The Queen of Palmyra

May 03, 2010 April rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: for-review, historical-fiction

The pitch I was sent for The Queen of Palmyra by Minrose Gwin compared the book to The Help by Kathryn Stockett. Of course, I accepted. However, I would like to put this out there, I think that the comparison hinders The Queen of Palmyra. The only thing the two novels share is the same era and state. The Queen of Palmyra focuses on a little girl named Florence Irene Forrest. Florence is what those of us who are uncouth call white trash. Her family is poor, her dad is scary, and her mom finds sol...more

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Feb 13, 2010 Laura rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2010-mt-bookpile

This isn't a very likable book - it hurts in the same way that The Color Purple hurts, only Florence is white, not black. Growing up just a hair north of white trash, in Mississippi during the '60s can't have been easy; having an abusive father who hates blacks and a drunkard mother who doesn't mind them is even more difficult.

Flo's story hits all the notes you expect from a story about those types of people. Unlike The Help, the voices don't always ring true in part because often you get the g...more

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Aug 21, 2012 Madame X rated it 4 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. THE QUEEN OF PALMYRA is a story of troubled times in the deep south, told from the perspective of a child. Set in the summer of 1963, Florence has just returned to her home town of Millville after a year spent on the road, following her father around the country while he tried - and failed - to find a steady job. Her father, Win, has had trouble getting his life in order: he starts menial job after menial job but can't keep any of them for long because of his violent temper. Win's sense of entit...more THE QUEEN OF PALMYRA is a story of troubled times in the deep south, told from the perspective of a child. Set in the summer of 1963, Florence has just returned to her home town of Millville after a year spent on the road, following her father around the country while he tried - and failed - to find a steady job. Her father, Win, has had trouble getting his life in order: he starts menial job after menial job but can't keep any of them for long because of his violent temper. Win's sense of entitlement and short fuse make him fail as a blue-collar worker - but those very same qualities are assets in his night-time persona: Nighthawk for the Ku Klux Klan. Win is a white supremacist, the official "enforcer" for the Klan, and it's his job to keep uppity blacks in place with threats, savage beatings, and cold-blooded murder where necessary.

Florence is shielded from her father's worst behavior by her mother, Martha. Martha is the daughter of a liberal, well-educated Southern family and she married Win for all the wrong reasons. The two share strong sexual chemistry (Florence recalls hearing her mother refer, angrily, to the lure of Win's "Great Big You Know What"), and Win was born with a birth defect - a club foot - stirring Martha's pity. Pity and sexual chemistry convinced Martha to marry Win when she was just out of high school, against the advice of her family and friends. Martha soon discovers her mistake - she learns about Win's involvement in the Ku Klux Klan, Win is physically abusive, and because of his inability to hold down a job Martha must shoulder the burden of keeping the family financially afloat. She copes with these issues by feeding information about the Klan's activities to members of the black community who can organize defensive measures, by starting a cake-making business, and by drinking to excess.

By the time that THE QUEEN OF PALMYRA begins, when Florence is nine years old, her parents marriage is in dire straits. Martha's drinking is out of control, and she's unable to perform the basics of mothering: keeping Florence fed, clothed, clean, and protected. Florence sees the way that other parents treat their children, suffocating them with loving attention and treating them like "Precious Cargo", and she sharply feels her own neglect. Her unhappiness shows up in the form of frequent illness, especially a constant, deep tiredness.

Martha decides that the best thing she can do for Florence is to place her in the care of her old nanny, Zenie. Zenie, a smart, no-nonsense black woman will give Florence some much-needed mothering, and also counteract the poisonous, racist ideas that Win feeds Florence in the form of bedtime stories. Zenie, named for Zenobia, Queen of Palmyra, is tough and brusque but she's also a fundamentally good woman in a warm, stable marriage. By spending time at her grandparents' home during the day, where Zenie works as a maid, and at Zenie's home at night, Florence is exposed to happy, stable marriages and forward-thinking ideas about racial equality.

Several important events take place during the summer of 1963. Zenie's niece Eva Green arrives in town, with a college education and a deep desire to work for racial equality in Millville. She starts selling insurance policies door to door, working for a company that is owned by blacks and treats blacks fairly - but Win has also found work as an insurance salesman, going door to door in the black neighborhoods and letting everyone know that if they don't buy his policies, and keep paying for them, he'll make sure that they get a visit from the Nighthawk and his "headache stick." Eva, by trying to cut into Win's territory, incurs his wrath - and suffers for it. Win tracks her down in broad daylight and beats her unconscious, possibly raping her as well (it's not clear how far his sexual violation of Eva goes). This is the last straw for Martha, who tries to commit suicide and lands herself in a mental institution where she's given electrical shock therapy at Win's insistence. As a consequence, Florence comes face to face with her father's dark side, which she has never seen before.

With Martha out of the picture, Win expresses his racism to Florence in a way he never could before - using foul language, taking her to Klan meetings and even having a friend sew her up a little Klan costume to wear, but also physically abusing her for minor disobedience. For example, when Martha is in the hospital Florence
tries to bake the cakes that Martha had committed to make for her business, but she starts a fire in the kitchen instead. As punishment, Win badly burns Florence's arms on a candle flame - to show her just how dangerous fire can be. It also becomes clear that Win's devotion to his daughter is not entirely fatherly - there is a disturbing sexual undertone to his behavior towards Florence which spikes when Martha disappears. Gwin describes Win climbing into bed with his daughter at night, both of them nearly naked in the hot Mississippi summer, while Win tells his daughter fairy tales and rubs her belly. Florence is both comforted and disturbed by his touch, and aware of his occasional erections.

It's clear from the beginning that Win's failures as a provider for his family drive his enthusiasm for the Klan. So when his family starts to fall apart - when he realizes his wife would rather die than stay with him, when it looks like his daughter looks down on his involvement in the Klan, the one place where he gets the respect he
thinks he deserves - Win takes it out on the black community as the Nighthawk. Of course, this only makes the situation worse: Florence sees the devastation of the black community from within and what little stability she has in her life crumbles. She's slow to realize the truth, but eventually Florence understands exactly how evil her father is. The realization is devastating, but luckily Florence is able to flee Millville with her grandmother, escaping her father's influence for good. Others aren't so lucky: Eva Green is murdered on the eve of Florence's departure.

THE QUEEN OF PALMYRA tells a very dark story, but the way it is told keeps the reading experience from becoming too depressing. As a child, Florence was buffered from the whole truth and so the reader, too, sees the adult goings on in the novel only obliquely. There's a lot of day-to-day detail and local color. Florence comments on her own storytelling, observing at one point: "By now I've read enough stories in my life to know I'm not telling this one right. All this business about Daddy's box and Mama's icings and Zenie's green leaf
curtains and my speckled butterbeans. Too much clutter." The narrator is too modest - Gwin's detours give the story added power, rather than detracting from its impact. But the structure allows the reader to feel along with Florence how painful her memories are, and how hard it is to return to them.

The writing is very strong, with a distinctive, folksy southern voice ("When you see something you don't believe, something you know can't be true, then forgetting can shove remembering out the door and if remembering ever does return home like that poor long-lost prodigal boy, forgetting wants to kill him." or "Shake Rag people planted themsleves on their front porches, babies blooming like dark red roses from the laps of great-grandmothers, who held them with swollen fingers in a death grip"). The characters are vividly drawn, complex, coming to life over the course of the novel and settling strongly into the imagination - they stick with you after you've finished the book.

I enjoyed THE QUEEN OF PALMYRA. The setting, characters, and language combine seamlessly into a fully realized novel whose whole is greater than the sum of its parts. If this story appeals, THE QUEEN OF PALMYRA is definitely worth considering.(less)

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Apr 07, 2011 Mackay rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction-literary

I've seen the other reviews--compared to Harper Lee, compared to Alice Walker...I disagree. This book, for this reader, was tedious, unenlightening, without a credible narrator, and without much to redeem the dreary hours spent reading it. Everything in it has been done and done far better; there is no catharsis, no deepening of one's understanding of the time (early sixties), the place (the deep South), or the issues (racial prejudice, the growth of the civil rights movement).

The narrator, ala...more

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Aug 01, 2010 E rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

This is voice. This is place. This is style - writing at once powerful, lyrical, poignant, precise, melancholy, true to its source. Imagery flows naturally and easily - rainwater down a hill. I do not usually choose to read books with precocious, pre-teen protagonists. The older I get, the less interested I am in the device. But 11-year-old Florence is the perfect window on this summer of '63, small-town Mississippi story. The age of on-the-cusp, between child and teenager, between naivete and u...more

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Jun 07, 2010 Audrey rated it 4 of 5 stars

Minrose Gwin is one of those writers that just knows what she's doing. It doesn't seem like she just woke up one day and decided to write a book. It seems more like she worked hard at it and studied and learned how to become a writer. Which is a good thing. Her prose felt so perfect and natural that it just seemed like it had to have been learned. No one with that amount of talent could have just "decided to have a book" and miraculously have it turn out as the Queen of Palmyra. It is just too w...more Minrose Gwin is one of those writers that just knows what she's doing. It doesn't seem like she just woke up one day and decided to write a book. It seems more like she worked hard at it and studied and learned how to become a writer. Which is a good thing. Her prose felt so perfect and natural that it just seemed like it had to have been learned. No one with that amount of talent could have just "decided to have a book" and miraculously have it turn out as the Queen of Palmyra. It is just too well-written.

The Queen of Palmyra is a deeply touching, deeply affecting novel. 11-year old Florence grows up in 1963 in Mississippi. Her education is lacking, and her loyalties are separated between her cake-baking mother and her racist father, who allows her to practically be raised by her grandparents' black maid. Through Florence's uncomprehending eyes, the reader comes to understand just how horrifying it must have been to grow up in small town Mississippi during this time. She loves her father, and she loves her mother, and she loves Zenie, and she is completely oblivious to the tension between them.

It is Florence's innocence, really, that makes this book so amazing. Somehow, Minrose Gwin manages to reveal all to the reader through a narrator that didn't understand all. She composes an intricate, complicated story with well-developed characters and believable, torturous events. I have no doubt in my mind that some of these things probably happened. Nothing could have prepared me for my reaction to this book. I'd heard that it was painful, I'd heard that it hurt to read, but it was more than that. Florence's innocence and the way she was just pulled along by the events, by the horrors that her father committed and her mother's inability to escape him, was torturous. I felt for her, I cried for her, I wished that someone would explain things to her, but at the same time I was glad that they didn't. Because she might not have survived if she had really understood her father.

Racism was such a big issue back then, and Minrose Gwin approached this issue in a valid, believable, horrifying way. It's obvious that Gwin herself must have grown up in a place where racism is still a palpable thing. There is no way that she could have described it with such precision and grace otherwise. It felt like she was in the minds of her characters, and as such, I felt able to step into their shoes for a moment. And I wanted out.

I don't really know what else to say, other than read this book. The summary calls the summer turbulent, and that really is the best word I can think of to describe this book. Turbulent. Turbulence that you will enjoy. It's not an easy read, and you can't expect it to be. But it is enjoyable, and it will affect you, and you will be glad that you did decide to read it.(less)

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May 24, 2010 Marie rated it 4 of 5 stars

In The Queen of Palmyra, eleven-year-old Florence lives in Millwood, a segregated town in Mississippi. Her mother is the neighbourhood cake lady, who secretly visits the bootlegger. Her father is a burial insurance salesman, who goes to secret meetings at night. During the day, they leave Florence in the care of her grandparents' maid, Zenie. Florence sees how segregation affects those around her, but things really heat up Eva, Zenie's niece, comes to town, in this sensational coming of age stor...more

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May 09, 2010 Jennifer rated it 4 of 5 stars

From My Blog...

A tale of strong women during exceedingly trying times, The Queen of Palmyra by Minrose Gwin, is a heart-breaking story about the ignorance that did more than divide a town. Set in 1963 Millwood, Mississippi, the story describes a heavily segregated town divided into three sections, Millwood "proper", Milltown where the white working poor lived and Shake Rag on the south side of the colour line of town. Florence Forrest, who at the beginning of the novel is eleven years old, narra...more From My Blog...

A tale of strong women during exceedingly trying times, The Queen of Palmyra by Minrose Gwin, is a heart-breaking story about the ignorance that did more than divide a town. Set in 1963 Millwood, Mississippi, the story describes a heavily segregated town divided into three sections, Millwood "proper", Milltown where the white working poor lived and Shake Rag on the south side of the colour line of town. Florence Forrest, who at the beginning of the novel is eleven years old, narrates The Queen of Palmyra. The reader views the segregated town and the effect it has on the inhabitants through the innocent eyes of Florence. Martha, Florence's mother, is a cake baker who happens to have a habit of going out to purchase beer from the non-white bootleggers on the same nights her husband goes out. Win Forrest cannot hold down a job, so finally he settles on selling burial insurance by day and is a part of the Klan in the evenings. Florence spends a great deal of her time in the care on Zenie, who tells her stories about the queen of Palmyra. Florence enjoys being with Zenie, her husband Ray and Zenie's cousin Eva. The excessively hot summer of 1963 brings about many experiences and changes to Millwood, which began when Florence proudly and innocently informs her father that Eva is trying to sell burial insurance in Shake Rag and to further fuel her racist father's fire he learns Eva is attending college, one purportedly to be filled with agitators, NAACP members, and followers of the Evers brothers. Florence is proud of Eva and looks up to her and what occurs that hot summer of 1963 shakes the very foundation of everything Florence ever believed. As an eleven-year-old she witnesses atrocities no one should ever have the bear, let alone a child. Florence was surrounded by extremely strong willed women who helped to ground her, educate her and help her to discover the true meaning of love, loyalty and compassion. The Queen of Palmyra is an extraordinary debut novel, filled with hardship, tragedy and life lessons. Gwin's characters are realistic and those who are good are indeed loveable and those who not are most definitely portrayed as such. Even though Zenie was paid to care for young Florence it was possibly one of the best things for her in addition to all the time she spent with her grandparents Mimi and Grandpops. The Queen of Palmyra is not an upbeat novel, yet a novel well worth reading, showcasing a part of history many never knew existed or would prefer to ignore. The Queen of Palmyra would be an excellent discussion group pick.(less)

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Apr 28, 2010 Diane rated it 3 of 5 stars

The Queen of Palmyra, the debut novel by Minrose Gwin, will find a welcome audience in fans of Kathryn Stockett's The Help.

Both books are set in Mississippi in the 1960s, and deal with the changing relationship between blacks and whites. While The Help is told from the viewpoint of four narrators, The Queen of Palmyra is told by twelve-year-old Florence Forrest.

Florence is the daughter of Win, a burial insurance salesman who also happens to be a rabid Klansman. Her mother Martha drinks to excess...more The Queen of Palmyra, the debut novel by Minrose Gwin, will find a welcome audience in fans of Kathryn Stockett's The Help.

Both books are set in Mississippi in the 1960s, and deal with the changing relationship between blacks and whites. While The Help is told from the viewpoint of four narrators, The Queen of Palmyra is told by twelve-year-old Florence Forrest.

Florence is the daughter of Win, a burial insurance salesman who also happens to be a rabid Klansman. Her mother Martha drinks to excess, and bakes cakes out their tiny home to bring in some cash to this poor household. Martha despises Win's racism, and her attitude is not appreciated by Win or the small minded people in their town.

Flo spends much of her time at her maternal grandparents, in the company of Zenie, the maid. Because Martha drank so much, Flo spent a lot of time with Zenie, even going home with Zenie when she finished work.

Zenie's young, beautiful, smart niece Eva comes to stay during her summer break from college. Eva is of a younger generation, and she has different ideas about her place in life. She gets a job selling burial insurance policies, which causes conflicts with Win. These conflicts turn dangerous, and Eva is attacked.

When she won't back down and leave town, race relations come to a boil. Zenie and her husband Ray fear for Eva, and for themselves, as the Klansmen become bolder in spreading their violence and hatred.

Because Flo is a young girl, she doesn't completely understand what is going on. She loves Zenie and Eva, and her parents, and as children are want to do, speaks her mind. She can't reconcile why people she loves can't get along.

The author does a good job describing the atmosphere in this small town at the time, and the scene where Win takes his daughter to a Klan meeting is frightening and veers into creepy as Win puts his daughter in a robe and hood, and various men try to grope her. It is very disturbing.

I also thought that the complicated relationship between Zenie, Ray and Flo was well done. Zenie and Ray were frequently exasperated at having to care for a white girl who had been abandoned by her mother. While The Klan was terrorizing the black community, Flo would show up at their doorstep and not understand why she was not welcome.

The novel is filled with tension- between Win and Martha, Martha and her parents, blacks and whites, Zenie and Eva. The characters are believeable, people just struggling to live life as best they can under the circumstances. Some succeed (Zenie) but for others, life is too difficult (Martha).

Having Flo narrate the novel echoes Scout, the narrator of the classic To Kill a Mockingbird, but that also has it drawbacks. Questions go unanswered, such as why Flo did not attend school, and what happened to them during the year she and her family "disappeared". I found that not knowing these things distracted me.

The Queen of Palmyra is a dark book, but it gives the reader a real look at the what life was like at that time in small town Mississippi. The turbulent relationship between blacks and whites, and between a young daughter who just wanted the love of her very different parents is hard to look at, and yet it gives the reader a real sense of empathy.
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Feb 21, 2012 Janie rated it 4 of 5 stars

I stayed up way too late last night to finish this. This is a story of a young girl in Mississippi in 1963. The story is told in retrospect by Florence who lives with her father and mother. Florence and her family come alive through her dialog as she tries to make sense of her world and the people in it. Her father is a failure at one enterprise after another and her mother tries to keep things together by baking and selling cakes. The grandmother's long time African-American maid is left in cha...more

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Jun 24, 2010 Elizabeth rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: recent-reads

i entered to win this book on the giveaways and even though i didn't win a copy, i felt it fair to list it as a first read since that's where i first encountered it.

the front cover has a snippit of a review comparing this to To Kill A Mockingbird. that's some big shoes to fill. and although Gwin does a an excellent job of slowly developing her main characters, it doesn't quite make the comparison.

but i feel it's strong in its own way. the story revolves around florence forrest growing up in mis...more i entered to win this book on the giveaways and even though i didn't win a copy, i felt it fair to list it as a first read since that's where i first encountered it.

the front cover has a snippit of a review comparing this to To Kill A Mockingbird. that's some big shoes to fill. and although Gwin does a an excellent job of slowly developing her main characters, it doesn't quite make the comparison.

but i feel it's strong in its own way. the story revolves around florence forrest growing up in mississippi. the majority of the book covers the summer of 1963 - a pivotal summer for the civil rights movement and for florence.

her father is a klansman and her mother has made bad choices marrying him and staying with him. neither of them completely devote themselves to parenting. florence finds herself being passed between her maternal grandparents and the african american family that keeps the house and the yard for her mimi and grandpops, ray and zenie.

ray and zenie have a niece that comes to visit for the summer, eva, and that's when florence's life really begins to change.

eva stirs up the conscience of this small southern town and florence's father doesn't like it one bit. when he and his club take action, florence's mother, martha, makes a dire decision. one that alienates her from florence for a good portion of the girl's young life.

the story is told in the first person from florence's perspective as an adult looking back on this time in her life. it takes a good whie for her to realize who and what her daddy is and even longer to admit her mother may never take care of her the way she longs for her to take care of her.

the insidiousness of the violence, the hatred, the racism is slow to release itself within the narrative of the story. i suppose much of the same way it takes florence's eleven year old mind to completely comprehend the legacy her father's family is a part of in the South. and the same way these things lie under the surface of one's beliefs only to crescendo into drastic choices.
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Nov 04, 2010 Beth rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book is a stylistic contrast to the book "The Help" which was also about race relations in the south in the 1960's. Flo is an 11 year old whose "parenting" is done more by the black people who care for her than her alcoholic mentally ill, cake baking & selling, Mother or her gimpy footed Father who enjoys secretly being a treasured member of the Klan. In a large sense, Flo acts in "loco parentis" for her parents because she is sometimes afraid and sometimes embarrased by them. Flo liste...more

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Mar 22, 2010 Augusta Scattergood added it

Young Florence Forrest’s father has failed at yet another job, and her mother, Martha, insists they return to the family’s hometown where Martha’s cake business will support them.
So they return to Millwood, Mississippi, surrounded by grandparents as well as situations Florence struggles to understand. Why is her mother making late-night trips to the Black bootlegger in town? Where does her father go to his clandestine evening meetings?

With both parents completely incapable of caring for her, 11...more

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Feb 10, 2011 Debbie rated it 5 of 5 stars

What a tragic story! It is similar to The Help in that the author grew up in MS and according to her, experienced the white side of this story and observed the black side. The characters are fictional, however, one character is based on the author's babysitter as a child. While I enjoyed The Help, this story captivated me sooner and was more riveting. It is told from the eyes of 10 year old Florence Irene Forrest. It is 1963 and she is living in Millwood, MS. Her mother is the town "cake lady" a...more

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Jul 29, 2010 Mary rated it 2 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jul 19, 2010 Libby rated it 4 of 5 stars

Mississippi, 1963. A much grittier book than "The Help" and was more representative of race relations, especially how black characters react to the white ones, and class differences.

The point of view character is an eleven-year-old girl, Florence, whose mother is the "cake lady," and her father sells burial insurance to African-Americans. Both parents have dark secrets. The mother came from a more middle-class family than the father. The father is disliked by most of the town and Florence is co...more

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May 30, 2010 Amanda rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: arc, asked, own

The Queen of Palmyra takes place that fateful summer in 1963 in Mississippi when temperatures got to record breaking highs, JFK and Medgar Evers were assassinated, and the country's racial tensions were at an all time high.

Florence Forrest is a young white girl and it is the summer between her fourth and fifth year in school. However, she is way behind in studies because for the past year, her father and mother have been on the "lam" as she calls it, traveling around while her father unsuccessfu...more The Queen of Palmyra takes place that fateful summer in 1963 in Mississippi when temperatures got to record breaking highs, JFK and Medgar Evers were assassinated, and the country's racial tensions were at an all time high.

Florence Forrest is a young white girl and it is the summer between her fourth and fifth year in school. However, she is way behind in studies because for the past year, her father and mother have been on the "lam" as she calls it, traveling around while her father unsuccessfully tries to hold one job after another. They finally return home to Millwood, Mississippi and that's when things start to crumble.

Florence's father, unbeknownst to her, is part of the Klan which is something her mother abhors. However, her father is a bit of a terror and as their marriage slowly crumbles, he tries to keep Florence close by telling her stories that have deeper darker meanings. Her mother manages a quite successful cake business but Florence starts being pawned off more and more on others, mainly Zenie, her grandmother's black housemaid. That summer, Zenie's college student niece, Eva, comes to stay with them. Florence is made a witness to all and must finally grow up and choose for herself which path she must follow.

I found this to be such an absorbing novel. I normally don't choose to read novels with such obvious serious topics. In the past, I normally tried to read lighter books for an escapism type of enjoyment. But I'm finding that more and more I'm steering toward books with tougher topics. This is definitely one of those novels.

Florence is such an interesting character because of her obvious lack of understanding but she observes everything and tries to figure out what is going on. She's such a neglected character. She is left to fend for herself often and goes long periods of time without food, a bath, or a a change of clothes.

I have to say that all the other characters were so well written as well. Her father, though while a terrifying character, is flawed and realistic. Her mother refuses to stand up and chooses to escape. Zenie and Eva were my favorite characters. Zenie, named after Zenobia the Queen of Palmyra, tells Florence stories about the Queen. While a good influence on Florence, Zenie views the care-taking of Florence as just another job and often refers to the girl as "it". Eva...well you'll just have to read the story to find out about Eva.

I keep wanting to blab about the book so I think this would make a perfect Book Club book. While I've never read The Help, I have read The Color Purple and Their Eyes Were Watching God. (less)

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Sep 11, 2011 Kelly Brun rated it 3 of 5 stars

I wish this site would let me give 1/2 stars too, as I would rate this book 3.5 out of 5. It probably did not help that I read this book directly after The Help. There were too many similarities (Mississippi, 60's, etc.) for me to think of this book as an original idea. As for the Queen of Palmyra, the story line was of course very different from my most recent read and by Part 2 of the book I was hooked. I appreciated the author's perspective as a 10 year old girl and loved that not only did sh...more

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Mar 19, 2013 Nancy rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is an incredible story and one that is magnificently written. This is the gritty story, the deep, dark and horrible truths of the lives of the people of all colors in the Jim Crow south; whereas "The Help" is the white washed, sanitized version of the same time period. This story is written in the voice of an 11 year old girl living in poverty and being taken care of by a black maid who is more available than her own alcoholic mother. There really is no comparison of the two books except th...more

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Mar 01, 2012 Evie Maiolo rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book tackles the complexity of family, relationships, and racial division told from the innocent perspective of a young white girl, Florence, growing up in Mississippi in 1963.

The author, Minrose Gwin does not shy away from creating characters that portray the darker side of human nature - from Florence's self-absorbed mother, to her violent and neglectful father who is an active member of the 'Klan'.

With only her grandparents and her African-American minder seeming to give her any sense of...more

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Aug 10, 2010 Alicia rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2010, southern-fiction, race

This book was featured in the AJC one Sunday and was compared to the bestseller The Help. Growing up in the south I have always been interested in race relations and especially those involving Black maids and this book portrayed an interesting aspect of that relationship.

I enjoyed this story and although it sometimes felt like it was dragging at times, overall it was one of those stories that kept you on the edge of your seat and leaves you with more questions than answers ( at least for me it d...more

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May 04, 2010 Melody rated it 4 of 5 stars

I have heard that The Queen of Palmyra has been compared to Kathryn Stockett's The Help, which got me pretty excited because I have heard lots of ravings about that book. Back to The Queen of Palmyra, I have to say Minrose Gwin's writing style is absolutely beautiful (see above quote) and I was most surprised that this is in fact her debut novel.

Set in the 1960s, The Queen of Palmyra focus on the delicate issue between the black and the white community in Millwood, Mississippi, through the eye o...more I have heard that The Queen of Palmyra has been compared to Kathryn Stockett's The Help, which got me pretty excited because I have heard lots of ravings about that book. Back to The Queen of Palmyra, I have to say Minrose Gwin's writing style is absolutely beautiful (see above quote) and I was most surprised that this is in fact her debut novel.

Set in the 1960s, The Queen of Palmyra focus on the delicate issue between the black and the white community in Millwood, Mississippi, through the eye of a twelve-year-old girl Florence Forrest. The Forrest family lives in the town where everyone seems to know everybody, though at bottom there is a strain between the black and the white community. Florence's relationship with her parents has been a distant one. Unlike other girls her age she has never feel close with her mother, perhaps that has got to do with her drinking and the fact that she bakes and delivers cakes around town in order to support the household, aside the income from her husband who works as a burial insurance salesman.

Florence spends most of her time with her grandparents and Zenie's (named for Zenobia, Queen of Palmyra) family, and she find comfort and security in them because Florence knew she could always turn to them whenever she needs some assistance or advice. Florence felt her life further enriched when Zenie's niece, Eva Greene enter into her little simple world. It is no secret that there is a division between the black and white community in Millwood, and Eva's arrival obviously created an uproar not only due to her skin colour but also the fact that she is holding the same job as Florence's father, Win. The strain between the blacks and the whites got worsen, and Florence's life will never ever be the same again after a tragedy strikes concerning Eva.

I knew I would have been on an emotional roller-coaster the moment I started reading The Queen of Palmyra, after all it deals with a delicate issue - racism. And I want to reiterate that Minrose Gwin really has a way of making her characters and story come alive through her outstanding writing style. I cannot say I loved all her characters, but I did feel for Florence and Eva, after all they are nothing but innocent people. Florence does not fully understand the situation given her naivety due to her young age and this is one reason why I find her narrative so real and convincing. She managed to evoke emotions in you through her experience.

Though the novel mainly focus on Florence, The Queen of Palmyra is also about great characterisation and storytelling. I think the author has absolutely done a great job in writing some sensitive scenes without much descriptions but in a more subtle way (honestly I don't want to read how some characters are suffering in details, it makes me too sad to think about it). I know books on racism and violence are always not an easy read, but in a way they help to create awareness and I find that is a good thing.(less)

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Apr 25, 2010 NerdGirlBlogger rated it 4 of 5 stars

Without sharing most of the details with you, it is quite hard for me to explain how brilliantly layered this book is without giving away any of its secrets. You would be amazed at the horror trapped beneath Florence’s eating problems and black outs. Florence, as every child living in a tense and violent home, has a story that is so dark and twisty, it even impresses upon me (a survivor of horror at home myself) the depth of violence she had to face before the fifth grade. Trust me, this was a b...more

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Dec 10, 2010 Audrey rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book provides a wonderful view, told through the voice of young Florence who slowly learns the hard way about the harsh prejudices in her 1960s Mississippi small town. It is told at a perfect time in her life--preteens, when everything starts to mature and change. She learns slowly how her dad is a mean individual and Klan leader. She begins to understand why her mother found ways to escape. She learns a lot from the black folks in Shake Rag (black section) and particularly befriends fiesty...more

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Nov 17, 2010 Jacqueline rated it 5 of 5 stars

The writing is beautiful. The story is told through the eyes of an 11 year old child, Florence. The conflicts going on around Florence, both internally & externally are so heavy and complicated. Even though the reader is clued in to what is happening with her family problems and the community's race war, we are shown how the STORY is told from Florence's innocent, naive eyes. She does not understand everything that is going on around her, she cannot yet piece together the whole story that wi...more

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Jun 18, 2010 Wendy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: first-reads

This was another Goodreads giveaway that I really liked. This was a very dark book dealing with a town in the South during the early 1960's as racial tensions grew out of control. The main character is Florence, a girl about to enter into 5th grade, who lives with her mother (the town cake lady) and her father who is the head of the Klan in their town. Florence is greatly influenced by Zenie, her grandparents' maid and also her caretaker over the summer. Zenie is black and lives in the section o...more

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May 25, 2010 Jessica rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Jessica by: Trish

Shelves: review-copy

It's the 1960s. Florence is twelve. Her mother provides for the family by baking amazing cakes but drinks too much. Her father is an abusive racist who has a secret pastime that takes him out at all hours. Her grandparents live nearby, but she is often foisted upon Zenie, their black maid, and her family. As the events of a volatile summer play out before her, Florence is shown the great divide between the black servants who have become her stand in family and her actual white family.

Parts of th...more It's the 1960s. Florence is twelve. Her mother provides for the family by baking amazing cakes but drinks too much. Her father is an abusive racist who has a secret pastime that takes him out at all hours. Her grandparents live nearby, but she is often foisted upon Zenie, their black maid, and her family. As the events of a volatile summer play out before her, Florence is shown the great divide between the black servants who have become her stand in family and her actual white family.

Parts of this story were brilliant. There were chords struck that reminded me of To Kill a Mockingbird. Florence, like Scout, is a spunky (albeit naive) kid who is struggling to understand her changing world. And Gwin sets up Florence's world with irresistible characters that pull the reader through the story.

One of the recurring themes in the book is the nature of history, of telling stories of the past. Here are a few of my favorite quotes:

But some stories are whiskery old men. You walk past them fast, but they snatch at you with their fingers of bone and make you stay. They hold you up to their faces and scratch you. But after going through all that, you still don't know them.

There are ways to leave your own story. You can leave the place it happened, through be forewarned, if the place is too sad about you leaving, it won't think twice about packing up its valise and hopping the first 'Frisco through town to follow you.

Some stories run for their lives. They zig and zag, moving so fast you can't find the secret path of their steps through the fields, only soft prints here and there to let you know something with a quivering heart and a soft belly passed that way or this. In what direction it ran or to what end, you will never know. Sometimes you see the blood or fur, and you know it didn't get away.

Despite some nice touches, the book didn't completely mesh for me. The prose, particularly at the beginning of the book, was sometimes labored. And Florence as a narrator was a little uneven. At times, she was a naive twelve year old girl, and at other times she was a mature adult looking back at her twelve-year-old self. Finally, there were a lot of uncomfortable scenes in which Florence is sexually, emotionally, and physically abused. Such scenes are not, in and of themselves bad, but I didn't feel that all of the scenes were justified by the story.

Still, I was absorbed by The Queen of Palmyra. As a child of the 80s who missed the racial turmoil of the 70s, I'm always amazed by the proximity of these stories. The Queen of Palmyra is a notable debut that explores race issues from an interesting perspective.(less)

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Jul 19, 2010 Jackie rated it 4 of 5 stars

This was a very powerful story of a young girl growing up in Mississippi in the 1960's. She is aware that the lives of her grandparents' maid and her people is not what it should be but she is not quite sure why. Her father goes to secret meetings and her mother takes her at night to the black bootleggers and passes them notes and gets her "Poison". After her mother tries to commit suicide and is institutionalized, she is left alone with her father. She comes to realize what her father is and wh...more

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Jan 19, 2013 Charlotte rated it 4 of 5 stars

The Queen of Palmyra is hard to put down. It nailed how violence begets violence in the concentric circles of ruin and tragedy that emanate from Florence's club-footed, grotesque father. I had a hard time believing that the father goes on almost nightly killing Klan sprees for years- but maybe that just shows that I am a white person born in the Jim Crow South and so of course I can't believe that there wasn't more accountability for the piles if bodies that must have been accruing- and Damn the...more

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Sep 24, 2011 Ken McDouall rated it 5 of 5 stars

This novel makes an interesting pairing with "The Help," a novel that is currently riding a wave of success and is set in the same time and locale. Gwin does a better job of communicating the terror that many African Americans lived with in early 1960s Mississippi. In this novel, we again have a white female narrator--this time, a young girl. But unlike the protagonist of "The Help," she is powerless to effect any change, and in fact is complicit through a selective blindness to what is happenin...more

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