Review: Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman
by Jenners • 02/13/2010 • 3 Stars, Fiction, H Authors, S Titles, Southern Fiction • 13 Comments
1 Book you read: “Saving CeeCee Honeycutt” by Beth Hoffman
2 Words that describe the book: Southern healing
3 Settings where it took place or characters you met:
- Setting: 1967, Savannah, Georgia
- CeeCee Honeycutt—a lonely 12-year-old girl who has had a difficult childhood coping with her mentally ill mother and absentee father
- Tootie Caldwell—CeeCee’s great-aunt who swoops in to take care of CeeCee after her mother’s death by moving CeeCee into her Gaston Street mansion and introducing her to her privileged, eccentric and women-centered Southern lifestyle.
4 Things you liked and/or disliked about it:
- I liked the colorful characters that populate the book, from the exotic Buddhist Thelma Rae Goodpepper to the hateful Violene Hobbs to Tootie’s stern but loving housekeeper Oletta Jones. (I so wanted be able to taste Oletta’s cooking after reading about it!)
- I like the feel good vibe of the book, which has every villain getting their comeuppance and the good people coming out on top.
- I liked the glimpse into the Southern lifestyle and way of doing things. We could probably all benefit from learning how to practice Southern hospitality.
- I disliked feeling like I’ve read books like this before. It is in a similar vein of books like The Secret Life of Bees, in which a girl from a bad family gets “saved” by loving Southern women.
5 Stars or less for your rating?
I’m giving the book 3 stars. This was a charming and easy read, but books of this type aren’t my preferred cup of tea. However, if you like Southern fiction populated by eccentric women, I would highly recommend it. Although it wasn’t my taste, I still enjoyed it.
The Whys and Wheres: I won this book from Kathy at Bermudaonion, and I’m donating my autographed copy to Sandy at You’ve Gotta Read This for her silent auction for the Adult Literary League.
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And it seems that our Show Me 5 Saturday hostess is missing in action since November so I thought I’d include a Mr. Linky with my post in case you want to hook up your own contribution. Hopefully, she’ll be back to blogging soon.
And it seems that our Show Me 5 Saturday hostess is missing in action since November so I thought I’d include a Mr. Linky with my post in case you want to hook up your own contribution. Hopefully, she’ll be back to blogging soon.
I appreciate the honest assessment. I'm looking forward to this one, especially now that I know it's full of eccentric characters.
–Anna
Diary of an Eccentric
I still haven't read The Secret Life of Bees either. I think if I read this when I'm in the right mood I'll probably love it. There are times when I love this kind of novel.
Good to see a different perspective on this one. I'd still like to give it a try one day.
Oh and I like this meme! Great way to review a book.
I really liked it but 3/5 stars ain't bad
Jenners…sorry this one was not a home run for you. I loved it!
I do like "Southern fiction populated by eccentric women" so I'm expecting to love it!
This is my first time reading this mime. I enjoyed reading about "Saving Cee Cee" very much. I love the mime. Just have to work up the courage to try it one weekend, Saturday. This one mime tells so much about the book.
There definitely are alot of books out there that have that feel, but I don't know if I will ever tire of them. I'm not born a southerner, but having lived in the south for 17 years, it is in my blood. Thank you so much for your donation…you're the woman!
Wow-you are the first person who did not give this a great review-thanks for the honest review.
I remember hearing (NPR maybe?) on a history of The Supremes that the reason all their music sounded alike was because it worked, so they just kept having hit after hit because everyone liked that one note, so to speak! That came to mind when you wrote that "I disliked feeling like I've read books like this before." If it "works," I expect we'll be seeing a lot of it, just like there are (or were for a while) endless permutations of The Da Vinci Code. And it's true, when the Southern books talk about food and cooking, it all makes you wonder how Scarlett could stick with that 19 inch waist.
I agree that it had the same feeling of The Secret Life of Bees, but I loved them both. I've read nothing but great reviews so far, so I figured somebody eventually would just think it was average
Not my preferred cup of tea, either, so nice to hear a different perspective to the rave reviews I've been reading.
I'm sorry you didn't love this as much as I did!