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Wow! i listened to this book on CD -- what a powerful piece of writing. There is such an incredible narrative and the characters are so well-drawn and beautifully rendered. I can't speak to how this book reads, but the production is simply wonderful.

The time, at the close of the second World War, is a crucial turning point in American life. In the mid-1940s, the difference between urban and rural life was breathtaking. The role of women shifted from one extreme to another as men went off to war and then returned to resume their former roles. The returning soldiers had experienced horrors that frequently rocked them to the core. These were the people at the center of the country's attempts to settle back into normalcy (whatever that was). Their experiences, views, and metamorphoses set the stage for the volatility of the 1960s. Set these ingredients down in the deepest South, the Mississippi Delta, and you are ready to weave a fascinating tale.

I was taken from the first word. I bought each character. I believed their story and found them to be true to themselves. Their relationships, actions, responses, yearnings, and failings were accurately wrought. I did not always like them and I did not agree with their choices, but their tale was compelling and utterly believable. The author presented situations in a way I found accurate and straightforward. Her portrayal of the roles of blacks and whites AND men and women was spot-on. The honesty was what really got me. No one was more than they could or would be in that place at that time.

I would suggest this book to anyone and would have to put it among my all-time favorites.