SAVING CEECEE HONEYCUTT by Beth Hoffman
SAVING CEECEE HONEYCUTT by Beth Hoffman is one of those feel good, easy to read stories about the South. It takes all the things you have loved about southern stories such as A MEMBER OF THE WEDDING, STEEL MAGNOLIAS and TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD and smashes them together for a good old tear jerking, smile inducing read. Every character is stereotypical in some sense and all the plot twists are easy to figure out.
Twelve year old CeeCee Honeycutt is of course the main focus of this saga. At the start of the story she is living with her mother and father in Ohio and is trapped in a domestic mess. Her mother is a former southern beauty queen who has mental problems that are getting worse. Her father is a traveling salesman who has started staying on the road more and more to escape from her mother.
When CeeCee’s mother dies the young girl is taken by her great aunt Tootie to live in Savannah, Georgia. There she learns that life can be good and fair and worth living. Her aunt is rich and the housekeeper is near perfect. What more could an abandoned girl want?
The evolution of CeeCee is an interesting story but not an impressive one. It seems Hoffman wants the reader to agonize for CeeCee’s situation but since she is living in the lap of luxury it is hard to do so. It also doesn’t help that the story is much too predictable.
Hoffman is able to bring a group of characters to life and for her target audience this is probably enough. They will find CeeCee adorable and will shed tears over her insecurities and moderate unhappiness. They will also be uplifted by the wonderful black housekeeper who gives CeeCee her friendship and her guidance.
SAVING CEECEE HONEYCUTT is not a waste of your time, not totally. It is just a waste of talent on Hoffman’s part. She seems to have the ability to do more than she has done here. With just a little more edge to her writing she might have created a story with some impact. Instead she settled for creating a bland best seller.
No one expects every book about the South to be THE HELP, but readers do expect every book they read to offer some insight, perspective or moral lesson. You get none of these in SAVING CEECEE HONEYCUTT. You just get a sweet story tritely told.
SAVING CEECEE HONEYCUTT is published by Viking Press. It contains 320 pages and sells for $25.95.