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Book Review of Big Stone Gap (Big Stone Gap, Bk 1)

Big Stone Gap (Big Stone Gap, Bk 1)
natalexx avatar reviewed on + 52 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 5


This charming book reminded me of the movie "Waitress" (starring Keri Russell and Nathan Fillion) ... in fact, so much did it remind me of the movie that, remembering the name of the female writer/director of "Waitress" was some form of "Adrian," I had to make sure the author and the director were not the same person. (They aren't. This is Adriana Trigiana; "Waitress" was Adrienne Shelly.)

Still, if you liked "Waitress," you might like this book. The qualities of "Waitress" this reminds me of are the tone (that hard to define way of being naturally quirky, effortlessly conveying the idea that the characters are just like this without being aware that it's unusual), the small-town setting, and the piercing insight of the main character's revelations into the world around her and her place in it.

It's a great book to curl up with on a rainy day or a slow Sunday. I read a lot of books in quick 5-minute "bites" of time; this was not a good book for that type of reading. It's a book to take some time with in order to enjoy the progress of the rolling storyline. (Not that the storyline is "slow" - there are plenty of interesting plot developments - but it doesn't have intermittent climactic moments or chapter-by-chapter cliffhangers as so many modern novels do.)

I had never read anything by Trigiani before, but this book may have made me a fan. I will be ordering more of her novels ASAP.