The Laughing Place

by Pam Durban

Like the town they live in, Timmons, South Carolina, the Vesses are a peaceful model family. John Vess, attorney and pillar of the community, and Louise, his devoted wife, have conducted their lives seamlessly in a house that has belonged to the Vesses for generations. Now young, recently widowed Annie Vess has come home to comfort her mother after the shocking insult of he father's sudden death. But things are not the way Annie left them; Timmons is changing. A dam has flooded thousands of acres to create an artificial lake, Annie's cousin Mel is about to marry a man of highly questionable character, her mother seems to be relinquishing her common sense (and her soul) to a born-again sentimentality, and the old colonel next door is sinking inexorably into senility. Perhaps most alarming of all, Annie's memories of her father, valiant defender of lost causes, is threatened by her discovery that he led a double life. And Annie, for the first time since the death of her husband, embarks on a thrilling - and fearsome - love affair with a compellingly mysterious man. By turns comic and dark, Durban's portrait of a family under siege becomes a meditation on the South's obsession with continuity and tradition. Lyrical, wise, and achingly tender, here is a novel about that place in all our hearts called home.

352 pages, Hardcover

First published June 17, 1993

About the author

from the back of the book All Set About with Fever Trees
Pam Durban grew up in South Carolina. She has worked as a journalist and teacher in New York, Kentucky, and Georgia. She was the 1984 recipient of the Rinehart Award in Fiction, and her work has appeared in a number of publications, including Tri-Quarterly, Crazyhorse, and The Georgia Review. The title story of this, her first book, appeared in The Editor's Choice anthology, Vol. II. She currently teaches at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio.

from amazon.com:
Pam Durban is the author of The Laughing Place, which won the 1994 Townsend Prize for Fiction. In addition, Durban is the recipient of the 1988 Whiting Writer's Award and the 1984 Rinehart Award in Fiction. Her stories, which have appeared in such publications as Tri-Quarterly, Crazyhorse, and The Georgia Review, have been widely anthologized. She teaches at Georgia State University.

Reviews

[Lori Ripple · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ugh I struggled to get through it.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just lingered and lingered over this because the story and writing were both so good. Annie moves back in with her mother, Louise, after both her husband and her father die. So we have two women coping with being widows and the truth emerges about both men, their families, their interests, their beings. Annie moves forward by falling in love with Legree and moving back out of her childhood home. Louise moves forward by finding God. Ultimately, the book is about the fact that nothing is ever as it really seems, forgiveness is key, and everyone has faults and weaknesses. I liked Annie a lot. I could tell she was going to be okay. (A cosmetic thing: I DID NOT like the weight of this book--too bad it wasn't published in an easier to manage book.)

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

A story of a widow who moves back home with her mother, after her father dies, the Laughing Place seems more like a collection of short stories with the same characters than it does a cohesive novel. Durban draws beautiful scenes, and many of her chapters tear to the heart of what it means to have a husband die, or a father; of what it means to be mother and daughter; or of the roles people play in a small town. But none of it hangs together. There is no real thru-line of plot to follow; no uniting theme or motif. I give it three stars for many of the beautiful moments Durban creates, her powerful prose, and advise readers to approach this book as a selection of tableaux, rather than a coherent whole.

[Maurean · Rating 4 out of 5]

As this novel started out with a funeral, I would say this isn't a book I would normally pick up (the title is certainly a misnomer in that sense), but I found Durbans writing so compelling; so arresting that I couldn't put it down. Her voice throughout is flawless, her descriptions of small-town life are perfectly executed, and her observations of human relationships are intelligent and thought-provoking. For me, the prose read like poetry, and made for a complex and impressive story of life, love and lessons learned

[Sandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the story of a young widow trying to adjust to her life and to being with her Mother who has also been recently widowed.

[Shawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great story of the meaning of roots.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good story about families and loss and moving on. I enjoyed this book