This is by a Pulitzer winner so obviously I’m the dumbdumbbaby here who read it wrong. Really the only true complaint I have is that despite not knowiThis is by a Pulitzer winner so obviously I’m the dumbdumbbaby here who read it wrong. Really the only true complaint I have is that despite not knowing anything about the actual Malaga Island, I think I would have preferred a nonfiction history of that place and its residents rather than this fictionalized version....more
Shelby told me to read this the other night when we were chatting on the phone and despite having about eleventy-three library checkouts and a pooptonShelby told me to read this the other night when we were chatting on the phone and despite having about eleventy-three library checkouts and a poopton of NetGalleys I put her on speaker and downloaded it instantly because, well . . . . .
The Girls in the Stilt House offered a “you had me at hello” opener that consisted of burying a body. Um, yeah I’ll take that with cheese. What followed was the story of Ada and Matilda’s unlikely cohabitation in the swamp during prohibition era where all of the various moving parts tied together pretty much seamlessly by the end. The blurb is accurate that this should be a winner for most fans of Where the Crawdads Sing and will probably work for many who didn’t fall head over heels for that one since it doesn’t feature a romance whatsoever.
Shelby told me to read this one and duh of course I did because I do whatever she tells me to. Then I called her to talk about it and told her I hatedShelby told me to read this one and duh of course I did because I do whatever she tells me to. Then I called her to talk about it and told her I hated it . . . .
But I didn’t hate it. Bwahahahahaha! Really my only complaint was I think the author pulled some punches about just how unfeeling the real life inspiration behind this story, Mary Lumpkin, would have had to have been to survive the life that she was forced to be a part of.
Yellow Wife is a fictionalized version of the aforesaid Mary Lumpkin’s life (and you can bet your butt I’m going to be trying to find a biography of the actual person or a history of this jail). Born into slavery Pheby was treated better than most of her peers due to the fact that she was the plantation owner’s child. Promised freedom papers at the age of 18, that all changes when the Master dies and Pheby finds herself shipped off to “The Devil’s Half Acre” courtesy of his wife. It is there Pheby will be turned into the mistress of the house, gussy up the soon-to-be “fancy girls” that make their way to the auction block and do whatever it takes to protect her children.
I’m not a huge reader of historical fiction, but since I’m old I will admit that this is a story that has been told more than once before. That being said, it kept my attention throughout and delivered a brutal part of history in the most palatable form possible.
Kelly (and the Book Boar)
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Books:
historical-fiction
(3)
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