Katherine C. (KBC) reviewed on 1/29/2007 + 42 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 1

The Wooten family returns (Dreaming Southern, 2000) in this tale of a small town fighting Wal-Martization. Irene Wooten was too young to remember much about Blue Lick Springs, Kentucky, when her family left for California in the 1950s, but the town still exerts a powerful hold over her older sisters, Rebecca and Carleen. When Rebecca learns that a mysterious company called Castleco is buying up and razing old buildings there, she launches a land grab of her own--until her determination to reclaim the old family estate, Rosemont, brings her into a head-to-head struggle with Castleco. Meanwhile, Carleen stands up to her philandering husband, Irene moves in with her grandmother, and the whole town prepares to celebrate Lila Mae Wooten's seventy-fifth birthday. There are too many subplots, and the quirkiness of Blue Lick Springs sometimes veers uncomfortably close to parody, but this is an engaging, fast-paced novel. Bruckheimer plays many of the skirmishes between pro- and antidevelopment forces for laughs, but she is serious about the threats to the economic health and character of American small towns. Meredith Parets

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