One of my several 'current reads' is this delightful story by Sarah Addison Allen, an author I'm hearing great things about on Good Reads. I feel a bit of a fraud because I am only three chapters in, but as it is a relatively short book I think it is okay to talk a little about it now.
The story, from what I am reading so far, focusses on the lives of a few 30-somethings living in Nice Town USA. This doesn't mean it is all cherries and apple pie (or indeed, peaches) but I think I was drawn to this (weirdly) by recalling a television drama in the late 1990s called Savannah, about the lives of three young women growing up in Savannah, Georgia. I was so taken by the show (plus Thelma and Louise which came out in 1991) that I resolved that the first proper holiday I would have would be in the southern United States.
I went in 1999 for this dream holiday, but admit I had been in the USA only two years earlier. I lived in Manhattan for ten months, working in a bar / restaurant / club / eaterie! That wasn't a holiday, but was a great experience.
But I had a great fondness for the simple town setting of programmes like Little House on the Prairie...shows like that made me appreciate even more today, how innocent things seemed to me back then.
Anyway, the book. I'm liking it so far even though I'm not for sure where it is going. It seems to be a case of 'what are these thirty-somethings going to do in order to hang onto their youth, yet still be viewed as grown-ups'?
Going on my own thirties, I think I approached the big 3-Oh with fear. I didn't want to be thirty at all. You hear words like 'all grown-up', 'mature', 'ready to settle down'. Oh dear. Is life that short? Do we give into domesticity too soon? Perhaps we do. But our protoganists Willa and Paxton don't seem to be doing that.
Paxton seems a great character by the way. Right now, she doesn't seem like the main one. Do you ever read a book and think, 'well I know s / he is supposed to be the main one...but I prefer this character instead..'
I'm told that Sarah Addison Allen sprinkles magic into her stories. I love stories that do that. The first book I ever read, Rebecca's World, was sprinkled with magic from the start. I think we need stories that fire our imagination, and remove us from the real world, just a little bit, for a little while.
Whilst reading The Peach Keeper, I can feel able to do just that.
Again, I think I succumbed to a bit of cover adoration here, but it's one of the best looking book covers I have seen. Full review to come.
Happy reading and writing!
