The Wiregrass: A Novel

The Wiregrass is one of those novels that keep you up all night long and make you snap at folks expecting a response from you on some unimportant, mundane household problem. Supper comes to mind. The only part I didn't enjoy was the last page. We open with school's summer break, with the car trip from Virginia to Crystal Springs with the family of a couple of the cousins. You can close your eyes and 'see' this trip. Pam Webber paints authentic mind pictures all through this novel that will fill up your heart with soul. And these are old-timey type cousins - everybody knows everybody's secrets and nobody else can talk bad about so-and-so. The kids are able to use the summer excursions to further the bond with each other and build onto that old fashioned 'family' that is a life-long support system. Though the children of Granny and Pa Campbell had spread out into the extended South, these summers made soul mates of the grandchildren. The timing of The Wiregrass is the summer of 1968, and it is very authentic to time and place. The cousins - Nettie, J.D., Eric, Sandra, Sharon, Li'l Bit, and Sam(antha) have spent every summer they can remember with their grandmother and Ain't Pitty (Aunt Patricia-Pitty Pat-just Ain't Pitty) and Uncle Ben in Crystal Springs, Alabama. Crystal Springs is small-town Southern, smack-dab in the middle of a giant underground aquifer and system of sparkling, crystal springs topped with miles of spidery, sharp wiregrass. Fort Rucker is the training ground for helicopter pilots to be sent to Vietnam. Enterprise is the 'shopping' town of many of the small surrounding communities. Dothan is the peanut capital of the world. I don't think you can get more southern that that time, that place. This story will rock you. This is a novel to keep, re-read, and savor. Pam Webber is an author I will follow. I received a free electronic copy of Pam Webber's second novel, Moon Water, from Netgalley. Within just a few pages I knew I wanted to know these protagonists from the beginning. Moon Water is a complete novel in and of itself as is Wire Grass, but the experience will be richer if you read The Wiregrass also.