Whistling Past the Graveyard

First I want to thank Simon and Shuster and also Goodreads for the opportunity of reading this novel.

Summer 1963, in Cayuga Springs, Mississippi, feisty 9-year-old Starla is living with Mamie, her strict grandmother, while her father is working in an oil rig and her mother is becoming a famous singer in Nashville.

Afraid of being sent to reform school for misbehaving, she decides to run away and go to Nashville and reunite with her famous mother, the singer she hasn't seen since she was 3. On her way she gets a lift by a black woman Eula and in a basket a baby.. who is white. Starla may be young but in 1963 a black woman and a white baby means trouble.

After Eula's husband Wallace cruelty and an unfortunate accident, Starla and Eula decide that they can only do one thing is to go straight to Nashville. This road trip becomes a life changing course for both of them.

This book into the world of segregation, Starla who is the narrator, we see through her eyes the innocence that and also her eye-opening truth that she never witnessed. It also delves into domestic violence between Eula and Wallace and the truth about her upbringing and the broken spirit that made her take a white baby and raise him even though she knew it was not the right decision.

Never been to Mississippi, the author takes you there, the roads to the colored not being served in restaurants, makes you realize the misery that they lived through. The characters were right on point, to the good (Miss Cyrena, Starla's father), to the bad (Mamie, The Jenkins).

This is a beautiful story about searching for a better life, love, friendship and what the meaning of having a family, bounded by love of not means. After reading the book,i got invested in the characters, I wanted more, where would the characters be after 10-20 years.

A touching book worth reading!

Although I don't usually like comparing one book to the other (especially when it is a classic) Whistling Past the Graveyard reminded me a lot of To Kill a Mockingbird. Whoa! Those are big shoes to fill. To Kill a Mockingbird is one of my all time favourite novels, and for anything to even come near to it is quite exceptional.

Starla Claudelle lives with her grandmother (Mamie) in Cayuga Springs, Mississippi in 1963. Despite Mamie's best efforts to turn her into a lady, Starla insists on maintaining her tomboy ways. After sneaking out on the Fourth of July, there is an incident that has Starla convinced she is wanted by the law. Considering she has never felt loved by her grandmother and her father works for long periods on an oil rig, she decides to run away to live with her mother; a famous singer in Nashville.

So begins Starla's long journey through the Deep South to find a mother she hardly remembers. Her path is fraught with dangers, but along the way she encounters Eula; an African American woman who has a tragic past of her own. Together, the unlikely pair navigates a country ripe with racial tensions and political upheaval, as Starla discovers the injustice of her world and realises that family can come in any shape and any colour.

Starla is a wonderful narrator. Although she is mostly naïve about the political situation in the South, she has an innate sense of right and wrong and fights for those she loves. If Starla is the voice of the novel, then Eula is the heart. Although she makes some bad decisions, her intentions are always pure.

Crandall's writing is effortless and heartfelt. The plot moves quickly and as the characters develop you fall more in love with them.

I really enjoyed this novel. And while it doesn't quite live up to the legendary classic that is To Kill a Mockingbird, it is pretty darn close.

The story takes place in the Jim Crow south in 1963. There were points where I had to suspend disbelief at some of the plot mechanisms that drove the story forward, but the story about Starla's journey and her education about the world and people around her was enjoyable. The lessons she learns are primarily about relationships (e.g. the messy relationship of a battered wife and her husband, the relationship and impact an individual has with his/her community) and what drives those relationships. Starla is a pistol and I loved Eula. I listened to the audiobook - and it was well done.