Thursday, October 11, 2012

January Monday night Book club Book: Georgia Bottoms by Mark Childress



Georgia Bottoms may be Six Points, Alabama's finest feature--beautiful, worldly, a splendid cook and faithful churchgoer who cares for her aged mother and sells handmade quilts to her grateful neighbors. 

Georgia also has a discreet side business, "entertaining" six local gentlemen at night.  Judge Barnett on Sunday, Sheriff Allred on Friday, the doctor on Wednesday (Monday's are Georgia's own).  Each gentleman gets a night tailored to his particular tastes; each has been trained to leave a "gift" to help Georgia get by, and each one thinks he is Georgia's only secret lover.

When Preacher Eugene Hendrix (Saturdays) decides he must confess their affair in front of his wife and the entire congregation, Georgia may be able to stop him in time.  But one pin pulled out of her elaborately protected life may be all it takes to send the whole structure to hell in a hurry.  Chin high, posture perfect, her Chanel handbag firmly clasped in her hand, Georgia sets out to save herself, her mama, and her particular notion of virtue from total ruin.  Nothing in Six Points will ever be the same.

Written with hilarity, insight, and affection for the many failings of man - and womankind, Georgia Bottoms plumbs the irrepressible workings of the rebellious human heart.  It is proof anew of why Stephen King called Childress's previous novel, One Mississippi, "the funniest novel I have read in ten years!"