Friendswood

I lived Friendswood. From the minute I first saw this book on the Coming Soon section of blogs, as soon as I saw it dealt in part with the Superfund toxic waste site just outside the real town of Friendswood, Texas, I knew I had to read it. In the early eighties, I was a teacher at the school right in the middle of the subdivision built on top of the toxic waste site. Yep. And I was pregnant. So this was a have-to-read book for me. How did I like it? It was uneven, I thought. More like a weak attempt to throw together several loosely connected short stories. I liked it, but I didn't love it. It may have just been me, but I'd really like to ask the author a few questions. Why, for example, did she keep the names of some places and change the names of others? Did she really need to change the name of Beamer Road, where the toxic waste site was located? Odd, I thought. The Friendswood she depicts is a more redneck view than the one I experienced, and I'm curious about that. All in all, a solid story, and one you should definitely read if you have any connection to this area.