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Title: Lunch at the Piccadilly: A Novel by Clyde Edgerton ISBN: 1-56512-195-3 Publisher: Algonquin Books Pub. Date: September, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.12 (8 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Edgerton Finds Humor in Everything
Comment: So again we find ourselves in (imaginary) Listre, North Carolina where a new cache of characters keep popping up in Edgerton's world. In this (his most recent) novel, Edgerton in about 250 pages expresses the humor residing in having the audacity to be relieved that an elderly family member has passed on.
Carl's Aunt Lil must stop driving--she runs red lights, is overcome with brief spells of aphasia ("Which one is he?" she wonders at her nephew), and can't really see over the dashboard. However, since the government saw fit to give her a license and hadn't taken it away yet, she would keep driving until they did. Fortunately for Carl she passes before he can put his foot down.
Is that what we all fear? Having to be the one to snatches away what independence the elderly have left? Although making a point was unlikely to be the purpose of this book, Edgerton softly compares which way is better to go: falling from the toilet pulling a call cord for help, or in a car with old friends running red lights--laughing.
The crop of secondary characters tend to outshine the primaries in Edgerton books and this one is no different. I found the eloquent, yet grating, Reverend L. Ray to be an absolutely brilliant addition to the storyline. He reminded me of a ill-conceived cross between Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, and...well, Colonel Sanders:
"O God in us all, may we embrace the rooms of refuge food. Real food, cheap food, food served by people with wet rags under their arms. I eat; I cheat. I forge; I gorge. I taste; I waste. Waffle House, Huddle House, Puddle House, Muddle House..." he begins his blessing.
The cursing one-eyed Beatrice, little Maudie, and Clara that spend their time on the front porch of the "convalescent" home with Lil evoked for me memories of Huck Finn and Mark Twain. How they yearned for adventure and ended up finding it when they least expected it!
I found the theme to be soothing rather than morbid: relief comes from death. Edgerton did a good job of finding humor in old age and seemingly in the process comes to terms with his own aging.
I liked it--it was a good quick read. I believe it to be yet another Edgerton book that would be better viewed onscreen rather than in absorbed through print.
Rating: 5
Summary: Thoroughly enjoyable!
Comment: If you're a fan of literature that captures dialogue, settings, and people (think McCrae's BARK OF THE DOGWOOD or Flagg's FRIED GREEN TOMATOES) then this is the book for you. Edgerton's ear for dialect and inflection is unsurpassed and this funny, charming, irreverant, and wonderful look at human nature is not to be missed. Highly recommended.
Rating: 4
Summary: Affectionate and humorous
Comment: Sometimes hilarious, sometimes painful, usually both, Edgerton's affectionate portrait of old age charms the reader with Southern cornpone humor and quirky, but subtle characterizations. Carl Turnage, bachelor awning salesman, on the doorstep of middle age, and self-conscious about his lack of height and high voice, has always taken care of the women in his family.
He was an only child, doted on by his mother and her two childless sisters, but now Aunt Lil is all that's left. Lil has had a bad fall and landed in the Rosehaven Convalescence Home, a pleasant convivial place, as such places go. Though many get around in wheelchairs, the patients are at least mobile (sicker ones are shipped out).
Carl is shocked at his favorite aunt's rapid decline since her fall, but Lil still enjoys planning - and executing - outings, and talks of going home. After one particularly harrowing experience, Carl resolves to speak to her about giving up driving, but somehow Lil evades this conversation. When not lunching out with Carl, Lil likes to sit on the porch, smoke a cigarette, and hatch schemes with fellow residents.
One of these - a delightful plan to make churches and nursing homes interchangeable - inspires the excitable L. Ray Flowers, an itinerant preacher in temporary residence recovering from an injury. Though put-off by the preacher's volubility, Carl, too, is inspired by the man. He takes up the country music he's always loved and joins the preacher in weekly performances. But time brings decline in a place like Rosehaven and the playful interlude can't last.
Edgerton ("Raney," "Walking Across Egypt," "Where Trouble Sleeps"), switches points of view to reveal inner turmoil - Lil's sad secret, Carl's insecurities, dreams, and brief lapses from sainthood. The strong ending is both sad and heart-warming. As usual, Edgerton's touch is deft.
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Title: Raney by Clyde Edgerton ISBN: 0345329821 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 12 April, 1986 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Where Trouble Sleeps by Clyde Edgerton ISBN: 0345426320 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 20 October, 1998 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: Walking Across Egypt by Clyde Edgerton ISBN: 0345346491 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 12 February, 1988 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: The Way the Crow Flies: A Novel (Today Show Book Club #18) by Ann-Marie MacDonald ISBN: 0060578955 Publisher: HarperCollins Pub. Date: 23 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $26.95 |
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Title: Killer Diller by Clyde Edgerton ISBN: 0345410300 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 29 September, 1996 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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