Monday, September 1, 2014

The Sweetheart Season - Karen Joy Fowler

A 60's boomer tells her WWII mother's story of growing up in a small mill (cereal) town and being a member of a woman's baseball team.

I found this book in the rental we stayed at in Siesta Key, Florida.  It's after WWII and their are few eligible men left in a small town in Minnesota.  Irinia and her friends work at the mill under its owner, an irascible gent who schemes to promote his products by having a travelling, all-women baseball team made up of the workers.  The story of the women is told by Irinia's daughter, a child of the 60's Vietnam and hippie era.

I found the writing uneven and tired a bit of the eccentricities of the mill owner and his wife and his invented "Margaret Collins" spokeswoman, a Betty Crocker clone.  The story was entertaining nonetheless and could provide fodder for a discussion of women's roles.

Some quotes:

"...and we still think we live in a Disney cartoon"  Comment by Irinia's father about Americans after WWII.

"Back then there were no street lights so people could still see the dark [by starlight]"

"It was part of growing up, you began to enjoy nasty things like onions, broccoli, coffee and sleep."

Published: 1996  Read: August 2014  Genre: Fiction


  • ISBN-10: 0345416422
  • ISBN-13: 978-0345416421

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