Cold Sassy Tree (1984) by Olive Ann Burns
🧡 Set in the early of 20th century of Southern America, here is a remarkably vivid story of a small rural village in Georgia, named after some iconic sassafras tree that shaded the village during hot summer days: Cold Sassy Tree. It's told from the POV of Will Tweedy, fourteen years old when the story begins. His Grandma had just been dead for three weeks when Grandpa E. Rucker Blakeslee announced that he is going to marry the young milliner who's been working at his store: Miss Love Simpson. The news shook both family and the village, like never before - the scandal, and the sheer audacity of it. Amidst all the turbulences, Will Tweedy learned substantial things, while growing up into adolescence.
🧡 This is a wonderfully crafted story, vividly portraying the gossips and prejudices of rural villagers. I liked the heterogeneous characters; they are who drive the story. It tackles the theme of family, women's struggles, death, and religion. It is humorous, witty, and near the end, poignant and full of wisdom.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Tea Is So Intoxicating (1950) by Mary Essex
☕ Germayne freed herself from what she felt as a boring marriage with a man called Digby, leaving her daughter, and ran away with her lover David Tompkins. They settled in a cottage in a small Kentish village called Wellhurst. David is the dreamy kind of chap. Right then his dream was to open a tea house; having worked at a tea house himself, though only as a bookkeeper. Although he didn't posses skill and experience, neither as cook nor businessman, David insisted that he's sure to make the tea house, aimed to cater weekend hiker and daily tourist, successful. The village's negative reaction and gossips doomed the tea house to be a failure from the start, not mentioning the Tompkins' lack of ability. And to add complication, entered an Italian flirtatious cake-cook that David hired, over whose furtive winks some men completely lost their heads.
☕ This is my first of Mary Essex - pseudonym of Ursula Bloom - and I liked her style. It's a satire without being too blatant; it's funny, though quite subtle. Based on this book only, I'll place her between Barbara Pym, Nancy Mitford, and PG Wodehouse. I know those are three different poles, but if you could draw three lines from them to one center point, that's where you'll find Mary Essex. A very entertaining and refreshing book!
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2
