The Same Sweet Girls

After reading The Sunday Wife, I couldn't wait for this book. Now that I've read it, I am disappointed. I thought the conversations were too glib and the "crisis" situations handled with too little real poignancy. I also couldn't understand why two SSGs like Astor and Rosanelle had been tolerated for 30 years. The episode of Astor meeting Cal (or whomever) after hours was never really addressed to resolution. Maybe I was looking forward to this book too much after the standard set by Sunday Wife. I found it to be merely average and I expect more of a writer with Cassandra King's talents.

This was touted as an uplifting story about friendship. It was a bleak, depressing ramble through the lives of some extremely unfortunate (or in one case completely narcissistic) women. Life's a sh*tshow sometimes; don't read this if you're looking for any sort of escape.

*SPOILER REVIEW* I liked this book for a while. It tells the story of six middle-aged women who have been getting together twice a year since college. The story is told from the point of view of three of the women alternately, in the style of Barbara Kingsolver's "Poisonwood Bible." As we get to know each of the characters, we learn that Lanier has recently been divorced from her husband, and now her grown children avoid her. Julia is the wife of the governor of Alabama, and she is beginning to wonder if she wants to stay married to him. The most central character is Corrine, who has been living with clinical depression her whole life, and is trying to move on after divorcing her therapist husband, who is abusive and controlling. show more Corrine is now facing terminal cancer, and she has some decisions to make. What turned me off to this book --and I had read and enjoyed most of it until its true agenda was revealed--was its twisted "moral" that would make Dr. Kevorkian proud. I feel cheated that I spent many hours reading, laughing, and crying along with the characters I had come to care about (I even had dreams about them at night), only to be slapped in the face with author Cassandra King's idea of compassion. Real friends, Ms. King, hold our hands and stick with us through thick and thin. Real friends do NOT help each other commit suicide. Unless you're a card-carrying Hemlock Society member, you should skip this farce of a "sweet" story. show less

Cassandra King is a local writer who I have just started to read. Of the books of hers I have read, this is my favorite so far. She took a group of distinct personalities and wove them together in an interesting tale. Funny thing is that part of the setting is my beloved Georgia mountains. When the girls are up at Blue Mountain, I pictured RAbun County in my mind and felt right at home in the hollows and havens of those lush Southern Appalacian hills. While this is a book definitely geared towards women, it wasn't bad-- light and quick, but with enough substance that you didn't feel like you'd just had an overly sweet milkshake with a cloying aftertaste that some of this genre leave you with.

While one or two of the same old girls were show more pretty standard fare, the three explored the most fully, Corrine, Lanier and Julia rang true to me. They felt like women I could know or may have met. Life is not always easy or pretty, but it is for the living, and these women found a way to find their way through the vagrancies of life.

Umm...did I mention she is Pat Conroy's wife? show less

I liked how the women dealt with some issues such as Corrine, her love of gourds and what to do about her health and relationships, Julia and her aspects of her marriage to Joe Ed, and that they were all willing to drop everything to be with each other. Enjoyed hearing about their get-to-gethers - that part was hilarious especially the rituals on the pier as they crowned the queen each year.

This was a book about friendship and acceptance. Not all of the characters were loveable; some of their actions were reprehensible. The story, however, was captivating. The book was about mature women, not some doe eyed young things. They have life histories and complications. They have made mistakes and have supported one another-some more so than others. They dealt with situations and confronted their demons. Some had troubled or unusual marriages. Some had affairs, some resisted. They were not at all what they seemed. An illness turns out to be just that(though I had suspected poisoning...). The book does involve adult issues, such as rape and euthanasia. Viewed from outside, many lives seem perfect, but, when examined, all are show more flawed. This book did a good job of showing the public perception while exposing the reality. It was nice,as a mature woman, to read a book about mature women coping with life's ups and down. I may not agree with how some issues were handled, but the book was a good read. show less

“The Same Sweet Girls” is a group of women who graduated together from college in the deep South. Each summer they gather together to crown one of them the queen for the next year. The queen is enthroned on a decorated commode with a robe of purple and gold and a scepter made from a baton with cotton bolls, sugar cubes and streamers erupting from the top. As the women gather they remember and add to the history of the SSGs.

But, their lives are not as simple as they appear on the surface.

Julia, the First Lady of Alabama has a checkered past and has been unable to love her husband because of her deep love her mother stomped on. She hides it with perfection and poise and distance. Corrine, the self-claimed weirdo, has the most show more destructive and damaged past. As a young woman she began seeing a therapist, a man who stole her life. Miles took over every part of her life and refused to let go - abusing her physically and psychologically. Then there is Lanier, the self-destructive woman. Lanier had fled from her husband after a nasty affair. Byrd, the bible-thumping mother figure; Aster, the exotic, self-absorbed, husbandizing, dancer and Rosanelle, alumni coed-wannabe complete the group.
Corrine is often the story teller - mostly because it is a tale about the end of her life... We learn how Corrine pulls away from Miles and reunites with her son, Culley and her art - gourd art- the story of the SSGs and the way women hold one another together.

I really enjoyed this story. I think I liked Angry Housewives a bit better though. This sometimes got a bit campy with Southern ‘charm.’ But - it’s a great read!! show less