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Summary and Reviews of Quite A Year For Plums by Bailey White

Quite A Year For Plums by Bailey White

Quite A Year For Plums

by Bailey White
  • Critics' Consensus (3):
  • First Published:
  • Jul 1, 1998, 220 pages
  • Paperback:
  • May 1999, 220 pages
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About This Book

Book Summary

Heartbreakingly tender, often hilarious - a delectable treat from a writer who has been called a national treasure.

Anyone who has read the best-selling Mama Makes Up Her Mind or listened to Bailey White's commentaries on NPR knows that she is a storyteller of inimitable wit and charm. Now, in her stunningly accomplished first novel, she introduces us to the peculiar yet lovable people who inhabit a small town in south Georgia. Meet serious, studious Roger, the peanut pathologist and unlikely love object of half the town's women. Meet Roger's ex-mother-in-law, Louise, who teams up with an ardent typographer in an attempt to attract outer-space invaders with specific combinations of letters and numbers. And meet Della, the bird artist who captivates Roger with the sensible but enigmatic notes she leaves on things she throws away at the Dumpster ("This fan works, but it makes a clicking sound and will not oscillate").

Heartbreakingly tender, often hilarious, Quite a Year for Plums is a delectable treat from a writer who has been called a national treasure.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

The San Francisco Chronicle
White will transport readers to that place where the language is languid, the bees hum (if they aren't stinging you) and everybody--in a nice kind of way--is a little bit off kilter.... White falls right into a tradition of Southern storytelling where the humor is dry, sweetness and sadness just naturally mix, and eccentricity is as common as a housefly.

Kirkus Reviews
The pages resonate with White's distinctive voice and dazzle with her naturalist's eye for detail, making the strictly episodic nature of this tale less a drawback than a continuation of her familiar storytelling habits.

Library Journal - Shannon Haddock
This is not just for those readers interested in small-town tales but for anyone wishing to enjoy a charming story of human relations. One hopes that White has more novels to come.

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Read-Alikes

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