Catfish Alley - Lynne Bryant

Roxanne is a southern socialite - and has worked hard to create herself the way others want her to be.  She is in every social club, restores antebellum homes, and is the chair of the annual tour of homes.  But the facade she has upheld for so long slowly begins to break down when she meets Grace Clark, a black woman with a myriad of stories to tell.  Roxanne and Grace develop an unlikely friendship, and Roxanne learns what real friends are.

 This book is all about breaking down stereotypes - and runs along the lines of "The Help" and even reminds me a little of "Henrietta Lacks".  It throws back to these books in the sense that a clueless white woman is trying to get a story out of a wizened, black woman who has had a hard life.  This book was good, but I found it difficult to really get sucked in and not want to put it down.  It's a fairly short book, and it took me 2 weeks to get through, which is really unlike me.  I guess I am just tired of this story line - after The Help and Henrietta Lacks - it just felt like I was reading the same thing over and over again.  It also bothered me that the author, who is from Mississippi, could not get her directions straight.  I understand that Clarksville, the setting of the story, is fictitious, loosely based on Columbus, but many facts about Mississippi geography were flat out wrong.  Alcorn State is not in Itta Bena.  She kept talking about Clarksville's proximity to Ole Miss,but Natchez/Jackson were relatively close.  I was so focused on these discrepancies and they aggravated me to the point I wanted to put the book down. 

So, all in all, I wasn't too impressed with this book.  But if you really enjoyed the Help, and those type books, I would recommend this one too.

Happy Reading!

katie