Sweetness All Around
This novel has exactly the right title.
It’s far from saccharine, as it takes a set of discouraging facts—unhappy ten-year-old, deadbeat dad, hardworking single mother, various disasters, poverty, life in a rundown trailer park—and makes a thoroughly honest, funny, and uplifting book out of them. The novel, written from the ten-year-old (“almost eleven”) Josephine’s point of view, is aimed at middle-grade readers, but its appeal is much wider.
In rural Tennessee during the summer of 1974, Josephine and her mother have just moved into the Happy World Trailer Park (Dandiest Little Place on Earth). It’s a big step down for them, and Josephine hates it. The place seems to be inhabited only by mean, pathetic, or eccentric people. But as the summer progresses, she learns a lot about many things, beginning with her new neighbors, who become friends.
Supplee skillfully evokes 1974, including hippies, DQ, Watergate, Funyuns, and a shampoo called Gee Your Hair Smells Terrific. Her characters speak their lines, some of which are poignant and some hilarious, in convincing Tennessee dialect, and even the most horrific neighbors become more sympathetic once Josephine gets to know them. A birth and a death take place in Happy World, and Supplee also provides a scary but ultimately satisfying mystery for Josephine to solve.
The title comes from a scene between Josephine and an older man called Lucas, who consoles her when she decides Happy World is in fact a tragic place and “busts out crying.” He agrees that sometimes life can break your heart.
“But there is sweetness in this life,” he tells her. “Look for it and you’ll see it. You just got to look for it, Josephine.”
