300 pages
Published August 2022 by Lake Union Publishing
Source: my copy courtesy of the publisher, through TLC Book Tours, in exchange for an honest review
Publisher's Summary:
Nona “Peaches” Davenport, abandoned by the man she loved and betrayed by family, left her Natchez, Mississippi, home fifteen years ago and never looked back. She’s forged a promising future in Chicago as a professor of African American Studies. Nona even finds her once-closed heart persuaded by a new love. But that’s all shaken when her father’s death forces her to return to everything she’s tried to forget.
Julia Curtis hasn’t forgiven her sister for deserting the family. Just like their mother, Nona walked away from Julia when she needed her most. And Julia doesn’t feel guilty for turning to Nona’s old flame, Marcus, for comfort. He helped Julia build a new life. She has a child, a career, and a determination to move on from old family wounds.
Upon Nona’s return to Natchez, a cautious reunion unfolds, and everything Nona and Julia thought they knew–about themselves, each other, and those they loved–will be tested. Unpacking the truth about why Nona left may finally heal their frayed bond–or tear it apart again, forever.
My Thoughts:
In 1865, tens of thousands of newly self-emancipated enslaved persons fled, trying to get behind Union lines, presumably to be safe from re-enslavement. The Union was not prepared for the numbers of people they were suddenly charged with the care of and, more than likely, very little interest in caring for them. Exactly what happened to those people depends on who is telling the story; revisionist Confederate history would have us believe that the Union army intentionally allowed women and children to starver or die of smallpox, leaving 20,000 of 100,000 dead in a place called Devil's Punchbowl in Natchez, Mississippi. In the years following this, wild peach trees grew in the area but many will not eat the peaches, given how the ground was fertilized.
Ms. Bentley sets her book in Natchez, with Julia's and Nona's Mamaw living across the street from the Devil's Punchbowl. She takes two pieces from the history of that location: the peaches play a big role in the story (they indirectly cause the death of the Davenport sisters' father) and the idea of revisionist storytelling. In our introduction to Nona, she is teaching her students that "Storytelling is how history was created. But our stories have often been supplanted with deliberate misinformation. Revisionism. Done to tell a different story." She is speaking of how the American South spent decades revising history.
Nona's (and Julia's) own history is also filled with stories that have been revised to tell a different story, through lies, misinformation and secrets kept. The sisters spend decades living their lives apart because of a misunderstanding and these lies (the lies the sisters have been told, the lies the sisters have told otheers, and the lies they have told themselves) and secrets. But when Nona returns home for their father's funeral, the lies come to light and the secrets are revealed.
Julia is the sister who was left behind. She is the sister who was left to care for a father that, I must say, was not the kind of man a daughter might feel compelled to spend any time caring for - but then Julia wasn't fully aware of what had transpired when she was younger. Readers are, through peeks into the past, and I couldn't help but feel that the girls were better off without him.
Bentley tells the girls stories in both the past and present, and from multiple points of view, which allows readers to "hear" the sisters perspective and to know the way their lives were perceived by others. It made for a slow start as readers are slowly introduced to the characters, while also stepping back in time. That's offset by an ending that I only saw coming because there were so few pages in the book left; it felt a bit abrupt but both wrapped things up while leaving some character's stories open-ended.
I found Bentley's descriptions, particularly those of Natchez and the area, very lovely. There were some unanswered questions, which I wasn't sure was intentional or not. If you're a fan of messy, complicated stories, you'll likely enjoy this book. It's a book that's somewhat out of my usual lane but I enjoyed it, being one of those fans of messy family stories.
Thanks to the ladies of TLC Book Tours for including me on this tour.
About Cade Bentley
Cade Bentley is a novelist and editor who is also published as Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling author Abby L. Vandiver, as well as Abby Colette. When she isn’t writing, Cade enjoys spending time with her grandchildren. She resides in South Euclid, Ohio. For more information visit www.authorabby.com.
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