Porch Lights

by Dorothea Benton Frank

Overview

New York Times bestselling author Dorothea Benton Frank is back home in the Carolina lowcountry, spinning a tale that brims with the warmth, charm, heart, and humor that has become her trademark. Porch Lights is a stirring, emotionally rich multigenerational story—a poignant tale of life, love, and transformation—as a nurse, returning to Sullivans Island from the Afghanistan War, finds her life has been irrevocably altered by tragedy…and now must rediscover love and purpose with the help of her son and aging mother.

An evocative visit to enchanting Sullivans Island with its unique pluff mud beaches, palmetto trees, and colorful local lore—a novel filled with unforgettable characters, and enlivened by tales of the notorious Blackbeard and his bloodthirsty pirate crew and eerie Edgar Allan Poe stories—Porch Lights stands tall among the very best works of not only Dottie Frank, but Anne Rivers Siddons, Rebecca Wells, Pat Conroy, and other masters of the modern Southern novel as well.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062211767
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	04/23/2013
Series:	Lowcountry Tales Series
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	324
Sales rank:	165,327
Product dimensions:	5.48(w) x 7.88(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

New York Times bestseller Dorothea Benton Frank was born and raised on Sullivans Island, South Carolina. Until her passing in 2019, Dorothea and her husband split their time between New Jersey and South Carolina. A contemporary voice of the South, Dorothea Benton Frank was beloved by fans and friends alike since her debut novel Sullivans Island. Readers from coast to coast fell for the quick wit and the signature humor that permeated her many bestselling novels.

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

Website:

http://www.dotfrank.com

Editorial Reviews

For most summer arrivals in the Carolina lowcountry, the stay is a much-yearned vacation or a nostalgic visit home. For the nurse at the center of Dorothea Benton Frank's Porch Lights, the return begins as an overdue escape from the violence and the trauma of Iraq War emergency rooms; but as she becomes enmeshed in the life of this endearing beach community, she rediscovers a tranquility that she imagined she would never recover. Another heartwarming tale from Frank's signature lowcountry terrain. Now in trade paperback and NOOK Book.

Robin Miles takes on a soothing Southern lilt as she narrates this story of familial bonds. After the death of her husband, Jackie McMullen puts aside her apprehension at being with her mother and returns to her childhood home with her 10-year-old son, Charlie. There, Annie Britt does her best to let her daughter make her own decisions, even when Charlie is reluctant to return to New York City. Though Miles’s leisurely pace captures aspects of laid-back island living, her voice lacks modulation at times, making it difficult to discern between the voices of mother and daughter. However, her renditions of Annie’s spirited exchanges with her friends and her husband are humorous and entertaining. M.F. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine

OCTOBER 2012 - AudioFile

Frank's latest is her usual warmhearted look at grief, healing and South Carolina coastal life. Jackie McMullen, an Army nurse, is relieved from her deployment in Afghanistan when she becomes the sole support of her 10-year-old son, Charlie. Her husband, Jimmy, a New York City firefighter, was killed in the line of duty. Her mother, Annie Britt, insists Jackie bring Charlie, who is deeply depressed after the loss of his father, to summer at the "Salty Dog," the Britts' Sullivan's Island home. Although Charlie takes immediately to Lowcountry beachcombing, Jackie is unsettled by her mother's obvious crush on Steve, the widowed dermatologist next door, who, Jackie notes ruefully, would rather flirt with daughter than mother. Annie is still married to Jackie's father, Buster, although they have lived apart for 11 years (ever since Buster embarked on an extended fishing trip). But the presence of his only grandson lures Buster back to the Salty Dog, as does, although he won't admit it, rekindled passion for Annie since her recent overhaul by a Charleston makeover maven. When Charlie himself (channeling Annie's fondest wish) starts angling to stay on Sullivan's Island instead of returning to Brooklyn, Jackie is torn. Jimmy's grave is in New York, and her mother can still push every one of her buttons, for example when she insists on telling Charlie morbid Edgar Allen Poe tales right before bedtime. The sudden death of a neighbor, the husband of Annie's best friend Deb, triggers a vicarious crisis that soon has the Britt family rethinking its priorities. Jackie and Doctor Steve, of course, both glimpse the possibility of moving on from loss together. Although leavened with wry humor, particularly in the sections narrated by Annie, the story stumbles under the weight of too many clichés. Moreover, Frank's target demographic may be put off by the portrayal of Annie and other aging Boomers as positively geriatric. Happy families are all alike, which is why, even on the beach, they can be a bore.

Kirkus Reviews