Why didn't I read this sooner?! Upon closing its' pages, I immediately called my mom to leave her a message that said, "Mom, have you finished Stiltsville? I just put it down and am completely affected by it."
Frances goes down to Miami in 1969 at age 26 to attend a friend's wedding. While there, she befriends Marse, a native Floridian, who takes her out to Stiltsville, a group of houses a mile from the beach off the coast of Florida. There, she meets and falls in love with Dennis. Eight months later, she's moved from Atlanta to south Florida, where she marries Dennis, has a child, weathers personal and physical storms, and debilitating illness.
There is nothing extraordinary about the plot of this book; Susanna Daniel has simply written the story of a woman's life in south Florida. In this simplicity, though, is an entirely relateable version of life. Most people don't lead superhero lives; we love our families, we encounter temptations, we put ourselves back together after storms hit. We make small observations about others, we do our best to make mistakes out of the public eye. Frances feels like someone I knew intimately, and the last sentence of the book has stuck with me. Daniel writes, "Thank you for my life," and that's exactly what I want to say sometimes to those who have been major players in my own simple life. This book just felt like a clear, effortless way to end 2010.
I should mention that Grandma in North Carolina read Stiltsville over the summer, and told me it was wonderful. Thank you for the excellent recommendation, and I promise not to take so long on the next book you suggest!
