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Title: The Bingo Queens of Paradise by June Park ISBN: 0-06-093128-0 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 02 May, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.75 (40 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: I loved Bingo Queens
Comment: When I started this book, it wasn't something that I would have picked for myself (I read it for a book club). What a surpise this book was! A pleasant surprise. It starts out rather funny, and then you find yourself in the lives of these lovely, real characters. I found this book funny, caring and sad all at the same time. I cared about Darla and all her life pressures (some she gave herself), and Rhonda and hoping she would find a way to stand up for herself and her children. I kept reading to find how Granny got to be the way she was and why Elijah came with this poor family where ever they went.
This story made me care about every character, the quirky ones, the means ones and the loveable one. I highly recommend this book.
Rating: 3
Summary: Not your typical reading
Comment: When several friends read this book, they claimed it was funny, sassy and sweet ~~ but I didn't find it that way. It is sassy ~~ but also depressing. It does start out slow, but after awhile, you really get into the book. The names are even hilarious and the love stories are bittersweet.
Darla Moon is the child of a semi-retired hooker mother, raised on the leavenings of welfare, and she dreams big dreams of moving to New York to become a designer, only her ties to her family remain too strong for her to leave with a light heart. There's Spirit, the minister who falls in love with her; Rhonda, her sister who is married to a classic drunk who beats her; Elijah, the father-figure in her life; Granny, who has lost quite a few marbles in her head ~~ but remains one of the sweetest and central persons in Darla's life. There are the kids, Jessie and Pearl, Rhonda's kids, who are the loves of Darla's life. And there is Bingo ~~ every week, twice a week, bingo playing is the main central thing in their lives. As Darla prepares to move on with her life, all sorts of things happen to keep her rooted to her roots. Till she discovers the freedom of being her own person.
If you're looking for a heavier reading, I would not recommend this book. If you're looking for a lighter, bittersweet book to read while on car trips, or heading to the beach, then I would suggest that you pick this book up. It is depressing in some places ~~ life is too real to really be comfortable with this book as an escapism. But it is a book that you won't quickly forget.
Rating: 4
Summary: Harsher copy of "Where the Heart Is" story line
Comment: The folks at amazon.com lured me into this one. The recommendations of June Park's book compared "Bingo Queens" to the writings of Fannie Flagg.
Well, this writer has a sense of characterization that Flagg has, that is sure. But with the location of Paradise, Oklahoma, as the base for Darla Moon's life and times, the novel reminded me more of "Where the Heart Is" by Billie Letts.
And it is curious to me that Paradise is the choice of town names, reminiscent of Toni Morrison's tome published some time earlier and chosen as an Oprah read in 1998.
This is a harsh story line and I really did not like the book very much at first, but I hung in there, and I ended up finding some redeemption in the connections of Darla to Elijah, her crazy Granny's devoted love, and Spirit Jackson, the Australian non-denominational preacher who loves Darla, and in the children of Darla's sister, Rhonda: Pearl and Jessie. The absolutely disgraceful dysfunction of the town whore, Roxie Moon, Darla and Rhonda's mother, and the many "uncles" who flow in and out of Darla's family's life are a real turn off. And the brutality of Rhonda's drunken husband, Frank Slater, is almost over the top. But there are heroics in this sordid tale, and certainly Darla Moon, a survivor of poverty, as well as mental, physical, and sexual child abuse, is worth reading about in the long run.
Park's characters include a set of Lesbian fortune tellers, Bingo buddies of the Moon women. And the acceptance of these women, as well as the black man, Elijah, who provides sustenance and strength to the Moon girls, confirms the value of human life over prejudices and stereotypes. It is Elijah's sincere reverence of the Bible and God and Jesus, and the above repute strong neighbor, Miss Cissy, who represent true goodness and serve as guideposts and life savers for the Moon girls. The alienation of the Christian community, small though potent in Paradise, reflects the ironical truth about the posers of good, who in fact do evil to those who do not fit into their mold. One is reminded of similar character links in "The Secret Life of Bees" and "Mother of Pearl", or even some of the work of Alice Walker and Toni Morrison. The mismatched outcasts of life are central to Darla Moon's story.
There are so many similarities to Billie Letts' characters that one might swear that June Park and Billie Letts, both writers from Oklahoma, had collaborated on their stories.
The secret of the flourishing goldenrain tree, the only plant that survives Roxie's touch, the horror of rape and abortion, corrupt law enforcers, and destructive acts of nature and man do parallel some of Fannie Flagg's writing. But "Bingo Queens does stand on its own with Darla Moon as an unforgettably strong young woman who dreams of designing haute couture and wearing a beautiful blue gown to a Pavorotti concert in New York.
This brutal tale is not without hope, and I am glad I finished the book.
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Title: Crazy Ladies by Michael Lee West ISBN: 0060977744 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 28 January, 2000 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: She Flew the Coop: A Novel Concerning Life, Death, Sex, and Recipes in Limoges, Louisiana by Michael Lee West ISBN: 0060926201 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 01 May, 1995 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Patty Jane's House of Curl by Lorna Landvik ISBN: 0804114609 Publisher: Ivy Books Pub. Date: 01 July, 1999 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: American Pie: A Novel by Michael Lee West ISBN: 0060984333 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 01 September, 1997 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: Welcome to the Great Mysterious by Lorna Landvik ISBN: 0345442741 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 02 January, 2002 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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