Book Review: "A Long Way From Chicago" and "A Year Down Yonder"

"Nobody but a reader becomes a writer."

I have some great plans for you, my readers.  I know that there are about 14 of you, but that's more than my immediate family...I think.  But the 14 of you are in for quite a treat.  I have plans...

But, today's plan is a book review.  Today's books were recommended by my sister, Carol.

 

These two books are companions of one another.  Technically, A Year Down Yonder is a sequel,  but the central character changes.  In A Long Way from Chicago, Joey gets sent to his Grandmother Dowdel for a week each summer, with his sister, Mary Alice.  From the summers of 1929 to 1935, they get to go down and endure their grandmother who has no regard for social grace or rules or buying things.  In A Year Down Yonder, as the throws of the Depression deeper further and further, Mary Alice is sent to live with Grandma Dowdel to save money for the family in Chicago, and she learns even more about this woman.  

They learn that their grandmother will keep to herself, and that she doesn't really care that getting fish out of that water is poaching, because everybody does it.  But they also learn that she deeply cares about those in need, and even if social niceties are not in her vocabulary, blackmailing the banker to save a widow's house from foreclosure, or extorting exactly what people can afford to have extorted to help a handicapped WWI veteran are.  

The story does a good job of illustrating the times (from the end of the Roaring 20s to the end of the Great Depression), and Grandma Dowdel jumps off of the page.  The characterizations of the adults are fantastic.  The characterizations of the children could do with some polishing, but overall, I'd say that this is a great story.  I laughed and cried (no comments on my crying in stories, please).  I would recommend both books with a 4 stars recommendation.