Rating: 
Summary: Southern Comfort
Review: "You know those pivotal moments in your life that you don't see coming? The ones you wished arrived with a timer going off so you'd know this is it! Well, when the phone rang in February, you couldn't have convinced me that six months later, Mother would be in "the box" and I'd be wearing her pearls, twisting them around my finger exactly like she used to do." So begins "Plantation" the tale of Caroline Wimbley Levine and her flamboyant mother, Miss Lavinia, "the ACE basin version of Auntie Mame." Add to that a practicing psychiatrist husband with more bats in his belfry than the Sistine Chapel, an alcoholic, gambling brother with a perpetually pregnant white trash wife and three uncivilized kids, and you have a book you can't to put down. But Dottie Frank, best selling author of "Sullivan's Island," was not quite satisfied with her cast of characters. She created an intelligent, organized female plantation overseer who sees that the entire family doesn't jump headlong into the Edisto River. Not done yet, the author then puts life into a young dreadlocked Kama Sutra lover who makes Caroline "twitch in places she didn't even know were nerve endings." Caroline has been living in New York City for fifteen years when she is called home by her brother, Tripp, who fears that Miss Lavinia, the Queen of Tall Pines Plantation, has popped her cork. As the only daughter, it's high time, so says her brother, that Caroline gets herself on back home to see about the situation. (Situations are what the Wimbleys call family trouble.) Like any good daughter, Caroline flies south to tend to Mama and by doing so, once again becomes involved in the dysfunctional family antics that sent her dashing off to New York City in the first place. Plantation is delightful. As a former South Carolina Low Country woman myself, Dottie Frank's words were so beautifully painted on the page that I could almost feel the cool, dark waters of the Edisto River and smell the dirt that surrounds it. Southerners will love the richness with which Benton Frank writes of family secrets, tantalizing the reader to become as enmeshed in their "situation" as Caroline, Tripp, Millie and the ever zany Miss Lavinia. This bright new star on the literary horizon writes from the heart. You will put the book down for only one reason: to wipe the tears of laughter from your eyes.
Rating:
Summary: Plantation
Review: Great summer read, yanh!If you are looking for a great summer beach book, try Plantation by Dorothea Benton Frank. Even better than Sullivan's Island, it is such great fun reading this lowcountry tale. The family is dysfunctional enough to be Southern, eccentric enough to make you laugh out loud, and human enough to make you cry. The matriarch, Miss Lavinia, is a hoot! I was torn between cringing at her antics and yet wanting to be like her in my old age. The battles between Miss Lavinia's daughter, Mrs. Caroline Wimbley Levine, and her perpetually pregnant low-life sister-in-law rage on while the crown prince son drinks on amidst gambling, infidelity, and a cast of zany supporting characters. All of the ordinary story elements are here -wealth, marriages in crisis, parenting, the struggle to be independent balanced against the need to go home. However, Dorothea Benton Frank has made the characters come alive in such a delightful way that Thomas Wolfe is proved wrong - you can go home again! After weeks of searching for the perfect summer read, I finally found it! Any book with a chapter titled, "Miss Lavinia Would Like to Have a Word with You", just has to be read!
Rating: 
Summary: Comfort Book
Review: Having recently read Sullivan's Island, I was in the mood for another low country heartwarming story. Filled with likeable characters and interesting story lines, Plantation lived up to my expectations. This story begins with Caroline Wimbly, a woman raised in South Carolina who ran away as early as she could to New York city. She thought she was better off for leaving her roots behind, but a call from her brother leads her back to Tall Pines, where she grew up. Her brother and his low life wife want to place their wealthy mom into a home so that they can take over her Plantation. Caroline discovers her mother better than she ever remembered her, and soon she finds her old life might suit her better than the one she's created. Caroline goes home to New York, only to face the truth about her deeply disatisfying marriage. She returns with her son "home" to South Carolina to live in her childhood home. The bond developed between Caroline and her mother is heartwarming and strong, as is that with her brother. The family pulls together to pull him out of his bind. Although this story has its share of sadness and unfortunate events, the family's ability to pull together and come through makes it more uplifting than depressing. Miss Lavinia, Caroline's mother, is a particularly spirited and enjoyable character. Her friends and helpers -- especially her estate manager Millie, a woman who claims special powers -- are also pertinant and effective people in the story. All of the characters are well developed, and help make this story one you will crawl right into.
Rating:
Summary: Auntie Mame, Low Country Style
Review: Here is a book to hold to your heart, it is that good. And before I even get to the fun, lively and irresistible plot, let me just say that we know on page one that Miss Lavinia, our own Low Country Auntie Mame, has passed away. And yet at the end, when we have finished getting to know her and attend her death and funeral, I was crying like a baby. And I don't cry at books!!
The plot to this book is true to Dotty Frank's genre: displaced Low Country gal comes home, gets mesmerized, and slowly regains her roots. In this case, the woman is Caroline Wimbley Levine, married to a cold and smug psychiatrist, Richard, and living in equally cold luxury in New York with their beloved son Eric.
When Caroline hears from her brother Trip that their mother, Lavinia, is losing her marbles and must be put in assisted living, Caroline grabs Eric and goes home for what she thinks will be for a few days. And there she is caught up in the gullah magic; the Low Country mystique (in which I thoroughly believe, thanks to Dotty's wonderful books) and a chance to become, once again, the "real" Caroline.
This might be the best of the four books Dotty Frank has so-far written. I cannot praise it highly enough. Grab it and lose yourself in a truly wonderful read!
Rating: 
Summary: Another saccharin stereotype of Southern life
Review: I cannot say enough good things about Dottie Frank... She is such an exceptional author. She has a way with words that just brings her reader in.
I am originally from the lowcountry. I moved what seems to be a world away and am now on the slow but steady journey back home. Her books have aided in my realization of how precious the past and the people in it are. I have gained a newfound respect for the wisdom of my mother, aunt and grandmother. I want my daughter to be just as blessed!
READ HER BOOKS!!!! ALL OF THEM!
Rating:
Summary: Just Awful- really deserves no stars
Review: I hated this book. It is, from cover-to-cover, chock-full of cliches. The faithful black family retainers; the silly, southern belle best friends; the wacky mother (Lavinia);the conflicted main character (Caroline).
I also found the book a little anti-semitic in that the most vile character in the book is Caroline's Jewish husband who tells her he will come to see her mother "after she's dead". Caroline's brother, who treats his wife and children like second class citizens, however, is given all sorts of excuses for his behavior and given a pass on an affair, all the while Caroline is criticizing her husband for his sexual proclivities. Ridiculous.
I thought Lavinia's illness was a cheap shot plot point to garner the reader's sympathy. I just kept wishing for Lavinia to die already.
I also found that "yanh" southern dialect for "hear" EXTREMELY annoying, as it was on every other page.
It is mystifying to me that so many people gave this book 4 and 5 stars. Evidently a great number of people have never read good literature
Rating:
Summary: Carolina Girls, You are missing out if you haven't read this
Review: I LOVED this book! Please refer to my review on Frank's other book Sullivan's Island if you want to hear more of what I have to say about her writing. I liked this book better than "Sullivan's Island" but I loved both. This story is amazing. Could NOT put this down and man is hard to get things done with your head stuck in a book but it flew by! I was sooo sad when the book ended because I wanted to read more! The characters are awesome and the images correctly portray the beautiful lands in SC! I totally can relate to traveling to another big city further north, but how those roots in the South and with the family and old friends just keep dragging you back towards home! And Frank, thank you for putting the piece at the end about how to contribute to preserving the ACE Basin! As a young person, I know that eventually I will want to pick out a few charities that I want to give to in my life, but I really wanted to pick something that I'm passionate about...this is definitely one!
Rating:
Summary: Carolina Girls, You are missing out if you haven't read this
Review: I LOVED this book! Please refer to my review on Frank's other book Sullivan's Island if you want to hear more of what I have to say about her writing. I liked this book better than "Sullivan's Island" but I loved both. This story is amazing. Could NOT put this down and man is hard to get things done with your head stuck in a book but it flew by! I was sooo sad when the book ended because I wanted to read more! The characters are awesome and the images correctly portray the beautiful lands in SC! I totally can relate to traveling to another big city further north, but how those roots in the South and with the family and old friends just keep dragging you back towards home! And Frank, thank you for putting the piece at the end about how to contribute to preserving the ACE Basin! As a young person, I know that eventually I will want to pick out a few charities that I want to give to in my life, but I really wanted to pick something that I'm passionate about...this is definitely one!
Rating:
Summary: Her second excellent book!
Review: PLANTATION by Dorothea Benton Frank PLANTATION is the second book I've read by the author Dorothea Benton Frank. I was not thrilled with her first book, SULLIVAN'S ISLAND. But I already had PLANTATION in my pile of books to be read, and many have told me that this book was much better than her first. So, I read it. PLANTATION, like SULLIVAN'S ISLAND, is a story that takes place in the "low country" of South Carolina. This area includes Sullivan's Island (outside of Charleston) as well as the ACE basin, the area where the Ashepoo, Combahee, and the Edisto Rivers join at St Helena's Sound. It's a picturesque area of beauty that only nature could create, and it is near the Edisto River on a plantation called Tall Pines Plantation that the bulk of this story takes place. Caroline Wimbley Levine's search for happiness is one of the main themes of this book. She's married to a man that was once her professor in college, and while at one time in her life she loved this man with a passion, she is now at a point where she needs her space. The plot though is not as simple as that. Caroline is fighting demons in her head. She's grown up almost hating her mother for a past that started with her father's death. When her brother Trip asks her to come home to check on their mother's mental stability, Caroline does just that. After being gone for so many years, the memories come flooding back, memories of her father, the only parent she thought she loved, and a mother that abandoned them emotionally after their father had passed on. She becomes reacquainted with her brother and his wife, the lowly Frances Mae, who seems so uncouth that she embarrasses the entire family, including Trip. Through it all, she finds that she can come back home again, finds that she has bonded with her mother again, and returns to New York a much happier person. However, things in New York have not changed. Upon returning she finds that her husband has been unfaithful to her, and the scene where she confronts the two of them is something I will never forget. Now that her marriage to her husband Richard has failed, her mother's warnings about marrying Richard haunt her. It seems that no matter what she does, her mother never approves. She can never live up to her mother's high expectations. Now, with her husband left behind in New York, Caroline hopes to start a new life in South Carolina. With her son Eric, she moves back to Tall Pines Plantation with her mother. Another theme of this book is the unforgettable character of Miss Lavinia, Caroline's mother. She is a woman of southern class and is so outgoing and gregarious that she is almost a caricature of a woman of the Deep South. Lavinia is loved by all, and even Caroline cannot help but love her mother, who outside of her faults, is such a likeable person, but a formidable force in the family and amongst those who live their lives around her. As the reader learns about Caroline's past, we also learn about Lavinia's crazy life. The story is told in the first person, changing narrators between Lavinia and Caroline. Through this narration, we learn why Lavinia behaved the way she did and why she treated her children so horribly after losing her husband. We also learn about Trips internal demons, and how his father's death truly affected his life into adulthood. PLANTATION is not a simple story. It's a complex tale of a family that is falling apart, but through it all Caroline and Lavinia find a way to keep them together, and they both find the peace that they have been looking for all their lives.
Rating:
Summary: EDITOR!
Review: This book first of all needs an editor to cut about 1/3 of the maundering. But the low stars goes for the mean spiritedness in this family. The low rent sister-in-law maybe a greedy gold digger but please--who said the children should pay for the mother's sins. The scathing treatment of the children is horrible. They are treated like her low rent offspring when they are also half the so called upper crust brother's. The upper crust brother who drinks, gambles and won't even buy a proper home to house his ever increasing clan. Even a new born baby is condemned as a devil's minion--no wonder they turn out 'witchy' when their own daddy showers more attention on the nephew and they get treated like dirt from the get-go. Grandmother has no trouble handing over $50,000 to her spoiled son w/o question but thinks Frances Mae is greedy for wanting more room for her children. I want to get to know these people. Not.
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