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Synopsis
Product Description 4 cassettes / 5 1/2 hoursUnabridgedRead by the author, Bailey WhiteAnyone who has read the bestselling Mama Makes Up Her Mind or listened to Bailey White's commentaries on NPR knows that she is a storyteller of inimitable wit and charm. Now, in her stunningly accomplished first novel, she introduces us to the peculiar yet lovable people who inhabit a small town in south Georgia. Meet serious, studious Roger, the peanut pathologist and unlikely love object of half the town's women. Meet Roger's ex-mother-in-law, Louise, who teams up with an ardent typographer in an attempt to attract outer-space invaders with specific combinations of letters and number. And meet Della, the bird artist who captivates Roger with the sensible but enigmatic notes she leaves on things she throws away at the Dumpster ("This fan works, but it makes a clicking sound and will not oscillate").Listen to this heartbreakingly tender, often hilarious, story from a writer who has been called a national treasure Amazon.com Review Bailey White's dry, low-key drawl is a familiar (and welcome) sound to millions of National Public Radio regulars. On the radio, her intimate vignettes of small-town life are loosely held together by their subjects, who are themselves tightly held together by love, family, and idiosyncrasy. This episodic mode suits her just as well as a novelist. In this audio version of Quite a Year for Plums--which, aside from the occasional bit of atmospheric banjo music, features none but the author's voice--even the temporary denizens of her fictional southern Georgia town have their oddities. A bird artist is obsessed by a vanishing breed of chickens. Another character dreams obsessively of typography. The permanent townsfolk include a woman who believes in little spacemen, a pair of bookish retired schoolteachers, and plant pathologist and banjo picker Roger Meadows, whose peers would like nothing better than to see him settle down with the right woman. The author has an eye--and, of course, ear--for the telling detail and the decisive, domestic moment, and listeners will no doubt enjoy her adept storytelling skills. (Running time: five and one-half hours, four cassettes) From Library Journal National Public Radio essayist White's raspy voice is so distinctive that no one else could narrate this, her first novel. Rather than tell us about her relatives and neighbors, as she does in her radio stories, White introduces us to a group of people who could well be her kin. In a series of vignettes, we meet Roger, plant pathologist and peanut virologist, whose well-being is the subject of much concern on the part of retired schoolteachers Hilma and Meade. Roger may be falling in love with newcomer Della, an artist who specializes in painting birds, whom he meets because of the explanatory notes she affixes to items she consigns to the town dump ("This fan works, but it makes a clicking sound and will not oscillate."). People in this community treat one another to strong opinions and with loving respect. Outsiders may consider them eccentric, but in their view they are getting through life as they should. The author's humor is gentle, and the listener will smile often during this recording. Recommended for public libraries.ANann Blaine Hilyard, Lake Villa Dist. Lib., Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. Review "White will transport readers to that place where the language is languid, the bees hum . . . and everybody-- in a nice kind of way--is a little off-kilter." --San Francisco Chronicle"An enchanting work, as delicately stitched as a spider web." --The Philadelphia Inquirer"A novel of many perspectives. . . . On one level, Quite a Year for Plums is about chickens and peanut cultivars and pine- straw fires; on another, it's about art and impermanence and freedom." --The New York Times Book Review "Deliciously funny. . . . As tasty as a 12-egg poundcake, pungent as tea olive and cBook Details
Publisher
Random House Audio
ISBN
9780375403019