Crazy Ladies
Written by Michael Lee West
Narrated by Michael Lee West
4/5
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About this audiobook
A lively multigenerational tale of six charming, unforgettable Southern women--a story of love and laughter, pain and redemption.
Though she was born in Tennessee, Miss Gussie is no country fool. A woman who can handle any situation, she has her hands full with her two headstrong daughters who happen to be complete opposites -- dour Dorothy and sweet Clancy Jane. Hoping money will heal childhood wounds, Dorothy marries the owner of a five-and-dime, while Clancy Jane gets into a mess of trouble, running off with a randy tomcat who pumps gas at the Esso stand. And then there are Gussie's granddaughters, the smart but plain Violet and fancy-talking Bitsy -- a new generation whose lives will reflect a nation's tumultuous times. From Tennessee to New Orleans, from psychedelic San Francisco to a remote Southwestern desert ranch, this funny, poignant novel spans more than four decades as it vividly recounts the universal loves, sorrows, and joys of women's lives.
Michael Lee West
Michael Lee West is the author of six novels, including Crazy Ladies, Mad Girls in Love, American Pie, and She Flew the Coop, as well as a food memoir, Consuming Passions. She lives with her husband on a farm in Lebanon, Tennessee, with three bratty Yorkshire terriers, a Chinese crested, assorted donkeys, chickens, sheep, and African Pygmy goats. Her faithful dog Zap was the inspiration of a character in Mermaids in the Basement.
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Reviews for Crazy Ladies
135 ratings7 reviews
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5This book follows three generations of Southern women. When I was half-way through I realized I'd read it before. It was okay for a summer book, but not great literature.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A very fully colored novel of some strong, nutty women ... beautifully developed characters in a novel that comes full circle in its scope.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5In 1932, in a small town in Tennessee, a young woman mortally wounds a stranger who is attempting to rape her in her own home. She buries the victim, still alive, in her front yard and she and her husband tell no one. Three generations of women live in the small house over the next four decades. West's portraits of ordinary people--their anger, disappointment, pride and just plain foolishness--make for a compelling work.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I was expecting a funnier book and not so much tragedy, dysfunction and drama. Once I got in to the first few chapters I got caught up in the drama, craziness, and the dysfunction of the characters and their individual stories and their relationship with each other. I found that I did enjoy this read.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This could have stood a bit more detail in a few places, and a bit less in others, however unlike some other ' chick lit' about dysfunctional people that I have read, at least this one did not swamp you in prose. The writing was tidy and direct. I also enjoyed the fact that the author put forth her characters with the attitude that no one is really ' normal', 'sane' or completely 'good'. Therefore she didn't try to make up definite excuses as to why each character had their own quirks.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I truly enjoyed reading about the disastrous lives of these women. Dorothy - psychotic freak; Clancy Jane - a bit better off than Dorothy; Queenie - the sane housekeeper; Miss Gussie - leading the crew; Violet - possibly the sanest of them all and that isn't saying much; and Bitsy - with Dorothy being her mom, it is a miracle she isn't worse.Good fun!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I really enjoyed this book. Coming up through the generations of the story, I got into it even more!