Bingo Square: Bird (there’s a whole bird watching group – and it’s in the title)
Another book I only read for a book club! This was the March choice for the Southern lit one, and I didn’t really do any research before starting it, just read the quick blurb on the back to know what the story was about. While there was a plot about a preacher’s son and the moonshiner’s daughter, it wasn’t until I was over halfway through that I started thinking there was something a little bit odd with how religion came through but I waited till I finished to confirm my suspicions: this novel was classified as Christian Fiction. While I am not religious, I don’t have any issues with religious characters and seeing how their beliefs inform their actions and how they navigate life. Still there is a huge difference between religious or Christian characters and Christian Fiction. I would expect religion to play a role in Southern literature but something about how it is approached in Christian Fiction just feels off or preachy to me. It might be unfair since I have only read two novels classified as Christian fiction, both by accident, but ultimately something ends up feeling a bit flat about the characters.
While Ana didn’t grow up with a large extended family, at some point in the recent past, she found a long lost relative, her great-aunt Cora, sister of her long deceased grandmother, Violet. Ana, a school teacher, is working through some trauma after an event at school and jumps at the opportunity to get away, visiting her great-aunt at Bitter End, TN. Ana believes she is there to help her aunt get the place ready to sell but what she didn’t know is that she would be on her own since her aunt made plans for a cruise at the same time.
Left on her own, Ana digs through old artifacts and belongings, and discovers old family history and feuds, including her moonshining great-grandfather. She also meets her aunt’s arch nemesis, Marilyn, who invites Ana to join her local birding society, which ends up being a source of community and belonging for Ana … plus, it turns out this is her other great-aunt, her grandfather’s sister, and they were the children of the previously mentioned preacher.
The novel uses a dual-timeline approach, with the other POV being Violet (the grandmother), and starting out in the 1950s. One thing that surprised me is that the preacher wasn’t actually welcomed into the small community because in this society, his outsider status was more important than his role as a religious man (I also discovered there was still a thriving, illegal moonshine production and trade after Prohibition ended – I’m so used to seeing it sold in stores now or seeing dedicated distillers in TN, it never dawned on me that it was a somewhat recent development). Violet and the son quickly fall for each other, leading to all kinds of conflicts that end up impacting the generations later.
Except … when the story wraps up, it all fizzles out since it turns out all the “family secrets” were actually very much known by the elder generation, and some people were simply holding on to grudges, and the final reveal is only news to Ana.
I did enjoy a few things about this novel, especially learning history facts I didn’t know, but I also think I likely would have enjoyed it much more if it were straight historical fiction since some things would have been focused on differently. Also, some of the characters fell flat for me, especially the guy that is basically set up as a romantic interest for Ana (though it’s very much in the background).
