Thank heaven for Southern Authors

Life is so much more exciting with good Southern writing. I loved Clyde Edgerton's The Floatplane Notebooks. It was my first read of his books. It was funny, passionate, and poignant. It reminded me of my family and my extended family. Edgerton wove his own family stories into the book, and you can see the personal truths there. Intermingled with the story of family love is the setting of the VietNam War. The sons in the story are involved in hilarious capers including falling into an old well (the father built a kitchen over the well). Retrieving Meridith (the son) from the well was laugh out loud funny (pg. 72).

As the book moves the children to adults, the relationships grow and the reader sees true families. I loved this book.

Blurb: The Floatplane Notebooks chronicles the history of the Copeland family of North Carolina—from before the Civil War to after Vietnam. The family goes way, way back. Every May they gather to clean up the graveyard and clip the wisteria vine away from the tombstones, while the old people talk to keep the path to past open. Albert Copeland, the current head of the family, writes it all down in the notebooks he uses to track the progress of his homemade floatplane. A family album of talk and tales, this novel shares the best-kept secrets of love, loss, and letting go.