Dancing Backward in Paridise
About
Life for Grace Place is all about sucking on “meat jerkys” and Lenny Bean, her handsome lover. However, Grace’s mother has loftier plans for her daughter. She insists that Grace save her money and move to New York City so she can find fame and fortune as an actress.
Grace works as a cleaning lady for wealthy Betty Ann Houseman so she can pool her pennies for the trip north. Betty Ann has a passion for men more pronounced than her overbite, and it isn’t long before she’s parting the sheets for Lenny Bean. But just before Grace leaves Hixson, Tennessee for New York City, she uncovers an insidious plot: the Bean family is trying to steal Betty Ann’s estate.
Without being able to help Betty Ann, Grace flees to New York, where she faces her darkest hours. In a world of surprises, Grace truly discovers paradise.
Praise for this book
Dancing Backward in Paradise by Vera Jane Cook is a charming rags-to-riches story with aheartwarming ending, memorable characters, and a riveting plot that will make the reader forget the outside world..
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The characters in this story are rich and deep....The author's craftsmanship is stunning and poetic. Cook draws on herown southern heritage to create masterful metaphors. Cook layers her metaphors to establish setting and deepen character development.
Although a younger audience may not be familiar with the author'sreferences to Loretta Young, Merle Haggard, or Hayley Mills, they willsurely relate to Grace's difficulties as she tries to figure out what to do with her life. For older readers, invoking celebrities of the timewill resurrect memories of 1967. Anyone who enjoys Southern stories,coming-of-age adventures, murder thrillers, or a satisfying romantic tale should read Dancing Backward in Paradise.
I absolutely cannot recall when I read a book that I enjoyed (loved) as much as I did "Dancing Backward in Paradise," written by Vera Jane Cook. Starting with that wonderfully apt title, I became so totally involved in this story that takes place in a tailor park called "Paradise," l was so totally fascinated with the characters who lived in the town of "Holy Horrible Hixon," that I couldn't tear myself away from that crazy, mysterious, wonderful trailer park world.
My favorite characters were Miss Grace Place ( Every single time I read that name, I just giggled, wondering how the author ever came up with it.), Mama Place, and Betty Ann Houseman. Poor dear! There was such warmth and love (and a bit of lust) in all three of those characters, and Vera Jane Cook portrayed them perfectly. Then there was also Mrs. Bean talking in verse all the time. What a stroke of genius Cook's part. Oh, and I also loved Miss Dorothea.
One of the very best things about Vera Jane Cook's writing is how she magically turn words into touch -- into feelings. For example, talking about a little boy, Chelsie, "I felt him wrap himself around me like gift paper on a birthday box." And about one of the several villains in the book, "He got meaner than a bumble bee shooed off a flower." And, "She curled up there every day just as happy as a fly on buttered toast." "I felt as high and as spry as a bumblebee let loose on a sunflower.....as effervescent as champagne on New Years." And so many, many other wonderful similes.
This book is filled with delightful characters, charm, warmth, love and last, but certainly not least, wonderful humor.
In closing, I will just say that I ADORED the book, and look forward to reading many books from a superb writer.