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Summary: Southern Sisterhood & Family Ties
Review: American Pie is the story of 3 sisters from Tennessee who have suffered a painful childhood. After losing their parents, the girls are raised by their grandmother, Minerva. The story begins when one of the sisters, Jo-Nell, is in an accident, and Freddie and Eleanor, come to her side to help her recover. The characters and their relationships with one another seemed a little under-developed. The novel takes an interesting look at how 3 individuals cope differently given many of the same obstacles to over come, and how they try to free themselves from their current obstacles. I think overall, this novel was just ok. For other great southern writing, try Big Stone Gap by Adrianna Trigiani or Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells.
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Summary: Small Town Southern Charm
Review: Another book to add to that long list of novels exploring and revealing the eccentricities of Southerners. In this case it is the people living in small town Tennesse, particulary three very different sisters, Jo-Nell, Eleanor and Freddie, along with their grandmother, Minerva Pray. In Amercian Pie, Michael Lee West makes these women both bigger than life and true to life in a wonderful alchemy of words and Southern charm. It is a book that is filled more with joy than sadness, although there are heaping portions of both, and it is a book about various ways of running away from yourself and, even better, various ways of coming back to yourself. A wonderful read.
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Summary: Southern Fiction at its Best
Review: I love the south. I love key lime pie and barbequed chicken and cole slaw and old ladies who wear funny hats and sitting out back under the old oak tree, sweat running down my neck dreaming of the northern Indiana winters of my youth. Okay. You caught me. But I do love southern fiction and Michael Lee West does it as well as it can be done. She's got the touch. Eleanor, Freddie, and JoNell have seen their share of death and disappointment and are now at a turning point in each of their lives. You'll love all three of them, as well as Minerva, the grandmother who raised them. I am definitely a Michael Lee West fan after reading AMERICAN PIE and CRAZY LADIES. She takes a story and twists it neatly into a comfortable read, one that was more interesting for me than watching people in an airport or eating lunch. Just plain good!!
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Summary: not the best of West
Review: I really loved Crazy Ladies, so this is like a lukewarm serving of leftovers. It's got elements of whatmade Crazy Ladies so good, but not enough to really compare.Three different adult sisters (cautious Eleanor, scholarly Freddie, and often-married Jo-Nell -- even her first name is hyphenated!) live and learn after the youngest (Jo-Nell) is in a car accident. They live with their grandmother Minerva Pray in Tennessee -- their mother had killed herself years earlier and Eleanor found the body. Gradually, she is getting afraid to leave the house. Freddie's marriage is crumbling and, when she hears of the accident, she returns to her hometown from California and runs into her high-school love. And Jo-Nell is breaking hearts despite her broken bones and bedriddance. This is still a good novel but it takes a while to appreciate it if you read West's other works first.
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Summary: A Visit to Tallulah, Tennessee
Review: If it wasn't for bad luck, the McBroom family wouldn't have any luck at all. This is the first lesson Michael Lee West teaches as you begin reading American Pie. This family has been through a lot...sickness, death, suicide, depression, desertion...The story begins as Freddie, a marine biologist, who escaped life in Tallulah and moved to California, is called home. Her baby sister and town slut, Jo-Nell has been hit by a train, trying to balance a tequila sunrise on her lap while driving and is in critical condition. As Freddie comes home to help out her Grandma Minerva and sister Eleanor, the revelations of the McBroom family begin to pour out. This is a story of love, loss and adversity, narrated by each of the different family members, as they look back on the events of their lives and what brought them to this point. Wonderful characters with strong voices and great writing pull you into the lives of these people and keep you turning pages to the satsifying end of the book. A perceptive story about small town, southern life, that is both poignant and uplifting and told with great humor, wisdom and insight.
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Summary: Fabulous!
Review: If you haven't read Michael Lee West's books - you MUST! And if you haven't read this one - get it NOW! Ms. West creates some of the quirkiest-normal-folk with real life problems right out of Jerry Springer. Her books are entertaining without comparison. The women of this book and their ties to each other are amazing. I'm glad I don't have their lives but I am so glad I got to be a fly on the wall for a few days.
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Summary: Can't go wrong with this one
Review: If you're a fan of great Southern literature such as CRAZY LADIES, DIVINE SECRETS OF THE YA-YA, or Jackson McCrae's BARK OF THE DOGWOOD, then you will love this book. As always, West gives us enough colorful characters to fill the pages of several novels and does it with enough zest and talent that they become larger than life, but not in a cardboard cut-out way. While I did like CRAZY LADIES better than this effort, AMERICAN PIE is still worth your time and money. For that matter, read all of West's books. Also recommended: CRAZY LADIES, BARK OF THE DOGWOOD, FRIED GREEN TOMATOES
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Summary: Best read in a long time
Review: Michael Lee West has truly captured the voice of the Southern woman like no other writer. Continuing in the same vein as two of her previous books, West devotes each chapter to one "voice" bringing in a little extra detail that was missed by a previous character while simultaneously advancing the plot as well. From one sister who was almost killed to one sister who is almost afraid to step out the front door to another in a precarious marriage, West weaves the tapestry of this story like no other author can.
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Summary: Read American Pie for your summer dessert!
Review: Of all the books published in 1996, AMERICAN PIE is one of the most heartwarming and satisfying. It's a magical story of three deliciously wacky sisters: one studies whales, one's an agoraphobic doughnut baker, and one lusts after cowboys and tequila. When the sisters are brought together after a near-tragedy, sparks begin to fly! These ladies are so real you'll swear you can smell their perfume. Like Anne Tyler, Ms. West has a true talent for creating lively characters. The book has been compared to CRIMES of the HEART. It'll be a crime if you miss AMERICAN PIE! Mostly though, whenever I read one of West's books, I stay up all night. Maybe you will, too
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Summary: Expect the Unexpected!
Review: The three McBroom sisters get more thrown their way than most people can handle. They think they are cursed and tragedy doesn't just strike in threes for them, it occurs in 6's. While this book focuses a lot on the tragedies that befall this southern family, there are a lot of funny things that happen also. These three girls are as different as different can be. Freddie is a genius marine biologist, Eleanor is a recluse who barely leaves the house except in the company of old widows, and Jo-Nell is the black sheep of the family sleeping her way through all the men in the small town of Tallulah (including the ones with wives). When Jo-Nell is in an accident involving a train Freddie leaves the west coast and travels once again to the town of her childhood.
The things that happen as the sisters are reunited again are funny and sad. They all three make life changing discoveries about themselves and realize who they really are. This book by West draws out the Southern small town setting and every woman can relate in some way to at least one of the sisters.
I love books by West and she has yet again made a charming read with this one!
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