Of the many barrier islands that pepper the coast of South Carolina's Lowcountry, Pawleys Island, the arrogantly shabby family playground for generations, might be the most mysterious and charming of them all. It is here and in the surrounding area that Dorothea Benton Frank has placed her latest Lowcountry tale, Pawleys Island.
Meet Huey Valentine, the owner of Gallery Valentine, catering to interior decorators and, heaven save us, tourists. Huey resides on his family plantation on the shores of the Waccamaw River, where he cares for his mother, Miss Olivia, a wise and irresistible octogenarian. And meet Huey's great friend Abigail Thurmond, retired attorney from Columbia, who has laid claim to her family's home on Pawleys Island. Huey and Abigail are complacent in their fat and sassy lives until the stormy advent of the artist Rebecca Simms.
Rebecca has been catapulted from her home, her marriage, and her children. She has escaped to Pawleys Island to hide herself from herself. But after Miss Olivia pries Rebecca's secrets from her, Huey and especially Abigail are challenged to reenter life outside the dream state their idyllic geography evokes. They will see that Rebecca has her day in court, but they never expect to provoke a national forum for discussion.
With characteristic humor and a full cast of eccentric and wonderfully lovable characters, Dorothea Benton Frank brings us her most honest and entertaining story to date. People have secrets they never want anyone to know. People have pasts they would prefer be left out of conversation. In Frank's nimble hands, it all comes spilling out to be examined and reconciled.
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"Rebecca suddenly found herself dumped by her husband Nat, and her two kids taken away from her by the courts. She leaves Charleston and heads off to a friends to try and get on with her life. While there, she stops in at a local art gallery in the neighboring Pawleys Island to try and sell some of her watercolor prints and its there that she meets Huey, a man that is about to change her life for the better. He hires Rebecca to work at the gallery, shows her work at an opening, and most importantly introduces her to his best friend Abigail. Abigail, a retired divorce attorney who is hiding on the island as well after both husband and son died. She takes Rebecca under her wing and decides to help Rebecca our with her divorce. As more information is found out about Nat, the better the story becomes. You cant help but love all the characters in Pawleys Island and fight for the underdog."
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Karen (4 out of 5 stars)