Tag Archives: clyde edgerton

lunch at the piccadilly — clyde edgerton

4 stars

Carl’s aunt Lil Olive lives at the Rose­haven Con­va­les­cence Cen­ter in Listre. Lil is recu­per­at­ing there after a recent fall. She still has her own apart­ment and she wants noth­ing more than going back home, although she made some friends in the Cen­ter. She feels old in the Cen­ter and she is afraid it will be her last home. Carl keeps a fre­quent eye on his aunt and her girl­friends, who are old but not at all tired of life, con­clud­ing in all sorts of dif­fer­ent trips to stores, lunch­rooms and even the police sta­tion. And when you throw L. Ray Flow­ers, the ama­teur but pas­sion­ate preacher, into the mix, you’ll get a bunch of golden oldies, who’ll steal your heart when you read this book.

killer diller — clyde edgerton

4 stars

After read­ing three of his books, Edger­ton is becom­ing one of my favorite authors. He has a real sense of wit that I like and his sto­ries and char­ac­ters are real and funny. Killer Diller is just more proof.

The juve­nal delin­quent from Walk­ing across Egypt has his life in order now with help from Mat­tie, the grand­mother he never had. Wes­ley has become a good Chris­t­ian, a good man. Together with other young adults, who had “a rough time” he lives in the BOTA (Back On Track Again) house. He is a gui­tar player in the “gospel band” and has fallen for a girl liv­ing nearby in the house for young obese Christians.

where trouble sleeps — clyde edgerton

3 stars

Stephen Toomey and Jack Umstead are the two main char­ac­ters of this fine lit­tle story. Stephen is a six-years old boy who lives in Listre and Jack is a 57 years old mis­fit pass­ing through town on his way to prob­a­bly con yet another inno­cent. By an inci­dent where Inky, Stephen’s kit­ten is injured they get to know each other and Jack comes in con­tact with peo­ple with­out his usual crim­i­nal intent behind the com­mu­ni­ca­tion.
Other peo­ple have some say in the book too; there’s Alease Toomey, mother of Stephen, her brother, Mrs. Weams, Cheryl, the Blaine sis­ters (watch out for them!), to name a few. They all make a col­or­ful South­ern town and a funny, yet seri­ous, story.

the floatplane notebooks — clyde edgerton

5 stars

I haven’t been dis­ap­pointed by Edger­ton yet and also this book is a must read for any­body who loves an intrigu­ing fam­ily story with love­able and fas­ci­nat­ing char­ac­ters. For this rea­son I’m reluc­tant to say any­thing else about the story.

Every chap­ter is a mem­ory of one mem­ber of the fam­ily. Through their eyes we see the dif­fer­ent rela­tion­ships between these peo­ple full of love, their pas­sions, their tra­di­tions, their weak­nesses, their courage to be human. And then there is the vine. He also has his own chap­ters. He tells us about the many gen­er­a­tions before the ones who have their place in the float­plane notebooks.