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BEING PLUMVILLE - Savannah J.
Frierson iUniverse March 2007 |
SYNOPSIS: The reunion forces the pair and those around them to examine the consequences of following the status quo versus following their hearts. Is friendship too high a price to pay to be Plumville? Is love? Will Benjamin and Coralee become who Plumville raised them to be, or who they were born to be?
CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE |4+| Marguerite Lemons
REVIEW: Benjamin “Benny” Drummond and Coralee “Ceelee” Simmons started out as best-friends. He, at seven years of age, was her protector, friend, and designated story reader. Coralee, at age four, is a smart and inquisitive child who simply adores “Benny”. Their world is torn apart, when Benjamin runs into the house one day and tells Aunt Patty, and his mother of his plans to one day marry Coralee; it is that innocent childhood remark, that forever changes the way that either one of them will look at life in Plumville. Coralee learns to accept the unfairness of her life because of the color of her skin and Benjamin begins to give what could be considered an Academy Award winning performance, as he portrays “Being Plumville”.
This engaging story picks up fifteen years later, with Benjamin and Coralee in college. Each has born the scars of being torn apart from each other years before, never knowing how the other was affected by their forced separation. They are thrust back together when Benjamin, the star quarterback of the football team, has to be tutored in English to pass or risk having the team default all their games if he fails. His coach, of course disapproves of the “Yankee” English professors choice of tutors, simply because of the color of Coralee’s skin. It isn’t long before Coralee and Benjamin realize they are treading through a minefield by falling in love with each other. Benjamin is willing to risk everything to have the woman he loves, but Coralee is afraid of losing the respect and love of her family and friends.
BEING PLUMVILLE takes you on a journey through the lives of people in the south, during the Civil Rights movement, after the assinations of Marin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy. The college that Benny and Ceelee attend is integrated, but the races are still separated. Their hometown of Plumville is still fighting integration, even though there are some who secretly believe that the color of a person’s skin shouldn’t matter. Being Plumville, walks you through the mindset, biases and bigotry of a country who continues to champion “civil rights” around the world, while oppressing those same rights at home.
Ms. Frierson does an excellent job of expressing the feelings of the characters on both sides of the racial divide while imparting wisdom about the affects of the Vietnam War, on those soldier’s who risked life and limb to secure freedom for other’s only to return home and be forgotten.
This is great read and a must have for your bookshelf.
reviewer@romanceincolor.com | 26th May 2008