I'm Blue. Are You?

Recommended Reading in Indiana!

I just finished the last few pages of Blue by Joyce Moyer Hostetter.

   Now, I'm not going to pretend to be a book reviewer. Even though I majored in writing along with art, I've never been very good at picking out 

the literary stuff. I just know what I like, and I loved Blue.

   If I had never heard Joyce read aloud from her book at our Highlights Foundation workshop, I would have still found the narrator's voice in my head drift into that easy North Carolinian accent crafted by Joyce's own southern perspectives.

  Bravo: writing an entirely character-driven story. This is truly a gift. There's no hint of  a struggle to stay in the "showing" mode and avoid the "telling" mode in this book.

   I was swept into the story by Ann Fay's honesty with herself, and challenge to be the "man of the house" while her father was away to war and polio overtook her town of Hickory, NC.

   To me, the book was about growing up, and having to grow up way too fast; learning that adults don't always get it right, and that even your mom and dad aren't always as strong as you may need them to be.

 

 Comfort, the sequel to Blue, is now out. Live more through the life of Ann Fay.