Right as Rain

In the tradition of "Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe" and "The Secret Life of Bees," this luminous, heartfelt novel explores the tragedies and triumphs, the pleasures and sorrows of two women, Tee Wee and Icey, their families, and the white family that employs them as cook and housekeeper on a tenant farm in rural Mississippi. Though the women are as different as water and wine--Icey is feisty, hot-tempered, and impulsive, while Tee Wee is more submissive and disciplined--both are driven by a passionate determination to give their children a better life. Through trying times, they are the pillars, fierce and resilient; yet they celebrate life with a love of food, music, and family that makes even the most traumatic moments endurable. The illicit love between Tee Wee's daughter Crow and the white landowner's son Browder; the heartbreaking death of one of Icey's children, for which she will blame herself; the murder trial of Tee Wee's youngest son which threatens to tear apart not just their family but the entire town--all these events are interwoven with occasions of joy, including Crow's fulfillment of her lifelong dream and Tee Wee's own hard-fought success. A richly emotional epic spanning two decades in the Deep South, the story of Tee Wee and Icey and their families are a prism through which we view the universal--racial strife, dysfunctional families, secrets and redemption. Illuminated by a resonant storytelling voice and dialogue that rings loud and true, "Right as Rain" provides indelible portraits of indomitable characters and an almost tangible sense of place, while revealing a deep understanding of race in mid-century America's rural south.

Review :
"An old-fashioned Southern family saga and a page-turner, a wonderful blend of comedy and tragedy. This novel takes on, without fear, the complex truths and ironies that make up black-on-white life in the deep South. Bev Marshall knows her land and her people. These voices ring true." --BRAD WATSON, author of "The Heaven of Mercury ""Bev Marshall has managed the rare feat of mixing history and fiction, memory and magic, and she has accomplished the all but impossible task of writing about race in a way that is utterly generous, without censure, apology, or fear. . . . After this one book, she's one of my favorite writers. I look forward to reading everything she's written and is going to write. It's not often that a writer's staying power is so evident so quickly." --KAYE GIBBONS, author of "Ellen Foster" and "Divining Women """Right as Rain" is a saga in the best sense of the word. . . . Marshall has put her heart and soul on the page for the reader and the result is a novel so haunting and beautiful that it will stay with me always. This book firmly establishes Bev Marshall as one of our most amazing and vivid American voices." --SILAS HOUSE, author of "A Parchment of Leaves" and "Clay's Quilt ""I marvel at the wisdom tucked away inside these pages, at the generosity and artistic grace on display here. This is a fine, fine book." --STEVE YARBROUGH, author of "Prisoners of War" and "The Oxygen Man" "Bev Marshall has not so much written a novel as she has drawn back the curtain on a South-facing window, a view of Mississippi fifty years ago, of forty and thirty years ago. . . . They are not so much characters as people we have known; their stories not so muchwitnessed as shared. The shifting points of view--female and male, black and white--never shift away from honesty and authenticity." --SONNY BREWER, editor, "Stories from the Blue Moon Cafe" anthology "A brilliantly crafted page-turner, "Right as Rain" spins a cinematic tale of familial love, everlasting friendship, and secret desire that will entrench you in the lives of its characters so completely you will never want it to end." --SUZANNE KINGSBURY, author of "The Summer Fletcher Greel Loved Me" and "The Gospel According to Gracey "