This
novel by Susan Crandall is another Book Club selection. From the online
description I was imagining a sweet, unusual friendship story between Starla, a
nine-year-old girl and Eula, a black woman she meets by chance. It was not at
all what I expected. It is indeed a story of a friendship between Starla and
Eula, the woman who gives her a ride. However, the rest is a surprise.
Starla
is a feisty little girl living with her emotionally abusive grandmother. She
desperately wants to join her mother whom she believes to be a singing star in
Nashville. Working on an oil rig in the Gulf, her father has been mostly
absent.
Deeply unhappy, Starla disobeys her grandmother frequently and fearing
retribution for her latest escapade, she runs away from home. Heading on foot to
Nashville to join her mother, she has no plan how to find her. Eula, a stranger, stops and
gives Starla a ride. Starla soon learns that Eula has another passenger, a baby
she has kidnapped.
The
story is an adventure for the two from beginning to end. An attempted murder, an
actual murder, desperate escapes, heartbreak and resolution take the reader on
a wild ride with these two unlikely heroines. Recommend.
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