Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful
Review: Dorothea Benton Frank's "Plantation" is as good as her first, "Sullivan's Island." She did an extremely good job in capturing the Southern's essence, values, beliefs and just the culture. One can get a feel of how it's like to live in the South and how the Southern people think and act. This book deals with Caroline Levine, whose relationships with her family is anything but okay. The theme of this book is how she rebuilds her relationship with her mother, how she misunderstood her mom when she was young and finally, she understood why her mom was the way she was. She learns more about her family roots and finally came to an understanding that, the plantation was where she belonged. The book is fills with warmth, love, and just what we need to relax and have a good laugh. I highly recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: A Journey of Self-Discovery, Southern Style
Review: For every daughter who has lost her mother to a terminal illness, this is a MUST read. For every reader who revels in the upper-middle-class Southern life, this is a MUST read. For everyone who enjoys a novel with humor, distinctive local color, and amazing insights into self-discovery, this is a MUST read. The story begins at the funeral of Miss Lavinia and her daughter Caroline takes us on a tour of pivotal moments that led to this day. The family relationships that bind us, the heritage we can run from but never escape, the unending parade of people who leave their prints on the canvas of our lives, are all examined with wit and passion. Dorothea Benton Frank is remarkable in the way she draws you into the story and makes you a part of life with Caroline. In New York or back at Tall Pines Plantation, I felt like Caroline's shadow, suffering every indignity with her, rejoicing in every happy event with her. Caroline's journey of self-discovery leads her to some revealing truths about the nature of mother-daughter relationships, the misunderstandings that bruise hearts, the reunions that make us realize no matter how our lives differ from our mothers, we are forever and thankfully so our mother's daughter, her true and lasting spitting image. So curl up with Caroline and her nearest and dearest: Trip, her hard-drinking brother and quintessential Southern good ole boy; her trashy sister-in-law Frances Mae; her surrogate mother and housekeeper Millie; her precocious son Eric; her repulsive husband Richard, and most of all Miss Lavinia, the larger-than-life mother Caroline must come to terms with before she can become the person she was destined to be.
Rating:
Summary: Plantation
Review: Great summer read, yanh! If you are looking for a great summer beach book, try Plantation by Dorothea Benton Frank. Even better than Sullivan's Island, it is such great fun reading this lowcountry tale. The family is dysfunctional enough to be Southern, eccentric enough to make you laugh out loud, and human enough to make you cry. The matriarch, Miss Lavinia, is a hoot! I was torn between cringing at her antics and yet wanting to be like her in my old age. The battles between Miss Lavinia's daughter, Mrs. Caroline Wimbley Levine, and her perpetually pregnant low-life sister-in-law rage on while the crown prince son drinks on amidst gambling, infidelity, and a cast of zany supporting characters. All of the ordinary story elements are here -wealth, marriages in crisis, parenting, the struggle to be independent balanced against the need to go home. However, Dorothea Benton Frank has made the characters come alive in such a delightful way that Thomas Wolfe is proved wrong - you can go home again! After weeks of searching for the perfect summer read, I finally found it! Any book with a chapter titled, "Miss Lavinia Would Like to Have a Word with You", just has to be read!
Rating: 
Summary: Comfort Book
Review: Having recently read Sullivan's Island, I was in the mood for another low country heartwarming story. Filled with likeable characters and interesting story lines, Plantation lived up to my expectations. This story begins with Caroline Wimbly, a woman raised in South Carolina who ran away as early as she could to New York city. She thought she was better off for leaving her roots behind, but a call from her brother leads her back to Tall Pines, where she grew up. Her brother and his low life wife want to place their wealthy mom into a home so that they can take over her Plantation. Caroline discovers her mother better than she ever remembered her, and soon she finds her old life might suit her better than the one she's created. Caroline goes home to New York, only to face the truth about her deeply disatisfying marriage. She returns with her son "home" to South Carolina to live in her childhood home. The bond developed between Caroline and her mother is heartwarming and strong, as is that with her brother. The family pulls together to pull him out of his bind. Although this story has its share of sadness and unfortunate events, the family's ability to pull together and come through makes it more uplifting than depressing. Miss Lavinia, Caroline's mother, is a particularly spirited and enjoyable character. Her friends and helpers -- especially her estate manager Millie, a woman who claims special powers -- are also pertinant and effective people in the story. All of the characters are well developed, and help make this story one you will crawl right into.
Rating:
Summary: Auntie Mame, Low Country Style
Review: Here is a book to hold to your heart, it is that good. And before I even get to the fun, lively and irresistible plot, let me just say that we know on page one that Miss Lavinia, our own Low Country Auntie Mame, has passed away. And yet at the end, when we have finished getting to know her and attend her death and funeral, I was crying like a baby. And I don't cry at books!!
The plot to this book is true to Dotty Frank's genre: displaced Low Country gal comes home, gets mesmerized, and slowly regains her roots. In this case, the woman is Caroline Wimbley Levine, married to a cold and smug psychiatrist, Richard, and living in equally cold luxury in New York with their beloved son Eric.
When Caroline hears from her brother Trip that their mother, Lavinia, is losing her marbles and must be put in assisted living, Caroline grabs Eric and goes home for what she thinks will be for a few days. And there she is caught up in the gullah magic; the Low Country mystique (in which I thoroughly believe, thanks to Dotty's wonderful books) and a chance to become, once again, the "real" Caroline.
This might be the best of the four books Dotty Frank has so-far written. I cannot praise it highly enough. Grab it and lose yourself in a truly wonderful read!
Rating:
Summary: Not just for Southerners
Review: I am a born and raised Northern girl and I loved Plantation. Dorothea Frank writes of quirky characters and lush Southern environs in a way that anyone can enjoy the trip. The human foibles are not limited to the low country of South Carolina but her story gives a warm peek at that lifestyle. The story explores the relationships of Moms and daughters, complexities of sibling love, and coming to terms with the roots of one's own personality. I'm sure the Southern readers will love it - but don't hesitate if you are from elsewhere.
Rating: 
Summary: Please!
Review: I bought this book because I live in the Lowcountry. I should have learned something from buying the first one. I can think of only one or two local cliches that were left out. The character of Caroline is so thoroughly unlikeable that at first you don't realize she's the very same character as the heroine of the first book (Sullivan's Island) in a different setting. I think Ms. Frank can probably do a LOT better if she will just write about the characters without trying to get every single nugget of Lowcountry trivia within the pages of one book. Maybe this would not bother someone who is not from around here (or is it "yanh?"). It makes me feel like anyone who reads it gets a very distorted picture of what folks here are really like. Most of us don't worship our ancestors, lie about them, go to the Cotillion or have an African American mother figure to bring them up. Just plain silly. The breathless internal monologue of the self-absorbed Caroline made for some awfully tedious reading, and hardly changed from the first page through her father's funeral, her divorce, her bedroom escapades. I so hope the rest of the country will not judge us by this book or the previous one. This is truly not who we are.
Rating: 
Summary: BLAH!!
Review: I can't help but wonder if the previous readers and I read the same book. I am not a southerner but have enjoyed reading books about the South. However, I just could not get into this one. The character of Miss Lavinia was the only interesting part of the book. The rest of the characters were just plain BLAH. Maybe Ms. Benton should try writing about another section of the country.
Rating:
Summary: This is MY life!!!
Review: I cannot say enough good things about Dottie Frank... She is such an exceptional author. She has a way with words that just brings her reader in.
I am originally from the lowcountry. I moved what seems to be a world away and am now on the slow but steady journey back home. Her books have aided in my realization of how precious the past and the people in it are. I have gained a newfound respect for the wisdom of my mother, aunt and grandmother. I want my daughter to be just as blessed!
READ HER BOOKS!!!! ALL OF THEM!
Rating:
Summary: enjoyable but a bit tedious
Review: I enjoyed this book, really, I did. I just grew weary of the main character's (Caroline's) self-indulgent mental pontifications. There were times Caroline just went on for pages exploring Caroline's thoughts about being a good mother, being a good daughter, her husband and divorce, her education and career goals, I mean, it was just too much. It was very funny though... yes, it has many Southern cliches, but cliches start somewhere. I just wondered when Ms. Benthon Frank came to supper at my house to get ideas for the white trash sister-in-law, that was one hilarious dinner around chapter 10. One thing I would mention is that if you are having trouble with PTSD in light of Sept 11th, save this book for later. There is one horrifying chapter involving a plane crash, explosion, burning body, and ashes and body parts everywhere. I might be ultra sensitive because a FDNY captain is very important to me, but it was a very hard chapter to read and set off some PTSD episodes for me. Still an enjoyable book... I actually cried toward the end, I've only cried over a book like that one other time. Worth reading
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