First published 1999
Lucille packs her bags in Industry, Alabama, with dreams of starring on The Beverly Hillbillies in Los Angeles. She leaves behind her twelve-year-old nephew Peejoe, who faces his own awakening in their small Southern town. While his aunt chases stardom on the West Coast, Peejoe encounters the harsh realities of racial injustice in 1960s Alabama. He witnesses events that shatter his understanding of the adults around him and the stories they tell about right and wrong. Two very different journeys unfold simultaneously. Lucille navigates the glittering but treacherous world of Hollywood television. Peejoe grapples with the violence and hypocrisy that define his hometown. Both discover that escaping the past requires confronting uncomfortable truths about family, community, and themselves.
Genres: american-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, coming-of-age, 21st-century, family-drama
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: coming-of-age, fish-out-of-water
Setting: Alabama, Industry, Los Angeles
Period: 1960s
608 pages · Paperback · Plaza & Janés
Content warnings: racism, violence