Roanoke Times Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc. DATE: SUNDAY, January 9, 1994 TAG: 9401020188 SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO SOURCE: Reviewed by JOAN SCHROEDER DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Susie Mee stakes out her territory early in her first novel. It's 1957 in\ rural Georgia. Elvis is playing in all the five-and- dimes. And LaVonne Grubbs\ is looking for something more than a life spinning cotton.
Living at home with her mother, LaVonne makes $8.65 a night working at the\ mill, sitting at her spinning station dreaming about Elvis, her absent father\ and bad-boy Gene Hankins, her high-school boyfriend who floats in and out of\ her life at the most inopportune times. Working next to LaVonne, Grady Fay\ Owens goes about his work as a doffer quietly and quickly. So quickly, in fact,\ that he's a sure winner of the upcoming Superdoffer Contest.
But when Gene Hankins sees LaVonne and Grady Fay together at the skating\ rink, things happen and Grady Fay winds up in the hospital. LaVonne makes plans\ to move out of the house until Mama ends up in the hospital, too.
Life is changing fast for the 18-year-old. And when Gene invites her on a\ road trip to Memphis for Gladys Presley's funeral, LaVonne can't say no. "You\ got to grab opportunities when they come your way," Gene tells her. This time,\ LaVonne grabs the wrong one. What happens in Memphis has nothing to do with\ honoring Elvis or his dead mother, and LaVonne comes back a great deal sadder\ and wiser.
Author Susie Mee has done a stunning job describing the details of mill\ life, from the technicalities of the production process right down to the lint\ and dust that float in the air alongside the aimless conversation of the mill\ workers. She also succeeds nicely in capturing the confused yearning of late adolescence, refusing to put artificial words in her first-person narrator's mouth. Though not as engaging and unique as she might be, LaVonne Grubbs rings true.
If this novel has a fault, it lies in the pacing. The first two-thirds seem a bit slow and undistilled. The reader who keeps on will be well-rewarded by\ the final third, when LaVonne comes into her own and the plot picks up speed.\ But it seems a shame to risk losing one's reader by such unevenness.
Currently a graduate student in creative writing at Hollins, Susie Mee is\ at work on her second novel. One has every reason to expect the same\ authenticity and honesty that make "The Girl Who Loved Elvis" a memorable read.
- Joan Schroeder is a Roanoke writer.
by CNB