Arlene Fleet was born in Possett, Alabama. She lived with
her mentally ill mother in her Aunt Florence and Uncle Bruster's house and
shared a room with her cousin, Clarice. High school has its ups and downs and
life is generally predictable until one night when a date goes horribly wrong. That's
when Arlene began wearing all black, and she stopped playing hard to get with
the boys. That might not have worried anyone but Arlene's family, but the disappearance
of Jim Beverly, star of the football team, throws the whole town into an uproar.
After graduation, Arlene flees to Chicago, leaving Possett behind her. Ten years later, she's got several degrees under her belt and she's working as a teacher in a local college. She's madly in love with Burr, a tax lawyer, but she hasn't been able to fully commit to him because of the trauma she still carries with her. Burr has been more than patient with Arlene—who he calls Lena—and he wants to marry her, but he's handed down an ultimatum. He wants to be introduced to her family or he's gone. When she gets news that her Uncle Bruster is retiring, she knows she'll be expected to show up. She can't imagine taking Burr, who is African American, and placing him in front of her incredibly racist family, but she can't imagine losing him, either.
Lena decides she needs to go and face what made her run away a decade ago. She finds that Clarice married her high school sweetheart. She's a mom to three kids and is every bit as sweet and kind as she was before Lena left. Lena's mom's mental and physical health have continued to decline, and the woman has a knack for stealing meds and helping herself to pills. Her aunt and uncle are much the same as they were ten years ago—at least that's what Lena thinks at first. But things aren't entirely as they might seem at first glance. Things that happened in Possett—the things Lena ran away from—are far from being settled, but she'll have to come to terms with all of it before she can leave again.
I loved the mystery in this novel. Jackson's narrative is sarcastic and funny while being serious and sincere at the same time. There are surprises peppered throughout, and the ending … This title was published twenty-one years ago. I've read her latest, which came out just this year. I'm not sure how I missed this one, but I'm happy to have gotten to experience it. This was definitely a five-star read for me without question.
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