Any marriage that makes it past 30 years could reach a point where a few surprises might be welcomed; however, Eliza Kratke does not relish the unexpected on that February day when her husband, Robert, collapses in the driveway. Eliza's candid voice and indomitable spirit are the drivers of Sweet Vidalia by Lisa Sandlin (The Bird Boys), a well-paced novel that puts readers in the position of benevolent neighborhood gossip, privy to the details of a good woman's unraveling. Eliza does not unravel, however, and though some of the circumstances may seem unbelievable, her transformation feels both inspiring and true.
In the moments after Robert's death, Eliza wishes herself back to the "ordinary times lived over and over," but she knows that is impossible. As a woman alone in the 1960s, Eliza must contend with the common experiences of grief and loss as well as the thoroughly uncommon ones, those born out of the catastrophic secrets Robert kept from her. Forced to rent out their house, Eliza moves into the Sweet Vidalia Residence Inn, across town in Bayard, Tex. And it is from there that she discovers the woman she never knew she could be.
Though Eliza's Southern dialect can feel somewhat out-of-sync with the voice built in the close third-person narration, readers will marvel at Sandlin's descriptions, as seen in Eliza's tears over "[her father's] mind emptied in the last, bespattered-shirt years." Similarly, they will celebrate every unlikely success Eliza manages, with fans of Fannie Flagg's Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café hearing the echo of "Towanda!" in this empowering story of one woman's midlife coming-of-age. --Sara Beth West, freelance reviewer and librarian