Wednesday, May 30, 2012

The Improper Life of Bezellia Grove by Susan Gregg Gilmore

The Improper Life of Bezellia Grove by Susan Gregg Gilmore

Date Published: August 2, 2011
ISBN: 978-0307395047
Publisher: Broadway Paperbacks
Pages: 272
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Rating:  5 out of 5

Book Summary:  Nobody in Nashville has a bigger name to live up to than Bezellia Grove. As a Grove, she belongs to one of city’s most prominent families and is expected to embrace her position in high society. That means speaking fluent French, dancing at cotillions with boys from other important families, and mastering the art of the perfect smile.

Also looming large is her given name Bezellia, which has been passed down for generations to the first daughter born to the eldest Grove. The others in the long line of Bezellias shortened the ancestral name to Bee, Zee or Zell. But Bezellia refuses all nicknames and dreams that one day she, too, will be remembered for her original namesake’s courage and passion.

Though she leads a life of privilege, being a Grove is far from easy. Her mother hides her drinking but her alcoholism is hardly a secret. Her father, who spends long hours at work, is distant and inaccessible. For as long as she can remember, she’s been raised by Maizelle, the nanny, and Nathaniel, the handyman. To Bezellia, Maizelle and Nathaniel are cherished family members. To her parents, they will never be more than servants.

Relationships are complicated in 1960s Nashville, where society remains neatly ordered by class, status and skin color. Black servants aren’t supposed to eat at the same table as their white employers. Black boys aren’t supposed to make conversation with white girls. And they certainly aren’t supposed to fall in love. When Bezellia has a clandestine affair with Nathaniel’s son, Samuel, their romance is met with anger and fear from both families. In a time and place where rebelling against the rules carries a steep price, Bezellia Grove must decide which of her names will be the one that defines her

My Thoughts:  I loved The Improper Life of Bezellia Grove. Susan Gregg Gilmore has written a poignant, funny and wonderful novel about growing up and figuring out who you are. The star of this book, without a doubt, is her main character and narrator Bezellia Louise Grove. Bezellia is an authentic, passionate and remarkable young woman growing up in Nashville in the ’60s, trying to figure out who she is and what life is all about. The Grove Family is one of the oldest families in Nashville, a fact Bezellia’s mother, Elizabeth, never tires of talking about since social standing of the utmost importance to her (never mind she‘s a Grove by marriage only). An affluent lifestyle was also of great importance to Bezellia’s mother. She made sure her family lived in accord with their social standing. Elizabeth spends most of her time pruning her roses, drinking gin tonics all afternoon through the night and trying to reach the top of the social ladder.

Bezellia’s earliest memories include being cared for, bathed and fed by “dark skinned” people not by her mother. She's felt her mother's lack of love in several other ways, too. Bezellia’s mother detests the name Bezellia, refusing to call Bezellia by her name, calling her “Sister” instead, a moniker that “summed up her distaste for my name and her inadequate affection for me”. Elizabeth didn't consider it important to care for Bezellia or her younger sister, Adelaide or show them love. Bezellia desperately wanted to be loved by her mother. Bezellia believed for many years that it was her fault her mother didn’t love her so she tried to please her mother and thereby gain her love. When she's 14, for example, Bezellia offered to ‘babysit’ Adelaide the entire summer believing her mother might “love her a little more”.

Bezellia’s mother didn’t act as if she loved Bezellia’s father, Charles, either. He was a doctor and a quiet, distant man who spent more time at the hospital than at home. Bezellia knew her father loved her but she didn’t know him very well. Bezellia and Adelaide get the love and security they deserve from their parents with Maizelle, the family’s cook and housekeeper and Nathaniel, the man who took care of Grove Hill and anything else Elizabeth demanded. Bezellia loved Maizelle and Nathaniel like they were family. Maizelle and especially Nathaniel are terrific characters and, after Bezellia, my favorite people in this book. It upset her to no end the way her mother disrespected them. Bezellia was just a little girl when she understood that no white man would tolerate Elizabeth speaking to them the way she did to Nathaniel. Elizabeth’s rudeness was compounded in late afternoons by the gin & tonics she drank until passing out late at night. Alcohol made Elizabeth nasty.

Her parents dysfunction, her mother’s selfish, mean disposition and her lack of love might be expected to cause Bezellia to be quiet, withdrawn and sullen. Bezellia, though, was a strong, outgoing, vibrant young woman with an agile, intelligent mind who was interested in the world and other people and had a lot of love to give. No matter how mean her mother was to Bezellia and the people she loved, Bezellia embraced life. Her cousin Cornelia, three years older than Bezellia was her great friend and confidante. Cornelia taught her about boys and the fun side of life. The scenes with Bezellia and Cornelia are some of the more amusing, humorous scenes in this book. Bezellia’s Uncle Thad (Cornelia’s father) is another terrific secondary character who offers Bezellia the love and support she needs.

Growing up is rarely without its difficulties. A tragic accident in the family deeply effects everyone and will haunt Bezellia for years. An ill-conceived romance, strongly discouraged even by the people Bezellia depends on and loves, opens her eyes to the issues and problems of racism. But the heart wants what it wants and this relationship will cause Bezellia to feel great joy and terrible sadness as she tries to figure out what to do. Bezellia strongly disagrees with southern society’s rigid idea that one’s place in the social hierarchy is predicated on an individual’s class, status and skin color long before anything changes in this area.

Bezellia, possessed of an open and curious mind, is a little ahead of her time in other areas, too and not simply because she was been born in the south. When she goes away to college, for instance, she will also learn about women’s liberation issues and the fight for equality. She gets involved with an organization promoting women's rights while at college but problems at home, such as her mother's mental health, require Bezellia's attention. Still, Bezellia returns home a different young woman than the one who left. In a way, she understands her mother better and feels for her but she’s also irritated by her mother’s close-minded, childish behavior. It’s a tremendous shock for Bezellia when she learns some surprising secrets about her mother’s past. When she recovers from the shock, though, Bezellia sees her mother differently and understands that her mother has been deeply troubled and unhappy for most of her life.

I felt so many different emotions while reading this amazing book. I cried for Bezellia, cheered for her, was aggravated by her and amused by her. Ms. Gilmore has done a tremendous job reminding us what a difficult, bizarre, scary and wonderful experience it is growing up. She also made me think how interesting it probably was for women growing up in the ‘60s when so much was changing in our country, albeit slowly. Ms. Gilmore’s writing is lyrical and drew me into The Improper Life of Bezellia Grove and Bezellia’s life that captured my attention in chapter one and kept me reading into the early hours of the morning. She covers important and weighty themes including racism, families, love, addiction, women's rights and social status. She has an innate understanding of young women and how it feels to navigate all the highs and lows of growing up which is clearly depicted through Bezellia's character.  Ms. Gilmore also impressed and inspired me through Bezellia's courage to express thoughts and beliefs in the areas of race, women's rights, mental health and more.   I highly recommend this book. If you don’t read it, you’re missing out on an extra-special novel.

Thank you to Heather of Raging Bibliomania for hosting the giveaway of that I won. Please see Heather’s wonderful review of this book

22 comments:

  1. Wasn't this book wonderful? I'm anxiously waiting Gilmore's next book.

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  2. I haven't read anything by Gilmore yet, but our book club is reading the Dairy Queen book for our next year...I can't wait!

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  3. This sounds like a fantastic book. If it affected you that much, I'll have to keep it in mind for sure.

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  4. I do like a good coming of age novel, and they can be very hard to find.

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  5. Sounds like you really like this one. I can't imagine being born into a family like that one! So much pressure to be perfect, you know?

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  6. BERMUDAONION: Yes! This book was great! I'm excited that I still have Susan's first book to read!

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  7. I loved this book as well, and was so surprised that Gilmore was not only able to be very funny, but also inject a lot if gravity into her tale. This remains one of my favorite books of all time. Fantastic review on this one today!

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  8. ANNA: It's a wonderful book, It deals with some big issues but isn't weighed down by them because it also has lighter passages. It's charming like southern fiction often is and is written with some humor. And then there's the wonderful Bezellia!

    I hope you get a chance to read it.

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  9. JOJO: I haven't read Dairy Queen yet but I now want to soon. I've read some wonderful reviews of it, too. Gilmore's writing is beautiful and makes for enjoyable reading. As this is only her second book, I expect Dairy Queen has a similar tone to it.
    In the meantime, I hope you have a chance to read this book!

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  10. SAM: I think Gilmore does an amazing job with this book especially because, when I think about it, there's a lot of major stuff going on in Bezellia's life yet Gilmore manages, quite successfully, to keep the book from getting weighed down by it all. And Bezellia definitely matures and changes by the end of the book.

    If you read this book, I'm interested in what your thoughts are about it :o)

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  11. TI: I did! And your assessment is spot on...and not only is she supposed to be perfect but Bezellia's mother wants her to behave in the waya daughter of an affluent family with high social status would behave. That's not Bezellia at all.

    I'm so much better at talking about books than writing about them!

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  12. ZIBILEE: Exactly! You wrote a wonderful review of this book and it's thanks to you that I won a copy and finally read it. I really didn't want this book to end and when it did, I lingered over it, I went back to the beginning and read some parts of it and things like that.

    I'd like to read Gilmore's first book"...Dairy Queen" soon

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  13. This sounds like my kind of book and I will be on the look out for it. Great review Amy.

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  14. My goodness this does sound good. I feel your enthusiasm Amy.

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  15. Wow! That is one postive review! your love and enthusiasm for the book just comes shining through … which gets me all excited too!

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  16. I absolutely loved this book...Gilmore is one seriously talented woman. (Loved her first book too.) I found myself pleasantly surprised that this book was not a light, happy little read (like the cover would imply) but very serious stuff. At this point I would read anything Gilmore wrote.

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  17. I absolutely loved this book...Gilmore is one seriously talented woman. (Loved her first book too.) I found myself pleasantly surprised that this book was not a light, happy little read (like the cover would imply) but very serious stuff. At this point I would read anything Gilmore wrote.

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  18. NISE': I think you would really enjoy this book. I hope you can read it soon!

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  19. DIANE: This is a book I hated to let end. When it did, I went back and read parts of again. It fits in with your summer list very well!

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  20. JENNERS:It's a tough book not to gush about! Bezellia just has an infectious personality and is very positive despite her difficult mother and sad family situation. Heather and Sandy loved this book, too!
    I'd love to know your thoughts on it.

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  21. SANDY: I knew you and Heather/Zibilee loved this book so I wasn't expecting anything very light but Ireally liked the themes Gilmore wrote about and the way she portrayed them.
    I'm looking forward to reading Gilmore's first book, which I know you loved, too. So I'm expecting another great book!

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  22. That mother sounds like quite a treat. I'm adding this to my wish list. Thanks, Amy!

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