On Sugar Hill (The Georgia Magnolias)
1929. The stock market has crashed, and Vaudeville is dying. Cora is summed home from New York to Georgia because her father, the Senator, has hung himself, leaving behind a lot of questions. Cora, her mother Fitzie, and her Aunt Clara find that the Senator has died penniless. To complicate matters, the mute Aunt Clara spends much of her time writing novels filled with true but scandalizing secrets about the members of the town, and Fitzie is visiting seances, determined to speak to the Senator’s ghost. The constant steadying influence is the outspoken but faith-filled cook/housekeeper, Pearl. This is the second book in the Georgia Magnolias series. It can be read as a standalone, but reading the first book is recommended.
This is a fascinating tale about a voice-throwing Vaudevillian ventriloquist who is out of work in Depression-era Georgia. The support Cora receives from her group of friends, the Dillies, is uplifting and joyful to read. I loved the fact that the characters often kept their humor, even in trying circumstances. Cora, the Dillies, Fitzie, Clara, and Pearl are all fascinating and engaging characters. The difficulties of making a living during the Great Depression, and the necessity of the boarding house culture during that time, are explored. Mulligan also drives home the devastating effect that verbal abuse can have on an individual, even after their abuser is dead. The racial prejudices of the late 1920s are made apparent as well. There is a sweet love story, but the main focus is the resilience and ingenuity of the women left to take care of their families during the Depression.
