Hardcover: 335 pages Publisher: River City Publishing; 1st Edition edition (August 13, 2012) Language: English ISBN-10: 1579660843 ISBN-13: 978-1579660840	Order book here:
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Characters:

Bing Butler – A 77 year old widower learning to live with his daughter’s family,
Susie – Bing’s Liberal minded daughter.
Frida – Fifteen year old dog.
Reenie – Bing’s Granddaughter.
Brian – Bing’s Grandson.
Ellen Foley – Widowed woman next door.

Synopsis:

77 year old Bing Butler leaves his home in Texas to move to WV with his family. He then finds himself on a journey of discovery, where in some ways he actually begins to grow up.

Review

I truly enjoyed this story. The setting was in an area that I’m very familiar with, Huntington West Virginia. The characters are well designed, and three dimensional with their own hopes, desires, and problems. The main focus of the story is about Bing who at the beginning seems to be a Strict Texas Conservative but as the book progresses becomes a little more open in his views. He is faced with ideas such as homosexuality, the justification of the Iraq War, infidelity, his son’s death in Vietnam, and even with the fact of finally realizing he’s getting old.

I Loved watching the grow process for Bing. I found it interesting how Ms. Manila managed to show different sides of the political spectrum without resorting to parody or bashing. I really enjoyed traveling along through Ms. Manila’s mind in the city of Huntington as familiar sites such as a Hotdog Stand I’ve visited since I was a child are revealed to the reader. These discriptions were very vivid and brought the pictures to my mind.

Bing isn’t the only character to grow and change though, each one does as the story progresses. Bing’s view on WV even evolves during the story. Overall a great story of evolution, and showing that it is possible for a tiger to change their stripes, at least somewhat.

I’d definitely recommend this novel to anyone interested in a good character driven novel about growth and about family. I’d say for a rating older teens and adults due to some language, events, and adult subject matter. Definitely pick this one up for your summer reading list, and stop back by and let us know what you thought about it.

About the Author

West Virginia native Marie Manilla is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Her fiction has appeared in the Chicago Tribune, Mississippi Review, Prairie Schooner, Calyx, Portland Review, NewSouth, South Writ Large, and other journals. Her novel SHRAPNEL (River City Publishing, 2012) was selected by author Daniel Wallace as winner of the Fred Bonnie Award for Best First Novel. Her collection of stories, STILL LIFE WITH PLUMS (West Virginia University Press, 2010), was a finalist for the Weatherford Award and ForeWord Reviews Book of the Year. Her novel THE PATRON SAINT OF UGLY will be published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in spring 2014. Learn more at www.mariemanilla.com.

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