The Thumbnail Book Reviews
by John Q McDonald --- 3 June 1998
by Rita Mae Brown
This is a book about sex. But it is also a book about social morés in the early decades of this century in up-and-coming Montgomery, Alabama. Brown opens the book in a lighthearted manner, depicting the lives of two of Montgomery's prostitutes down on Water Street by the train station. From there, though, the story opens up to include members of the black community as well as upper crust Southern families. Everything in the story revolves around sex in one way or another. Hortensia Benastre, a rich Montgomery socialite, is deeply unhappy in her marriage. Her husband Carwyn is a regular Water Street visitor, as are many of the other upstanding citizens. Hercules is a young black man, intelligent, but most talented as a boxer, and who is searching for romantic and sexual identity. There are many others. Many of the characters have the names of characters from Greek mythology and history. Many of them also speak with a sharp knowledge of that mythology, but to the point where the characters speak not with their own voices but with that of the author. In fact, much of the language seems out of place in 1918 Montgomery's poor as well as rich districts. The book goes from being amusing and light to dark and tragic over its time span. It ends on the ambiguous note that morals and ethics are deeply subjective in all levels of society.
Also by Rita Mae Brown: [Murder at Monticello] [Catch as Cat Can]
[Other Books set in the American South]