Book: Low Country by Anne Rivers Siddons

Low Country is an immersion into a South Carolina tidal community and barrier island. A woman with a deep sorrow fights for her special island, both for herself and for the Gullah community on the island. Anne Siddons beautifully evokes the natural world of that place, which was reason enough for me to read it, and the book has a somewhat credible story line: Will the Gullah community become a developed tourist attraction or remain as it has for the last century or two?

It is not great literature but it is a vicarious trip this time of year from snow, cold and ice to warmth and water and beaches. There are the usual love conflicts and bad behaviors and high emotions. But there is also a tenderness when the author is writing of the Gullah people that makes the novel worth reading. I think this is her first book; she has written several. Perhaps some of the later ones are more subtle and therefore not as overblown...with a bit less of throbbing hearts and breathlessness.

Still, I escaped for a few hours and could sense the ocean and tidal marshes, see the wild ponies, hear the scream of a panther at night and be charmed by the rogue men.

I need to look up another of her books: John Chancellor Makes Me Cry.