Plantation

Plantation

by Dorothea Benton Frank
Plantation

Plantation

by Dorothea Benton Frank

Paperback(Reprint)

$17.00 
  • SHIP THIS ITEM
    Qualifies for Free Shipping
    Choose Expedited Shipping at checkout for delivery by Wednesday, April 3
  • PICK UP IN STORE
    Check Availability at Nearby Stores

Related collections and offers


Overview

New York Times bestselling author Dorothea Benton Frank evokes a lush plantation in the heart of modern-day South Carolina—where family ties and hidden truths run as deep and dark as the mighty Edisto River....

Caroline Wimbley Levine always swore she’d never go home again. But now, at her brother’s behest, she has returned to South Carolina to see about Mother—only to find that the years have not changed the Queen of Tall Pines Plantation. Miss Lavinia is as maddeningly eccentric as ever—and absolutely will not suffer the questionable advice of her children. This does not surprise Caroline. Nor does the fact that Tall Pines is still brimming with scandals and secrets, betrayals and lies. But she soon discovers that something is different this time around. It lies somewhere in the distance between her and her mother—and in her understanding of what it means to come home....

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780425194188
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date: 03/02/2004
Series: Lowcountry Tales , #2
Edition description: Reprint
Pages: 544
Sales rank: 168,102
Product dimensions: 5.10(w) x 7.90(h) x 1.20(d)
Age Range: 18 - 17 Years

About the Author

About The Author
Dorothea Benton Frank was born and raised on Sullivan's Island in South Carolina. She was the New York Times bestselling author of numerous novels, including Sullivan's Island, Plantation, Pawleys Island, Shem Creek, and Isle of Palms.

Hometown:

New Jersey and Sullivan's Island, South Carolina

Date of Birth:

1951

Date of Death:

September 2, 2019

Place of Birth:

Sullivan's Island, South Carolina

Read an Excerpt

Prologue: Don't Leave Me Now!

2000

This story I have to tell you has to be true because even I couldn't make up this whopper. And Mother's wakepacked to the rafters with the well-dressed curious and the well-heeled sorrowfulmay seem an insensitive place to begin, but here we are and it's all I can think aboutthat is, the progression of events that led up to this moment. I'm obsessing and entitled to it too. So would you.

Think about this. You know those pivotal moments in your life that you don't see coming? The ones you wished arrived with a timer going off so you'd know this is it! Well, when the phone rang in February, you couldn't have convinced me that six months later, Mother would be in “the box” and I'd be wearing her pearls, twisting them around my finger exactly like she used to do.

Oh, God, here comes Raoul. Excuse me for a moment.

“Mees Caroline, I want to express my deep sympathy to you in thees torrible time of you troubles.”

He took my hands in his. His hands were callused but manicured.

“Thank you, Raoul, thank you for coming,” I said, thinking that he was actually rather handsome. He exuded something, I don't know, some masculine whatever.

“She was very beautiful, your mother, and I will hold her een my heart forever.”

“Thank you,” I said, “I know she was very fond of you.”

” he said, a smile spreading across his face, “ees true.”

He released my hands and walked away, back into the crowd. Mother slept with him? Well, why not?

Where were we? Ah! Pivotal moment! Pivotal moment, indeed. You see, Triphe's my only brothercalled me in New York, in the middle of a cocktail party my husband, Richard, and I were giving, to announce that Mother had flipped her wig and tried to kill him with her daddy's Parker Old Reliable. (That's a shotgun.) He said she was crazy and that he had her power of attorney and was putting her away somewhere where she couldn't hurt anyone.

I knew that was some bodacious bull because my brother was generally accepted as the Second Coming, that is, if Mother's lifelong drooling all over him was an indication of her religious devotion. I guess that sounds like a classic sibling rivalry remark, but you have to know certain things and then you would agree.

First, Trip was the spitting image of Daddy and Daddy was deaddead and canonized by Mother decades ago. Mother, bereft with her loss, then did a textbook transference of her enormous love for Daddy and heaped it on Trip. Yes, my husband, Richard, is a psychologist and a psychiatrist. We, Richard and I, are...well, we'll get to that.

Second, Trip, dweeb that he is, returned her blind-eyed affection with boundless ingratitude. My brother has always been the archetypal rationalization of why I had declined the possibilities of marriage with southern men. It was their relationships with their mothers that always did me in. That, and the archaic sexism. But of course, with the birth of my own son, I quickly realized, and then denied, that I was wrong about that too.

Poor Trip! Mother would say over and over, sighing with the weight of all the problems of the world.

Well, I didn't completely disagree there. Trip was carrying a cross the size of the Brooklyn Bridge with that tacky, low-rent wife of his. Frances Mae and her horrible children! Dear God! What a disaster she was! Gives new definition to the old ball and chain! We'll dissect Frances Mae later, don't you worry about that for a minute.

So, back to Mother and Trip and their Freudian Oedipus thaing. I wonder how much Mother would have seen of Trip if our plantation didn't have a dock and a landing so Trip could spend half his life on the Edisto River.

Trip was your basic southern good old boy. Lawyer, fisherman, hunter. Clean-shaven, a good dancer, manly, and with flawless manners. He never came to the supper table without a tiny cloud of aftershave in his aura. He always held Mother's chair for her and found a compliment for her as well. Mother was smug in her reign as the matriarch and that she was well in control of her son's attention.

They shared many things in common. Great regard of weekly family dinners, love of land, sense of place, and the importance of a stiff drink or two at the end of the day. Frances Mae was never going to get in the way of Mother's love for Trip. She didn't stand a chance. Sometimes I would think that he had married Frances Mae just to show Mother that she was irreplaceable. That Frances Mae was some kind of a surrogate who could have his body but would never know his heart.

Unfortunately for Mother, as Trip's family grew, his attentions became less frequent and more disingenuous. When he began to drink a lot, Mother began to whip it on the masses. The gardener, Raoul. The UPS man. Mother spread it around, to say the least. She had a ballno pun intended. I used to think she did these things to make Trip jealous, but later I decided she was just determined to enjoy every minute of her life.

Mother's affairs pretty well horrified Trip and Frances Mae and helped them build their case that Mother had a loose screw. Well, in the amour sense, she was a loose screwhell, she left a string of bodies behind her too numerous to count. But crazy? Not even for a second. Our mother, Lavinia Boswell Wimbley, finally laid out in lavender (and blue paisley), was as sane as they came. She offered no apologies.

My heart was completely broken. You see, six months ago I was living in New York and I thought I was very happily married. Richard and I had a great apartment on Park Avenue, our son, Eric, was growing up beautifully, I had a small but successful decorating business, and life was pretty darn good. Sure, we had our issues now and then, but there was no pressing reason for complaints.

No, I never dreamed this could happen. I had spent the last fifteen, sixteen years, or maybe more, building a case for living in New York and against anything remotely connected with the ACE Basin of South Carolina and plantation life. It was horrible to me! Boring! The unending repetition of tradition, day after year after generation after generation! Suffocating! The ACE was my demon to reckon with and mine alone. And anyone would have thought that at this stage in my life, I was old and wise enough to take it on. So I came home to see about Mother for a short visit. I wanted to assess things with my own eyes.

My relationship with Mother and with Trip had been strained for years. The geographic distance between us didn't help things either. But I wasn't going to let Trip move Mother out of Tall Pines and into a retirement community without knowing if it was truly necessary. And that Mother wanted to go. I remember thinking, shoot, even though Mother and I had zero in common, she was my mother and I owed her at least that much.

What I found on arrival was exactly what I expected. Mother was playing cards with her girlfriends and talking about men. Millie, Mother's estate manager and friend of a zillion years, was still up to her same old voodoo. Trip was drunk as usual, Frances Mae was pregnant as usual and still turning over the silver looking for hallmarks with her green eyes. And their girls were still full of all the antics of every devil in hell. Everything seemed normal. It was.

I thought it was my mission to open Mother's eyes to Trip's intentions. To make her see that she needed to take it down a notch or two. Surprise, surprise. I was the one, not Mother, who was about to have her eyes opened. It was my cage that would be rattled until the fillings in my teeth vibrated. It was my complete sense of who I thought I was that would be wrung out to dry. Most importantly, I was to discover who we all truly were.

Over the years, as much as I would vehemently deny my passion for the ACE Basin of South Carolina, its pull on me was an all-powerful force. The ACE is Eden. It's where the Ashepoo, Combahee, and Edisto Rivers join at St. Helena's Sound. The ACE is home to more species of birds, fish, flowers, and shrubs than you could name. Every inch of it wiggles in song; its beauty is stupefying.

No, once the ACE has you under its spell, you are hers for life. You could turn me around, blindfolded, in the handbag department of Bergdorf Goodman on Fifth Avenue and I could point my finger to the Edisto River the same way a compass needle always points north. I was nothing more than an extension of her waters. A displaced tributary.

So tonight we were all here in the Bagnal Funeral Home in Walterboro with Mother's body. There must have been three hundred people who came and went over the hours that I sat with Trip, Frances Mae, Millie, and Mother's closest friends.

People told stories of Mother's crazy theme parties that celebrated Cleopatra's birthday or some little-known Aztec holiday. There was the time she dressed herself as a goddess and floated down the Edisto on our pontoondecorated with billowing white buntingto celebrate The Birth of Venus. Trip and I were youngsters at the time and humiliated beyond words. I hated her then.

After Daddy died, Trip and I were parceled off to boarding schools; then came the parade of her lovers. She was quiet about her relationships at first, but once she was comfortable with her new way of living, the tempo quickened and the fireworks began. It was then Mother discovered Rod McKuen poetry and found her G-spot in an article in Cosmopolitan magazine. There was no stopping her. Back then I despised her flamboyance with every part of me.

Lately, I had completely changed my mind. If Mother was shockingly indiscreet, so what? Everyone adored her. You had to admit that she enjoyed her liberation. She was Miss Lavinia, the ACE Basin version of Auntie Mame. What a gal!

I looked among the crowd for Rev. Charles Moore and spotted him talking to Richard. At least she'd had the good judgment not to sleep with the minister, even though he probably would have gladly hopped in the sack with her. Endowment campaigns did strange things to people. Well, I thought, maybe she's left him something in her will. God knows, he lobbied hard enough for a bequest.

So many people came for Mother, to offer their love and sympathy. It was remarkable. But even though they were all courtesy and protocol on the outside, I knew there was a strong undercurrent. The unspoken gossip was nearly tangiblethe wanting to know, Who would inherit the plantation? What of her renowned fortunes? How much was there? Would Frances Mae be the new queen of Tall Pines? Would I, the errant daughter who'd married that odious Brit, a Jewish man, and a shrink, come to my senses and renounce him? It was a situation I was sure was driving the Lowcountry gentry nearly mad from not knowing.

Situations were what my family called times of indecisiveness and trouble that led to sullied reputations. Situations were best dealt with quickly and as quietly as possible. Between Mother's legendary soirees and love affairs, Frances Mae's greed, and my reappearance on the scene, we had enough jaws working overtime to keep the ears of Charleston, Colleton, and Dorchester Counties burning indefinitely.

All the while I shook hands and thanked people for coming, I fantasized that even there, in the funeral home, money was changing hands. Bets were being placed. Until the rumors became facts, gallons of mint juleps would be consumed all over the Lowcountry. The practiced and polished sweet tongues of prediction would wag! The social wizards would convene and foretell our future from imagined signs, fabricated reports, and supposed hints from someone inside the bosom of the Wimbley family.

Well, it wouldn't be me. I had come home to see about Mother and I had every intention of executing a dignified farewell for her. So did Trip. In Mother's memory, he and Frances Mae were hosting a fabulous receptionwith Millie's oversightto take place when we left the funeral home. They had truly pushed all the buttons they could find to make it something people would remember. And they would.

“Let us pray,” Reverend Moore said.

People became quiet and stood by respectfully. Trip and I had discussed this prayer service with the minister beforehand. All of us were grateful that Reverend Moore had agreed to stick to the standards and not to make a fuss about Mother's character. Her obituary in the Post and Courier had caused us some very unnecessary embarrassment. I suppose that there are some people who read them for entertainmentcertainly the journalist who wrote Mother's needed to be reassigned to the Used Automobile pages.

At the same moment we bowed our heads in prayer with Reverend Moore, one hundred tuxedoed waiters from Atlanta were over on Lynnwood Drive, popping corks from cases of Veuve Cliquot and arranging seafood and sushi on a sprawling bed of crushed ice. Silver platters were being filled with delicious finger food and a fifteen-piece band with a horn section was going through a sound check. There would be a tasting bar for Mother's favorite bourbons and many pounds of Sonny's barbecue would be hot and waiting in silver buffet dishes to be dolloped on tiny hamburger buns. In my head I could see the hustle and bustle of preparations. Trip and Frances Mae had absolutely done everything they could to give Miss Lavinia the send-off of the century. For once, I didn't have anything ugly to say about Frances Mae.

Millie and I had planned a more toned-down and traditional reception for tomorrow afternoon, after we spread Mother's ashes. But it too would be lovely. All these plans were spelled out in Miss Lavinia's final wishes. We had done our best to comply.

The prayer service ended and people began milling around again, offering condolences to us. Many of them were misty; Mother's best friends had wept openly, holding on to each other. They broke my heart all over again. I had known them all my life and to see them so upset was just awful.

I got up and walked over to Mother's casket. I was out of tears for the moment. Besides, Mother would have wanted me to keep my wits about me at her wake.

Reconciling finding Mother's heart and then losing her so quickly was going to be my ultimate challenge. I prayed she would haunt me forever. Just because she was dead, she had no right to desert me.

I looked down at her in her casket and thought about how peaceful she looked. I was going to need her grit and wisdom to survive, every ounce of it. I wasn't even one-

third the woman she was in her weakest moment. I had been a coward for far too long, hiding my emotions behind my Manhattan wardrobe of all black. I brushed back a lock of her hair, thinking how I loved her so desperately and how many years I had wasted mired in anger and resentment. Trip appeared at my side.

“You okay, Caroline?” His eyes were moist.

“Yeah, I'm fine. Lavinia would have loved this, don't you think?”

“Definitely,” he said. “She got enough flowers for a senator!”

It was true. The room overflowed with baskets of gorgeous arrangements. Trip and I had ordered two enormous sprays and a blanket of roses for her. The fragrance of the room was head-spinning. Trip looked shaken, so I gave the old boy a hug, and I could almost see Miss Lavinia smiling. He returned the embrace with an honesty I hadn't felt from him since we were children. I guessed he needed me.

Mother may have slipped through my fingers, but not without leaving a sweet residue. She had given me back my love of life, complete with permission and directions on how to live it. I had wasted no time in starting. Across the room, two of my most recent diversions were chatting away like old fraternity brothers. It gave me the giggles because Josh, the old Kama Sutra scholar with dreadlocks down to his waistthe one who could make you twitch in places you didn't even know had nerve endingsstood out in complete contrast to Jack, my doctor friend in the cashmere sport coat. Jack had the most beautiful hands I had ever seen on a man.

Then, over there, was Matthew...oh dear, in spite of these grave circumstances, I had to admit that my recent liaisons had more than a passing resemblance to Mother's.

I moved through the crowd to the windows and spotted my son, Eric, outside happily playing kick the pinecone with an energetic gang of children. He had never been so happy as he has been here, smack in the middle of the most turmoil I'd ever endured. He was free of stress and filled with alpha energy, truly happy just to be alive and a kid. It was obvious that the ACE was the medicine he needed.

Maybe it was what I needed too. For all those years I told myself there was no life for me here. That I was a city slicker and didn't need them. That I was streetwise. That I had my own family now and I'd evolved to a woman of few emotional needs.

Sure. When Mother came along, needing me for the first time, that theory exploded with all the insignificant fanfare of the careless dropping of a thin-shelled egg.

Humph, I thought, looking around; for the first time in my life, I had more men in the room than old Miss Lavinia. It seemed that I had a little situation of my own. Never be like her? I raised my hand to my throat, twisted her South Sea pearls around my finger, and let loose the longest sigh in respiratory history. Sonuvadamndog, it was in the DNA.

Reprinted from Plantation by Dorothea Benton Frank by permission of Berkley, a member of Penguin Putnam Inc. Copyright © 2001 by Dorothea Benton Frank. All rights reserved. This excerpt, or any parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission.

(Continues…)



Excerpted from "Plantation"
by .
Copyright © 2004 Dorothea Benton Frank.
Excerpted by permission of Penguin Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Table of Contents

Prologue Don't Leave Me Now!1
1. Richard13
2. Miss Lavinia Would Like to Have a Word with You26
3. Make No Misteak!35
4. Going to the Chapel46
5. Skirmish in Paradise57
6. Taking the Good with the Bad66
7. Eric81
8. Becoming Mom94
9. "Ain't No Way, Babe "105
10. Wake Up and Smell the Opium114
11. Miss Lavinia Says Her Piece125
12. "Planet Lavinia—Retrograde"135
13. "Hush Up and Deal!"148
14. Cocktail Time158
15. Dinner Is Served170
16. Millie's Magic185
17. Gone Fishing201
18. On Dry Land212
19. Have a Nice Trip225
20. Should Be Getting Better, But It Keeps Getting Worse240
21. Dr.Blues254
22. Family Laundry263
23. I Knew It Would Come to This276
24. Ace in the Hole280
25. On My Shield291
26. Daddy299
27. The Merry Widow Speaks312
28. Daddy's Gone319
29. Rescue Me332
30. Back to School344
31. Voodoo 101354
32. Square One366
33. Breathe379
34. Tripped Up388
35. Family Jewels401
36. Holy Moly411
37. True Colors420
38. Family Stew434
39. Mr. M.D446
40. Stardust455
41. Through Thick and Through Thin467
42. Skin Deep472
43. A Doctor in the House482
44. Lavinia Says, Y'all Deal with It500
45. This Is for Real506
46. Rolling! Rolling! Rolling Down the River!521
47. The Second Time Around535
48. Free at Last540
49. Details551
50. Day Clear558
Epilogue574

What People are Saying About This

John Berendt

Southern womanhood has found a new voice, and it is outrageous, hilarious, relentless and impossible to ignore.

Pat Conroy

Dorothea Frank and I share the same literary territory.

From the Publisher

"Filled with entertaining characters and lots of humor." —The State - Columbia, SC

"Think Terry McMillan meets Rebecca Wells by way of the Deep South and you'll be barking up the right bayou." —The Mirror (UK)

Reading Group Guide

INTRODUCTION

Caroline Wimbley Levine always swore she’d never go home again. But now, at her brother’s behest, she has returned to South Carolina to see about Mother—only to find that the years have not changed the Queen of Tall Pines Plantation. Miss Lavinia is as maddeningly eccentric as ever—and absolutely will not suffer the questionable advice of her children. This does not surprise Caroline. Nor does the fact that Tall Pines is still brimming with scandals and secrets, betrayals and lies. But she soon discovers that something is different this time around. It lies somewhere in the distance between her and her mother-and in her understanding of what it means to come home…

 


ABOUT DOROTHEA BENTON FRANK

The sands of Sullivan's Island follow me everywhere. No matter where I have traveled, worked or lived, I am only and always a woman whose home place is the beach. Growing up there gave me lots of time to dream - to dream of what my life would become. And writing this book gave me lots of time to remember. One of my happiest summer memories - besides digging holes to China and sliding down the hill fort - is of the Bookmobile. This old clanker of a bus/van would stop in front of my momma's house and I would run for my fortnightly dose of juvenile literature. Three books under my arm, I'd dive into our hammock and finish them all in one day without moving. Then I'd have to wait thirteen days until the Bookmobile returned. Waiting became a theme in my life - waiting for more books, waiting to be old enough to do this or that, for life to give me permission to pursue my dreams, for a million things. I'll probably never develop the virtue of patience, so waiting is my cross. It should be the worst thing I have ever had to bear.

Unlike my sister Lynn, I was a terrible student. Around my twelfth year, I stopped studying in school. I was the classic case of wanting to be cool, the Saving Ophelia Syndrome, rebelling against everything and a whole long list of pathetic excuses. I only reveal this now to let you know that where you start seldom has anything to do with where you land. Life is not like the trajectory of a bullet. I never stopped reading and I never stopped working. Both of these I do with frightening vigor. I managed to graduate from a fashion school on sheer luck and worked on Seventh Avenue for years. I took what skills I had used there into the world of volunteerism for a few more years, raising money for the arts and education.

That vigor is the thirst I could never quench, and the harsh realities of the business world and volunteer fundraising made me understand just how critical a complete education is. But love of words (and my compulsion to be understood) is what made this miracle of becoming a published author come true. So now I'd like to do something for other women who for whatever reason didn't get the educational experience they longed for and who can't find the courage to change their lives. And, needless to say, I'd like to do something for women and children without hope, who don't dream. Please take a moment to visit the Foundation link and share your thoughts.

So what else? I am ecstatically happy with my delicious husband Peter, and adore my two children, Victoria and William down to their last freckles. I have two Cavalier King Charles spaniels, Henry and Buster who are as cute as cookies. I play awful tennis, cheat at cards to make my children laugh, speak emergency French and Italian - lots of gesturing, love to cook and entertain. I also garden like mad, still love to visit Sullivan's Island as often as possible, and am always looking for an adventure. I still read like a lunatic - favorite authors are the ones I shamelessly tortured to give me endorsements for my book - John Berendt, Pat Conroy, Bret Lott, Fern Michaels, and Ann Rivers Siddons. I'm always on a diet and admit to being slightly neurotic. If I could have anything in the world, it would be to pick up my entire life and drop it on the beach at Sullivan's Island. Writing is the next best thing.

 


DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
  • Caroline and Richard never really had much in common. What was the attraction? Was Richard a father figure? Would she have been better off marrying a Lowcountry boy? Were Richard and a life in New York an act of defiance?
     
  • Caroline suspected very early on that Richard was still involved with Lois, yet denial kicked in. Why? Was that part of the “Wimbley Family Law”? When it’s too tough to deal with, just pretend it’s not there?
     
  • Caroline’s memories of her Father are vivid. How does his death affect her feelings about him? How does it influence her relationships with other men? With which parent does she identify and why? And, do we become our parents?
     
  • Why is Caroline’s relationship with Lavinia so complicated? Isn’t she more like Lavinia than she chooses to admit? How does Caroline benefit from acknowledging their similarities?
     
  • Their father’s tragic death played a huge role in shaping Tripp and Caroline. Discuss the impact that Lavinia’s reaction had on both children. How did Nevil’s death change Lavinia’s life? Do you think she ever really recovered?
     
  • As Lavinia’s closest friend and an alternate mother to Caroline and Tripp, Millie is a key character in all their lives. Discuss how she influenced each of their lives.
     
  • Healing is at the heart of this book. Though Millie has an encyclopedic knowledge of herbal remedies, her most important healing was done simply by listening and advising. Do you think she passed on that wisdom more so than her herbal skills?
     
  • The ACE Basin is a full-blown character in Plantation. How does the familiar beauty of the Edisto help the Wimbley family heal? Discuss its importance as a refuge and a “home” to each member of the family.
     
  • Like Caroline, Tripp chose his spouse as a reaction to the void he felt in his family life. How is the healing of the family responsible, in part, for the dissolution of his miserable marriage?
     
  • How does Eric’s move to Tall Pines change his life? Do you think Lavinia’s ability to openly adore Eric reveals something important to her own children? What draws Eric and Tripp together? And why does Lavinia reject Tripp’s children.
     
  • If Lavinia, Caroline and Tripp are so civilized, why can’t they overcome their feelings about Frances Mae? Do being so very wealthy and also the family matriarch give Lavinia the right to be so judgmental? Do you think Frances Mae hates them all?
     
  • Caroline rediscovers Lavinia and has a new level of respect for much of Lavinia’s behavior that she did not understand in the past. Now, Caroline will assume Lavinia’s role as head of the family. How will this change Caroline and Tall Pines?
  • Interviews

    A Letter from Dorothea Benton Frank
    There are four questions everybody always asks me. They are: what drives me to write about a certain topic, are my stories autobiographical, how do I go about the business of writing day-to-day, and could I please give them money. The answers are: for better understanding of the subject; yes, of course, and no, of course not; it's so hard you wouldn't believe it; and not unless you're selling time off in Purgatory.

    I wrote Sullivan's Island for every reason other than the expectation of public approval or any meaningful financial reward. That yarn was crawling up my throat. If I hadn't written it, I might have choked to death on it. Someone once told me that I would write when I couldn't not write. I never should have spoken to that person again; he made me think. It was the truest and most terrifying comment anyone ever made to me. Frankly -- no pun intended -- writing hurts.

    My first book, Sullivan' Island, grew from a painful attempt to deal with the loss of my mother and the subsequent loss of what I felt was "my place on the planet." This girl's place was by her Momma's side on Sullivan's Island, South Carolina -- and I've only been living in New York temporarily for the past 20-odd years. Once a Geechee Girl, always a Geechee Girl. That's just how my brain was wired, so I started writing to figure out how to reconcile my life. Seeing Sullivan's Island plop its pretty title on the New York Times list helped enormously. It did, and not merely for vanity's sake, but because what it meant was that many people understood how I felt. That kind of realization was priceless consolation to my aching heart. And, most importantly, that connection with readers through email, book signings, and book clubs, gave me the courage and desire to continue to write.

    My Lowcountry Tales are not romances, but they are stories about what I love and value: family, friends, truth, kindness, forgiveness and compassion. Plantation, my new book, digs deep.

    The folks populating Plantation believe themselves to be worldly and savvy. Caroline, the daughter, thinks she's happy. Ha! She thinks she has nothing in common with her mother, Miss Lavinia, and that she has no place in the Lowcountry because she's become a slick New Yorker. Ha! And the lengths to which Miss Lavinia will travel for attention were shocking even to me -- and I wrote the darn book! Needless to say, I hope readers will find the push and pull of the mother/daughter dynamic and the endless shenanigans of all the characters to be interesting, entertaining, and true.

    Plantation is a good snapshot, I think, of what modern day plantation living is like. But it is also about geographically separated families, coming to terms with who you really are and what you hope to become, taking care of aging and eccentric parents, what to do about unlovable in-laws -- and, as always, about the real and true mysteries of the magical Lowcountry of South Carolina.

    I suspect that I will always place my stories in the Lowcountry, because its tidal magnet pumps my heart's blood like a powerful drug. I prefer to write about issues that concern me, human qualities which go unrewarded and undervalued in today's society -- such as personal integrity, morality, the courage to name something what it is against popular opinion.

    The characters I write about may have certain traits borrowed from people I have known, but the characters themselves are all fictional, just as the plots are not from events in my life, but about what I might do if they were. I figure if the story I'm working on can play itself out to a satisfactory conclusion in the Lowcountry of South Carolina then, in my mind (what's left of it), it could be happening anywhere.

    At present, I'm working on a third novel, tentatively entitled Isle of Palms. It's named after another actual barrier island of the Lowcountry coast, once home to beautiful Indians and evil pirates. This time I'm tackling the lives of contemporary people dealt an unfair hand of cards. It shows their attempt to overcome their lot by having a plan, which sometimes works pretty well and at other times causes emotional upheaval and explosions. It's about change, something held in low esteem by some, not all, island residents. The story tells of the influx of lovable and not so lovable Yankees critical to the local economy, played against the congenial or cantankerous old islanders, versus the historic relevance of Charleston's illustrious past. It all makes for great fun in the telling and eventually, I hope, in the reading. If my muse will cut me a little slack, Isle of Palms should be out next summer -- 2002.

    I love, love, love to hear from readers: Email is the fuel that keeps me alive and struggling to hone the old craft of creating better novels. It's also the most efficient way to directly contact me. I answer emails sent to dot@dotfrank.com myself -- nope, no glamorous staff or auto-responses. So, if I'm traveling, it could take some time to reply, as I am not a techno-whiz -- but I will respond!

    I want to say one more thing, and that is that I am deeply and sincerely grateful for everyone's support and generous words. Have a great summer on the Plantation! And, y'all come back, yanh?

    Best wishes,
    Dorothea Benton Frank

    From the B&N Reads Blog

    Customer Reviews