Aunt Jane of Kentucky, by Eliza Calvert Hall

[sophia_sol]

Oh gosh I was not expecting to be so charmed by this book!! It was written by a feminist in the very early 1900's, and it shows, in the best sorts of ways. The book has a frame tale of Aunt Jane in her older years in the late 19th century having a series of conversations with a young female relative/friend. Aunt Jane tells stories to this young woman about her younger days in small-town rural Kentucky, with lots of focus on the women and their relationships with each other and support of each other. YEAH. (it reminds me a bit of what I liked so much about Elizabeth Gaskell's novel Cranford, actually, though Gaskell is the better writer of the two.)

The first story is the best, and cemented Sally Ann as my favourite character. YOU GO SALLY ANN. But I was impressed by how all the people in this book feel like very real people, and the life of the church Aunt Jane describes feels very true to church life too. (the troubles with the choir, and the one man who's a terrible singer and doesn't know it and loves to sing and loves to contribute! I KNOW THAT MAN.)

The book got a bit boring and meandering in places, especially the last chapter which had WAY too much focus on flower gardens and not enough on people. And the book writes out Aunt Jane's accent, which is unfortunate, though it never gets so heavy as to be unreadable.

So the book isn't perfect, but I love it a lot anyways and I'm super glad I picked it up on a whim.