Review of 'Perennials' by Julie Cantrell

I’ve been intrigued by this book set in Oxford, Miss., ever since I wrote about Cantrell’s book being selected by the Francis Ford Coppola Winery for the book pairing of the week back in January. Cantrell grew up in Louisiana and set her third novel, “The Feathered Bone,” in Livingston Parish, her childhood stomping grounds. When I recently visited Oxford and stopped in at one of my favorite bookstores, Square Books, I picked up a signed copy.

Character Eva “Lovey” Sutherland grows up in a loving Oxford family and is enamored with both her mother’s elaborate garden and her older sister, Bitsy. An incident involving a fire in the family shed changes everything, and Lovey becomes the scapegoat to Bitsy’s constant accusations and blame. Frustrated by her sister’s lies, Lovey leaves home, and behind a young love, and finds success in advertising in Arizona.

Years later, while Lovey is rebounding from a destructive relationship with a man who also lies, her father calls and insists she come home. It’s their 50^th anniversary and he’s not taking no for an answer. He wants Lovey to help him create a memory garden for her mom. Despite work demands, Lovey heads to Mississippi and discovers there’s more to resolve in Oxford than she ever imagined.

“Perrenials” deals with the heartache and joy we sometimes leave behind when we escape our childhood homes. It examines those difficult familial relationships that sometimes seem impossible to repair. Bitsy’s a piece of work, but there’s a story there as well, one that comes out slowly.

I enjoyed the tale of returning home, the parents desire to revisit the places and retrieve plants that they would incorporate into the memory garden. Wanting to know why Bitsy lied like she did and why she believed that Lovey was the cause of her problems became frustrating, however. I couldn’t help but wonder why the parents didn’t see through her lies or if she was mentally unstable; I kept waiting for some reason why she acted in such extreme ways. At one point, for instance, Bitsy cuts Lovey off from her children, but we’re never told why.

Overall, the book’s a lovely story about the draw the South has for many of us. I know I’m one who left several times and always returned home.

Louisiana Book News is written by award-winning author Chere Dastugue Coen, who writes romances and mysteries under the pen name of Cherie Claire. Her first book in each series is FREE to download as an ebook, including "A Ghost of a Chance," the first Viola Valentine mystery.