White Lightning: Truth Is a Powerful Elixir

This was a wonderful book! I loved every sentence of it. My only complaint was it was too short. I can't wait for Minton Sparks to write another one. The words and language she uses creates a vivid picture of life and love. It was great!

There's something magical about the good writers from the South. As a transplant from Oregon, I admit this with only admiration. I was first captured by Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird," then Rick Bragg's "All Over But the Shoutin'," and more recently with River Jordan's "The Messenger of Magnolia Street." Minton Sparks has been writing for a while, but "White Lightning" was my short and sweet introduction to her lyrical style. Her characters speak and think in ways only a Southerner could capture. She takes us into the hearts and minds of broken people who still carry themselves with pride and the hope for grace. In this novella, we meet Peggy Sue as she deals with marital struggles, her own weakness with the bottle, and the passing of her beloved and salty grandmother "Jebo." Jebo's diaries have been left to Peggy Sue, and soon she is reading about her family's past--dark moments that have slipped beneath the surface and left oily pools of confusion. As Peggy Sue uncovers the bitter yet sometimes powerful elixir of the truth, she is given subtle choices to move forward or slide back into the cage of silence. These are understated, sometimes beautiful, at other times painful, glimpses into abuse and love and the freedom of moving beyond the things that try to hold us down. It's everything a good Southern writer knows how to evoke with deceptive simplicity.