From the Bookshelf of Appomattox Regional Library System…

[close] I recently had the pleasure of reviewing this novel for the Richmond Times Dispatch. It is the first novel written by Jill McCorkle in 17 years, so the author, a North Carolina resident, does not have much name recognition. But I felt that this is a brilliantly original work. Supposedly about a small group of nursing home residents in a small town in North Carolina who are not long for this world, it ends up being a clever and complex meditation on the ways we fail to live our lives the way our lives ought to be lived. McCorkle's tone and humor lighten what could be a dark venture- but there are places in the story that will make you feel sad or frustrated, and those places are very intentional. An underrated and unrecognized gem, that makes me feel indignant about the role of name recognition and hype in the publishing world.