Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, October 16, 1994 TAG: 9410180009
SECTION: BOOK PAGE: F5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: REVIEWED BY CAMILLE WRIGHT MILLER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Contemporary Southern writers heighten the flavor of the South, allowing readers to experience the difference between the mint juleps and corn liquor of the South and wine coolers of the North. There is a magnificent difference.
Not a homogeneous invention, the South ranges from Anne Rice's steamy New Orleans to Pat Conroy's coastal life to Lee Smith's mountains.
Joan Schroeder, in her first novel, has created a mountain community with residents we've met and a conflict that's based in today's reality. While the voices have a few lapses, her Southwest Virginia residents are as near to mountain friends and relatives as I can get without going calling. Not that I like them all equally, you understand, but they are who they are with no pretentions.
Faced with a noxious landfill threatening the quality of life and life itself, Reba Walker leads Ambrose County residents in a fight to have the Buena Vista Landfill closed. She's an unlikely leader, yet it is her naivete and dogged indignation which allow her to lead. While the fight rages, daily lives of the residents are revealed.
Reba, still carrying jealousy toward Sarah Rose and burdened by a lifetime of heartache, has been hardened by the experiences. She softens as she finds romance. It's a little unlikely that her romance is with the Richmond journalist covering the landfill fight, but life sometimes follows unlikely paths.
Sarah Rose and Hunter, high school sweethearts, married early. The promise of the early years is gone. When the landfill developers mislead Hunter on the intended use of the property, neighbors are angry at the couple, believing it was greed rather than lies that led them to sell the inherited property.
Lucy, a former teacher now deceased, is the omniscient voice of the novel, and it is her land that hosts the landfill. Through the rhythms of daily life in Ambrose, each character's relationship with Lucy is revealed. She knows everyone, fills in story gaps and provides additional history where needed.
While Lucy's presence reveals what's been lost from the old Ambrose County to the new, the book may not need an omniscient force to move the narrative, inform the reader and guide young Jesse to the hidden papers detailing the double set of landfill books.
Still, it is through Lucy that we get a sense of how much has been lost to modernization. Her porch-sitting calls back earlier times with glasses of iced tea and long conversation. "Solitary Places" is a picture of life in America as diverse interests and changing times collide.
Collisions are common throughout; love interests collide, environmental conflicts are pivotal, urbanites and ruralists posture against each other. Schroeder isn't always kind to the city folk; one scene concerning quilts is testimony to urban ignorance. On the other hand, funding a social movement through yard sales and T-shirt sales won't strike the urban reader as particularly savvy; however, it does work.
"Solitary Places" provides an accurate sociological model of local movements. Inexperienced, the Ambrose County residents bumble a little, but through collective efforts they successfully fight against the noxious landfill. Read carefully, the novel serves as a "how-to start your own movement" manual.
More importantly though, Schroeder has written characters of depth, people we know. She has also given them a compelling and difficult task. To her credit and theirs, they succeed.
Camille Wright Miller is an organizational change consultant based in Lexington.
Joan Schroeder will sign copies of "Solitary Places" at the Ram's Head Bookstore in Towers Mall on Oct. 29th 1-3 pm. She will also sign books at the Mountain Book Company in Covington on Nov. 19th 1-2 pm.
by CNB