Both tale and writing are a delightful experience
Review: Lila Mae and her kids take the ride of their lives. Off to California they go, like a raucous bunch of hillbillies ready for any adventure that pops up. Every episode displays these characters to be so real and warmly amusing. But as delightful and poignant as this novel is, it is the writing that carried me along with its vivid images of each unique character and locale. Bruckheimer uses such clever irony with her descriptive passages that this book becomes a kaleidescope of telling pictures that remained with me long after I read the touching final scenes. I can't wait for the next book by this new talent!!!
|
