2006 ( )

I ordered "Gods in Alabama" by Joshylin Jackson after receiving a free copy of her book "The Girl Who Stopped Swimming." Her writing isn't my typical genre of reading, but I also enjoy drama, and her writing style entertains me! So I'm branching out.

The book opens with, "There are Gods in Alabama: Jack Daniel's, high school quarterbacks, trucks, big tits, and also Jesus." This line launches us into a book that explores many topics, including how we idolize many different things in our lives. Arlene Fleet grew up in Alabama, so she knows all about the things worshiped down there, and she's vowed to never go back.

Just why she's made this vow (along with promising to never lie or fornicate) is a story that is fascinating. Jackson uses flash backs and the story slowly unravels over time as Arlene is forced to break her promise, and go back to Alabama. She doesn't go alone though, no, she brings along her black fiance, something that stirs up even more trouble in her crazy family!

I found the way this story unfolded to be fascinating. Jackson switches back and forth between the past and present, dropping hints and pieces along the way, and you start to piece together the whole picture. You never really understand everything until the end though, and I think that's the beauty of her writing. ( )

Loved this book. I never would have heard of Jackson if it wasn't for a friend who loaned me the book. Beautiful writing, very edgy. I can imagine life in the South being like this, although I've no experience of it except for a month in Orlando, which for some reason I feel doesn't really count (others might disagree but thats my opinion lol). Highly recommended, and I guess it is a summer read!!! ( )

I really enjoyed this book. Ive read all of Joshilyn Jacksons book and this is the one I read last. Ive got to say this one was the best because it really keeps you guessing until the end. ( )

Joshilyn Jackson was recommended to me during a brief e-mail exchange with another Bookmoocher, after we got into a "yay Southern lit!" convo.

"Gods in Alabama" involves kind of a reverse mystery, with the solution coming before the whole motivation thing. It was interesting enough to keep me reading throughout the long weekend, with characters who were likeable most of the time.

I didn't enjoy it as much as I expected to; maybe I've hit my limit of unstable characters and dead parents and need to read something 100% fluffy. But I did like it, even if I didn't LOVE it, and I'll definitely be trying something else by Jackson. ( )

Having now finally read Jackson's debut novel after already reading her 2nd and 3rd, I continue to be impressed. I immensely enjoyed Between, Georgia, but I do think this one deserves even a higher rating. I enjoy southern writing to a certain point, but Joshilyn Jackson is by far my favorite writer of this genre. She has the innate ability to capture southern dialect in a true, realistic sense with just the perfect blend of humor, mystery, & sober seriousness to keep the reader engaged throughout. The cover description doesn't do this novel justice, in my opinion. Overall, I loved this book. ( )

The Girl who Stopped Swimming was recommended by EW and I was so pleased with it I looked for other books by the author. This is her debut novel, and not as successful, I think. I found the characters more annoying and started skimming after 70 or so pages. Starting with an interracial couple and leading us back to Alabama, there was a lot of room for dense characterization but it wasn't explored as well as it could have been. I liked the end scene with aunt Florence in the attic, but other than that, the book didn't hold so much for me. ( )

I love the leading ladies of Joshilyn Jackson's novels. They are strong and flawed and vulnerable. They are real.
Gods In Alabama begins like this, "There are gods in Alabama: Jack Daniel's high school quarterbacks, trucks, big tits, and also Jesus. I left one back there myself, back in Possett. I kicked it under the kudzu and left it to the roaches."
The perfect opener for a fantastically juicy summer read.
The story follows Lena Fleet, a haunted 20-something with a past to hide. There were moments of witty humor and heart-felt emotion but through the entire story a dark thread wound in and out. Lena Fleet killed someone while she was in high school and hasn't been back to her hometown in ten years. She's afraid she'll be found out.
This is a definite must-read and was so close to a 5 out of 5 stars for me. Jackson skillfully threw in some delicious surprises. I will surely be reading more of her! ( )

Arlene is living in Chicago, hiding from the problems that she faced as a child, in Alabama. When a high school friend tracks Arlene down asking specific questions, Arlene is forced to return to Alabama with her boyfriend, Burr. Arlene bravely faces the issues that she and her cousin Clarice faced, and a little unexpected help on the side. ( )

I thought this book was excellent. I had predicted the ending from the beginning, but ended up being completely wrong. Also, the author's voice is so compelling! ( )

Jackson has dysfunctional Southern families down cold, including my own. There have been so many times while reading this book that I heard the voice of my mama, my aunt, even myself. Wonderfully flawed characters struggling with the enormous task of trying to confront their own selves without going insane. I love it. ( )

Over the top. ( )

I really dont know why everyone isn't raving about this book. It was amazing! Could. Not. Put. It. Down. Go all of you...now... buy this book! ( )

I *love* Joshilyn Jackson's humor!!! She could have cleaned it up to a PG rating for my taste, but I can't deny her knack for twisting the plot beyond my wildest imaginings! I want more from JJ! ( )

Carley McCready
American Literature
Summer Work

Gods in Alabama
By Joshilyn Jackson

The past is a tricky thing. Especially when it involves promises made 12 years ago, ‘The South’ and its customs, and an Aunt named Florence who refuses to take “no” for an answer. Arlene Fleet, known to her Chicago friends as “Lena,” has not been home since she left for college. A secret prevents her from returning back to her hometown of Possett, Alabama. She makes three promises to God: to never return home, to stop fornicating, and to never lie again. Nobody’s perfect, but Lena has every reason not to go back home. When her dear uncle’s retirement party calls her back to Possett, her aunt refuses to let her “skip out” once again. Returning home to her semi-racist family with her black boyfriend, Burr, Lena faces not only her past, but a secret that she’s kept for the last 12 years that only God knows about.
Lena is a cynic, which I can appreciate because in times of stress I tend to be the same way. I could identify with her personality very well, and that’s always comforting when reading a book. It’s almost as if you’re sitting on a stool in a corner somewhere, just as a part of the story. Not literally on a stool but I was so immersed that I felt as if I was in the story, totally caught up in Lena’s struggles, problems, and even her family members. Aunt Florence kept me laughing the whole way though the book. Her boldness and often ridiculousness were lovable, yet intimidating at the same time. There wasn’t anything I didn’t enjoy. Most times when you read a novel you can always pick something apart, but I truly loved reading this book. It was so well-written and thorough, and I loved the way all of the tidbits the author leaves for you throughout the novel fit together perfectly at the end.
I have never in my life devoured a book as quickly as I did this one. Gods in Alabama is scrumptious, and I would recommend, and even push this book on any of my friends. It’s extremely well put-together, hopelessly alluring, and on top of its general greatness this book also made me laugh.

This was a fun summer read. ( )

I thought this was an amazing book. The author had me hooked from the first chapter and I couldn't put it down. Lena leavs her hometown promising God she'll never return if he covers up a murder she committed. The ending was a complete surprise! ( )

It was OK. If it hadn't been for the humor & southern family relationships I'm not sure it would have been worth it.

After making a deal with God (you get me out of this & I will never lie, sleep around, go home to Alabama), the past comes a knocking & a return home is a must. The past must be faced as well as family prejudices. ( )

This book was on my bookshelf waiting to be read for ages – I wish I had picked it up sooner, because it was much better than I had expected.

The story focuses on Lena, a girl from Alabama but now living in Chicago. She hasn’t been back to Alabama for 10 years, but two reasons force her to return. One is her boyfriend Burr, who says that if she doesn’t introduce him to her family (who she also has as little contact with as possible), they have no future. The other reason is a secret from her past, which is revealed throughout the story.

I found this book hard to put down, and definitely recommend it! ( )

A very funny and tragic book. To me, it isn't good enough to sell the book (as a bookseller, which I am), but I really enjoyed it. ( )

I picked up “gods in Alabama” at around 4:00 this afternoon, only planning to read the first couple of chapters before cooking dinner. Instead I had to force myself to stop long enough to cook and eat and then immediately went back to reading, and finished the book just a little while ago.

I loved the characters. Arlene has been described as rough-around-the-edges, but I felt great affection for her. Maybe that says something about me as much as it does her, but I found many things to admire about her. And many of the other characters are at once outrageously quirky and yet very true to the spirit of people I’ve known in the South (which includes most of my relatives and many of my friends!).

The plot kept me turning the pages, wondering what would happen next. It was complex without seeming contrived and some of the twists surprised me. I love when that happens. :-)

This book is a keeper that I’ll definitely want to read again, and I’m already looking forward to Joshilyn Jackson’s next novel. ( )

I happened to pick up Gods in Alabama while browsing the shelves of a bookstore the other day and, as I almost always do with a book, I opened it to the first page to check out its first paragraph. That paragraph made me so curious about the rest of the book that I had to take it home with me:

"THERE ARE GODS in Alabama: Jack Daniel's, high school quarterbacks, trucks, big tits, and also Jesus. I left one back there myself, back in Possett. I kicked it under the kudzu and left it to the roaches."

Those are the words of Arlene Fleet, a 27-year old Alabama girl who made a deal with God when she was 15 and who fled Possett, Alabama, two years later for a new life in Chicago. All God had to do was perform the miracle of making sure that the body of the star quarterback that Arlene killed was never found. If God pulled that one off, Arlene promised a three-for-one return on the miracle: no more sex outside of marriage; no more lying under any circumstances; and never, ever, to return to Possett, Alabama. Arlene thought that God "made out pretty well" in the deal.

It wasn't easy for Arlene to adapt to the people and the big city lifestyle of Chicago but the city eventually served her well. It provided her with an education, a teaching job while she worked on her Ph.D., and a steady black boyfriend who was the son of the former preacher of the Southern Baptist church she attended there. But, as Arlene sees it, God slipped up by allowing the dead quarterback's high school girlfriend, Rose Mae Lolley, to show up in Chicago full of questions for Arlene about the former football star. So, black boyfriend in tow, Arlene Fleet returns to Possett, Alabama, for her uncle's retirement celebration and to confront all the ghosts of her past.

Joshilyn Jackson's chapters alternate between what Arlene finds upon her return to Alabama and the life that she lived there as a young girl, a life that culminated in the death of high school star Jim Beverly. This is a darkly comic novel and I often laughed out loud at the sarcastic observations of Southern life as seen through the eyes of Arlene Fleet. It is a good story, and despite its comic nature, it is filled with observations about right and wrong, human nature, and growing up in a change-resisting South. My only quarrel with the novel is that I found two or three of the characters to be unrealistic and, in the case of Arlene's black boyfriend, to be too good to be true. I had somewhat of a problem with Arlene herself, wondering the whole time that I read, how a young woman could go through life without being more scarred by the thought that she had purposely killed a high school classmate.

But the novel is largely saved by an ending that caught me completely by surprise and by its numerous laugh-out-loud one-liners. This one is fun and I'm happy that I didn't let my fears that it would be "chick lit" cause me to miss it.

Rated at: 3.0 ( )

How can this be a first book. It's so good it's not fair. This is another book I stalked in the library but when I finally borrowed it I was cross with myself for waiting so long. Lena Fleet is a great heroine, a real person who you just like from the minute you start the book. She makes a deal with God never to return to Alabama if only he will help her cover up a past crime but her family have other ideas. The Fleets are a bit mad, a bit dysfunctional, a bit bossy and a lot likeable. It would be nice to visit other members of the Fleet family to hear their stories and catch up with Lena and Burr through someone elses eyes. ( )

Enjoyable. I liked the way the author used alternating chapters to tell past/present. Good characters overall, though the romance/representation of the black fiance was not believable. Writer's voice: nice humor to seriousness arc. ( )

I'd give this more stars if I could!

Arlene made a pact with God years ago that if he would keep her secret, she would stop lying, fornicating and would never go back to her hometown. When a high-school classmate shows up at Arlene's door asking about a boy that disappeared years ago, Arlene figures God has broken his end of the deal and it's time to go home and try to keep the world from finding out she murdered the missing teen. ( )