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What's It About? |
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When a steamy romance with her high-powered New York boss goes bad, Natalie jumps at the first job she sees, packs her bags, and heads south to start a new life. If her new surroundings don't kill her, the humidity just might.
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Who's Talking About It? |
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“Despite some tough subject matter, Gayle has written a very appealing first novel with an engaging heroine and a cast of very believable secondary characters.”--Library Journal, starred review
“Natalie's dilemmas are perfectly played, and Gayle's economical prose is peppered with sharp sentences and clever fish-out-of-water observations.”--Publishers Weekly
"In this finely crafted debut novel, Gayle evinces a superb mastery of character development, rendering Natalie's various crises of faith with empathic authenticity, endearing humor, and enviable grace.”--Booklist
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Why Did She Write It? |
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“Nearly all my stories come out of the left field of my imagination. This is not to say they have no basis in truth or my life, but that, more often than not, I don't experience something and think 'I'm going to write about that.' My characters emerge, muddy and half-formed, asking for something to do. Sometimes I gift them with an experience or conflict I've had, but often I make them endure a new conflict. It's more fun to watch.”
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From My Summer of Southern Discomfort: |
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Today is Monday. The calls do not come as before. Weeks elapse between them, and when I answer the phone there is no overlap of voices, only my mother's. She spends much of the conversation avoiding mention of the pink elephant trumpeting in the middle of the room.
The pink elephant would be my defection to Georgia. When I telephoned with the news of my imminent relocation my father asked, "Georgia, as in the Republic of Georgia by the Black Sea, or Georgia as in the Peach State?" He hoped I meant the former because that Georgia promised unique opportunities to advance the democratic cause of justice. What could Georgia, former land of the Confederacy, offer?
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