Gods in Alabama

Genre: Fiction

This is the story of Arlene (nee Lina) who is raised by her aunt Florence and uncle Buster soon after her father suddenly dies and her mother slips into a deep depression and then a mental break down. In her new home, Arlene shares a room with her cousin, Clarice, and the two form a strong bond, as close as sisters. Living with aunt Florence is tough as she's very hard on Arlene, but she does care for Arlene’s mother and fixes everything for everyone around her. As an adult, Lina lives in Chicago, is a PhD student and has fallen for Burr, a black lawyer. Lina has a horrible secret that is threatening to be revealed to the world and she has to return to Alabama, with Burr in tow, to fix it. Aunt Florence is racist and Lina fears a confrontation, but still needs to fix this big problem. Told alternately from the past and the present, this is a story about the power and close bonds of family.

Jackson begins the book with this line, “There are Gods in Alabama. Jack Daniels, high school quarterbacks, trucks, big tits and also Jesus.” I love, love this first line as it's witty and flippant and I was hooked immediately. But, quickly the story falls short. I think it’s partially about the style of writing. Jackson tells the reader only a part of the back story in each chapter. So moving forward you think you know what's going on, but you learn in the next chapter that what you thought happened was only part of the story. It made me feel like I couldn’t trust Arlene's perspective, and that if her perspective is skewed, then the whole story doesn’t make sense. What I did like is that the story line eventually went in an interesting direction. I think that had Jackson made Arlene a more likable and reliable character, I would have enjoyed this book more. Overall, it was just OK.