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Dorothea Benton Frank

The Land of Mango Sunsets

January 23, 2015 by admin Leave a Comment

HawaiiI had the pleasure of reading The Land of Mango Sunsets, by Dorothea Benton Frank on the beach in Hawaii – a perfect backdrop for it. The novel begins with a Prologue explaining why the narrator calls the low country of South Carolina “the land of mango sunsets.” It’s a lovely romantic story involving a honeymoon in the South Pacific and a plate of sliced mangoes, “dripping with fleshy sweetness” delivered each morning along with a simple breakfast tray. It’s a charming image of young honeymooners eating mangoes behind mosquito netting in their bed. And it’s an image that stays with the reader, as it has with the narrator, who says, “mangoes were equated with love, tenderness, and hopeful beginnings, and we spent our lives looking everywhere for other examples of them.” We expect then that this will be a story of hopeful beginnings with maybe a little love and tenderness thrown in.

We also discover in the prologue that this place of mango sunsets is the place where the narrator’s family “had kept the same cottage for over one hundred years” and where, as a young girl, she remembered pausing to watch the sunset: “. . . [T]here was a sliver of time late in the day when the sun hung in the western sky, after it stopped burning white and before it dropped into the horizon. For just a few minutes it would transform itself into a red orange orb.” And her father called it “the mango sunset.” Lovely.

http://www.city-data.com/picfilesc/picc30348.php
http://www.city-data.com/picfilesc/picc30348.php

Dorothea Benton Frank, like Pat Conroy, has deep feelings about this part of the South Carolina low country, Sullivan’s Island, where “a chorus of bird whistles and song” began and ended each day, where “the pungent smells of salt and wet earth haunt me . . . I could smell rain coming, sense a storm, and knew enough to be afraid of fast water that would spin you away from life in an instant.” The difference though is that for Conroy the land itself is tied up with twisted memories of family dysfunction while for Frank, the low country is a place where family thrived, “there were the leathered but loving hands and peppermint breath of old people, always there to help.” In The Prince of Tides, Conroy has written a lament while Frank has written a love song.

The novel begins in earnest in New York, another parallel to The Prince of Tides but Frank’s protagonist is not just visiting, Miriam Elizabeth Swanson lives in the city and appears to be just as snobbish and cold as her name suggests. It’s the story of Miriam making her life in New York in her fabulous apartment which she has had to subdivide and rent out after her husband divorced her to marry a much younger woman with whom he has children. Miriam is bitter and carries that bitterness with her in most of her personal interactions. She is not particularly likeable. She barely speaks to her two grown sons, having alienated them during her divorce by forcing them to choose between her and their father. She does have one lovely friend and tenant, Kevin Dolan, with whom she shares frequent cocktail hours and dinners and I can’t help wondering, early on, why this man cares for her at all.

CoverMangoMiriam’s problem is that she is striving hard to maintain her place in the Manhattan social scene which her husband’s wealth had insured. But now that he’s gone, so is her social standing. She is snubbed by the league of women who spend their time volunteering for the appropriate charities, in this case, the art museum. Miriam’s other problem is that her other tenant has died suddenly and she needs to rent his space as soon as possible because she needs the income. The new tenant she settles on, Liz Harper, is young and beautiful and, in the way of all strangers who come to town in fiction, is about to stir things up. She will become the catalyst for Miriam’s transformation from bitter peri-menopausal woman to loving mother, grandmother and daughter, and a woman for whom the chance of a grown-up loving relationship with a man is once again possible. But it’s not just the stranger coming to town that saves Miriam, she must also reconnect with her roots in South Carolina and face her mother’s mortality.LandOfMangoSunsets

I thoroughly enjoyed Miriam’s journey from phony wannabe socialite to loving and loveable woman. I loved it when her nemesis in the volunteer world gets her comeuppance and also watching Miriam take baby steps toward kindness to her fellow human beings and her own family. The writing is solid — lovely in parts — and the characters are well drawn. It’s a story that made me feel good. I can’t help it if I like happy endings. And, too, I love the fact that my copy of The Land of Mango Sunsets has that slightly warped look that happens when most of the reading takes place on the beach with the book resting against a wet swimsuit and perilously close to the surf.

 

Filed Under: Book Reviews, Coast to Coast Tagged With: Dorothea Benton Frank, South Carolina, Sullivan's Island, The Land of Mango Sunsets

Fiction Addiction in South Carolina

December 29, 2014 by admin Leave a Comment

FictionAdditionI’m delighted to take my literary road trip back down south right now — smack dab in the middle of the darkest, coldest and wettest season in the Pacific Northwest. I could use a sun break. I’ll admit that it didn’t take too much online research to find the South Carolina bookstore that sounds just right to me. With a name like Fiction Addiction, how could I miss? I’ll admit to suffering from that same problem myself and having no need for rehab. While I occasionally pick up a nonfiction title, fiction is definitely my addiction. This bookstore seems a natural match.

I read on their website that the owner of Fiction Addiction is from South Carolina originally and that she spent five years in New York working as an editor at St. Martin’s Press — excellent credentials! Also, I’m drawn to the events and other bookish offerings I find listed. First, I notice the “For Local Authors” link: If you are a local author with a publishing contract with a New York publisher, we would love to get an advance reading copy of your forthcoming book so that we can help start some early buzz for you. This bookstore apparently goes out of its way to support local writers and I think that’s awesome. And they don’t only support the big time New York published authors, but also offer creative ways to stock books by local writers and published by indie presses. I like that too. Additional resources for writers include links to the South Carolina Writer’s Workshop and a list of local writing groups with contact information — lovely.

Possibly my favorite offering from this bookstore is called “Book Your Lunch.” This is a program to connect readers with writers by bringing them together over lunch. What a fabulous idea! The bookstore invites authors to a local restaurant to read from or talk about their latest book and follow that with lunch and a book signing. Now that sounds like something we Seattleites could really get into. I’ll keep my fingers crossed that the Elliott Bay Book Company or Third Place Books adds this to their agenda.

Courtesy TravelLandPhotography
Courtesy TravelLandPhotography

And so it is with completely positive feelings that I make the call to Fiction Addiction. The woman who picks up the phone is pleasant and seemsinterested in my project. When I explain that I’m looking for recommendations for a book or two of fiction that is particularly evocative of South Carolina, her initial response is, “Oh my!” She takes some time to consider my request, and I can’t help filling the silence by talking about The Prince of Tides as an example of the kind of book I’m interested in reading. Though I read this novel years ago, I still remember how it dropped me right into the low country, filled with shrimp boats and salt marshes, and how I could practically smell the humid southern air while reading it. The bookseller (I’m sorry I didn’t as her name) admits that she has not read Prince of Tides and I try not to judge that. Instead, I enthusiastically suggest that she add it to her to-read list and reiterate the kind of novel I’m looking for. We talk a little bit about what Greenville is like, she suggests I look up Falls Park in downtown Greenville and so I find this beautiful photo:

After some thought, the woman recommends Dorothea Benton Frank, an author I’m not familiar with, and I suggest she send along whichever of Frank’s titles she likes the best. “She’s very popular around here.” She tells me. “But her books are not exactly literary — more of a beach read.” I tell her that’s fine with me, since I’m on my way to Hawaii soon. As I’m giving her my billing information, I can’t help myself, so I ask her to send along a copy of Prince of Tides, too. It has been so many years since I’ve read that novel. It’s a classic. And it must certainly be one of the best novels set in South Carolina ever. I can’t wait to re-read it.

Filed Under: Book Reviews, Bookstores, Coast to Coast Tagged With: Dorothea Benton Frank, Fiction Addiction, Pat Conroy, Prince of Tides, South Carolina bookstores

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