Girls in Trucks
by Katie Crouch
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Book Reviews of Girls in Trucks
Book Review: A touching story
Summary: 4 Stars
Reviewed by Danielle Feliciano for Reader Views (2/08)
"Girls in Trucks" takes us on a journey with Sarah Walters, a debutante who is a member of the ages-old Camellia Society in Charleston. She lives a traditional life surrounded by hypocrites who exemplify hypocrisy. Sarah's role models include a promiscuous older sister, a mother who has a tendency to have just a bit too much to drink and friends who she can't stand but is required to be friends with as fellow Camellias.
This book shows us who Sarah is and what her life is about through a series of snapshots, seamlessly tied together regardless of timeframe. Beginning with her Cotillion training, through high school and into her college experience in New York, Sarah struggles with the dichotomy of being a Camellia yet trying to find herself and her own identity.
Sarah has a predilection for making poor choices, but that is admirable because at least she is making choices, as opposed to doing what everyone else tells her to do. She is not perfect; she clearly is an alcoholic, is promiscuous and a bit selfish, but despite that all she is endearing and hard not to identify with. She searches for love and companionship in all the wrong places, going so far as to travel to another country in the hopes that a past lover will be able to fill in the gaps in her life.
Throughout her life and her travels, Sarah is able to slowly distance herself from the Camellia lifestyle while maintaining just enough ties to remind her where she came from. She finds herself to be a single mother as the result of yet another misguided affair. After a family tragedy, Sarah and her daughter return to Charleston to take care of Sarah's mother. This is where Sarah finally comes to have a better understanding of who she is and where she came from. She sees that no matter how far she tried to run, home never changed.
The best thing about this book is that there is no tidy ending. Rather than tie everything up in a neat bow and giving the "happily ever after," Ms. Crouch ends with a touching moment, but also the knowledge that this is not the end. While in that moment everything is perfect, it will not last. This is life, this is reality, and, more importantly, this is Sarah's life. She has not changed that drastically or that quickly, but she is more aware now, leaving open the possibility of a happy ending in her future. It is courageous of Ms. Crouch to end her book in such a way because it is entirely too easy and too frequent that authors give an unrealistic happy ending. Kudos to Ms. Crouch, and to her character Sarah, for not always making the popular choice, but for being strong enough to make their own choices.
Book Review: A fun loving novel about growing up, and family values
Summary: 5 Stars
Reviewed by Gina Holland for RebeccasReads (7/08)
"Girls In Trucks" is about Sarah Walters, a girl growing up in a family of Camellia Society Debutants. As a member, she is expected to be prim and proper: a young lady. She tries very hard. She makes a few friends, and they are expected to stay friends for life. So be it. Sarah grows up about as normal as other girls her age, whatever normal is. She takes us step by step inside her life of pain, love, tragedy, and etcetera.
Sarah loves her mom and dad dearly. She adores her sister even though her sister is always bossing her around. Sarah grows up a lot different then her sister, even though they come from the same household. She gets into things that are really not good for her, including men. She has many different relationships. In one of her relationships with a man named Max, she is very happy, and loves him very much. Until the day he decides to bring another woman home in their bed. Sarah walks out, because she's had enough, but does she return? Or does she move on to other things, other men, other hurtful situations? By the time Sarah is thirty, she's still not married. When is she going to find the right man? She has one unexpected thing in her life that she loves dearly.
This novel brought me back through the memories of my childhood. It reminded me of the things that I went through growing up. When an author writes a book like this one, I believe that they have some of their own childhood memories mixed in, too! That is a good thing. I love the fact that when I read something, I can relate to a lot of the things that the other person is going through. Sarah Walters is a wonderful character. I really enjoyed her. Another good character was her sister. I have known a lot of sister's like Sarah's. Always teasing their younger sister, making the little sister does things for her. It's all a part of growing up and the love of sisters. I loved this book because it did take me back to my younger days. Something I very seldom think about now.
Katie Crouch did a wonderful job in capturing Sarah's childhood. The ending is good, however, it is my opinion that the ending should have been very different. I was really not expecting it to end the way it did.
Book Review: Good enough for one time, light-weight airport type reading. Not worth doing again.
Summary: 2 Stars
There's some author talent here, but not yet fully developed. The beginning is engaging, witty, promising, but pulls away from various things we could explore more and don't. Cousin Cathy and her horrible son Ted. Eloise and her first marriage. More about the girls themselves? I agree with other readers that somewhere in the middle it starts to change styles and loses momentum.
I finished it and thought -- what was the point? Sarah did not seem to evolve, learn anything or really change though she claims motherhood did change her. If this was to be the point of the story... how all around her changed but she didn't... we didn't get to know the other characters deeply enough to appreciate a contrast or care about them.
If this was supposed to be about how the girls' shared cotillion childhood held them together despite what Life brought them later as they grew up... The "Joy Luck Club," "Summer Sisters," or "The Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood" did it better both in terms of the changing character viewpoints in each vignette and in plot cohesiveness. Even "Crazy Ladies" was better with Clancy Jane than Sarah.
If this was supposed to be how a girl goes to New York City and eventually derails or really is some kind of roman a clef... "Valley of the Dolls" paints this more clearly. In here there's pointless sex, drugs, and alcohol and while Max is hailed as the reason eventually... it doesn't ring sincere. Maybe she just wants to say its Max because it's just a quick way to get to a more emotional "girlfriends" scene in the dressing room after Bitsy reveals her condition?
I'm just not sure what the overall point was. It felt like a lot of potentional one notes, but no complete song. Some witty bits of description or dialogue but not consistant or paced well, some interesting characters introduced but not fleshed out... just not enough depth.
So good enough to read if you are bored and wanting to while away the time the first time through but I doubt I'd reread or buy my own copy of this one. I might try one more of her works later on given that this was a first novel to see if the author improves.
Book Review: A Southern Coming-of-Age Tale
Summary: 4 Stars
Growing up in Charleston, with a mother who is a member of a debutante society called the Camellias, Sarah Walters is struggling to become her own person. To find love and her own way, without giving in to the code that feels stifling to her.
Some of her departures from the code include wild partying and hanging out with wild Island boys in pickup trucks. Another part of her rebellion takes her up North to college and New York for a career. Along the way, she keeps falling in love with all the wrong boys (and later the wrong men), until finally, just when she believes that she has found "the one," she discovers that it is too late for her and the man she had put on the back burner for years.
In this poignant tale of a young woman's coming of age, we discover similarities with our own experiences, even when we have no Southern "bones" in our body. There is something that resonates in this young woman's history that will keep us reading.
There were times that I wanted to throw up my hands and yell at her, reminding her that her wrong choices kept leading her to hurt and disappointment.
In the end, Sarah comes to a peaceful reconciliation with what she needs in her life, and so does the reader.
I'm giving Girls in Trucks 4.5 stars, primarily because at times I found the backward and forward narration confusing. Sometimes the story seemed to skip ahead and then back, without the seamless transitions that I enjoy. But the overall story was commendable and one that I would recommend.
Book Review: Excellent story, well told
Summary: 4 Stars
Sarah Walters grew up in Charleston trying to follow the rules. She attended Cotillion Training School to learn the dances and etiquette required of a debutante. As a member of the Camellia Society by birth, she will use these rules and skills all her enchanted life.
Sarah hears this from all directions, from her mother who drinks too much, from the Camellia Society mamas who always seem to be around, and from the other Camellias who attend Wednesday night classes.
Sarah's older sister, Eloise, is valedictorian and the most promiscuous girl in class, something she feels the need to share with Sarah. When Eloise goes away to Yale, Sarah's education also broadens. Charleston is no longer the place for her.
While Sarah learned how to serve tea, she never learned to respect herself. Sleeping around seems to be the norm, and while she feels like everyone knows the rules to this game but her, she stills wants to play.
A move to New York City with her friend Charlotte makes the game tougher as there is now more time to drink and party. Sarah spends time with the wrong men; men who are sick, or just cruel, and will let her turn herself inside out in order to keep them happy.
Tragedy in her family calls Sarah home where she realizes being a Camellia isn`t as pretty, or as safe, as it once seemed. Never the less, it is a constant-something and someone to depend on. Do the rules still apply? Can she be happy if she picks up where she left off in Charleston?
Told in a humorous voice, this is a dark tale of a young woman's endeavor to find true love and happiness. Women of all ages will identify with Sarah, if not in deed, at least in theory.
Armchair Interviews says: Well told, Girls in Trucks is a story that will keep you turning pages.