Rating: 
Summary: A hodgepodge
Review: Too many characters, too little cohesiveness. I wish Trollope had focused on only three or four of the characters and developed their story in a way that made sense. Among the things that make no sense: why does Henry take a room at a bed and breakfast for $50 a night when he tells Gillon's brother that he can't afford to pay $120 a month towards a mortgage? I also agree with the reader who faulted Trollope on her tenuous grasp of American (let alone Southern) dialect. What American would say "Has Mama been?" (for "Has Mama stopped by?"), "don't let's" (for "let's not"), or "gone 3" (for "past 3")? Trollope's other books are far superior; read any one of them rather then this one.
Rating: 
Summary: Trollope comes to America
Review: Trollope (yes, an Anthony relative), writer of edgy, witty and penetrating novels of domestic life, often shakes up the delicate and complex balance of family relationships by throwing a spanner into the mix, an outsider who changes perspective, alters perceptions. In "The Men and the Girls" it's an elderly spinster; in "Next of Kin" it's a young free spirit; in her latest, "Girl from the South," it's a girl on one side of the intercontinental pond and a boy on the other.Though her themes are familiar, English Trollope's focus on a traditional American family of the deep South is a definite departure and, mostly, an interesting, thought-provoking change. Gillon Stokes, a daughter of the old South of Charleston, South Carolina, defies the expectations of her close-knit family in a series of ineffectual moves and new beginnings. She's not sure what she wants, just that it isn't what Charleston has to offer. As she explains to her boss in a small Charleston museum: " 'I want to know,' she said. 'I want to find something or someone that my mind just looks at and says, "Yes." No messing.'....'Books used to do it. I thought I'd found the Holy Grail with almost anything I read. But it doesn't seem to work now. I question too much.'
'You know too much,' Paul said. 'That's what happens when you get older.' Paul has arranged a job for Gillon in London. She goes reluctantly, but is soon taken up by Tilly, an arts magazine editor in a stalled relationship with Henry, a wildlife photographer unwilling to commit. Tilly and Henry's circle of young Londoners are footloose, adrift as Tilly sees it, fearful that they will all still be behaving as young singles in their dotage. But Gillon begins to gain a sense of belonging and happiness. " 'It might be,' she told Tilly with some diffidence, 'because I don't feel I'm letting anyone down.' " But Gillon goes home to be with her sister for her first baby and, on a whim, invites disgruntled Henry (also looking for some undefined meaning in his life) to see South Carolina. To her surprise and discomfort, he turns up and is captivated by her family. The first half of the novel explores the rootless, "is that all there is?" feeling of late youth with urbanity and wit. ("He eyed Tilly up and down in the assessing way so peculiarly arrogant in plain men.") The second half delves more deeply into family dynamics and relationships in crisis with mixed results. Oddly, Trollope contrasts the long tradition of family and community ties in Charleston with an unrooted, rather bohemian community in London. None of the young Londoners have close family though Gillon's preoccupations stir familial longings in Tilly and even Henry. Devastated by Henry's defection, Tilly turns to the aloof, near-stranger of a mother who left her and her father to go off with another man, a woman whose mistakes have made her wiser, though no different at the core. But Trollope herself seems captivated by Southern ideas of family with its strong reliance on rules and expectations. Not that she romanticizes it, at least not much. Her eye is too sharp for that and her view of humanity too clear. All of Trollope's characters have flaws, from Gillon's warm and traditional Southern grandmother with her dark secret and regrets, to Gillon's psychologist mother, wise and understanding with her patients and defiantly undomestic and aloof at home, to Gillon herself, a mass of contradictions all bundled up in negativity and yearning. These southerners sometimes fall into mildly disconcerting Briticisms but overall it's a refreshing exploration of American family and the Charleston attempt to absorb and subsume individual human flaws in a structure of expectation, manners and tradition. Reading it, you get a sense of Trollope, like Henry, bringing an outsider's fresh perspective to bear on a close study of human behavior as cultivated in Charleston. Not that she neglects her London characters. The settings alternate as Tilly adjusts to abandonment, then (as she sees it) betrayal, by nurturing a new relationship with her mother - in parallel with three Charleston generations of mothers and daughters. Trollope is, as ever, subtle, witty and perceptive. Gillon, however, is one of her more tiresome characters. As the protagonist she is likable enough, but too whiny. A character who gets just about everything she wants and is never satisfied. But American Trollope fans will enjoy her take on American family, and the writing is as observant, graceful and eloquent as always.
Rating: 
Summary: TELL GRANDMA'S STORY
Review: While the book was well-written, I found myself interested in the stories that were largely untold. Henry was a jerk and Gillon too self-absorbed and shallow. What about Ashley's story? What about Grandma Sarah's story? There was much more to tell that we were given a glimpse of before Trollope jutted off into the main plot line (that I wasn't much interested in, anyway). I enjoyed her style of writing. The dialogue was great. Just felt it could have been a better book. I am definitely going to try some of Trollope's other books before "writing" her off!
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