Spence and Lila: A Novel

From Publishers Weekly

The plus sign in the title beautifully reflects the relationship of the eponymous protagonists in this tender novella, one in the Harper Short Novel series. Mason (In Country) again shows her deep-hearted understanding of the unsophisticated but not simple country folk of her native Kentucky. Over the years of a long, hardworking marriage, Spence and Lila Culpepper have farmed their land and raised three children who, even in the lean years, "were always well-fed and wore good clothes." Now Lila is in the hospital in Paducah, facing first a mastectomy and then an operation on her carotid artery. She must come to terms with the possibility of her death, and Spence with the possibility of life without her. Both are bewildered by the medical jargon and the high-tech diagnostic machines. These are good people, the soul of America. Mason does not sentimentalize them, but they are touching in their pride and sudden vulnerability to the modern world. In contrast to the Culpeppers' devotion to the land, Mason shows the inroads of industrialization: farms replaced by subdivisions, creeks polluted, the Culpeppers' son working in a factory and living in a house whose yard is bare of trees. In portraying these people in authentic termstheir speech patterns are charmingly Southern, but not exaggeratedMason gives them warmth, dignity and a universal appeal. Illustrated. BOMC and QPBC alternates. Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

$10.95. f This novel begins with a journey to a hospital and ends in a vegetable garden. In between, Mason contrasts the cold, clinical procedures of high-tech medicine with the simple but satisfying rituals of rural life. Lila's cancer temporarily separates her from her husband Spence, but as the book's title suggests, their love is abiding. Both rely on fond memories of their shared past to allay fears about the future. Even after she undergoes a radical mastectomy, Lila is still the nurturer who unites her family. As in earlier works, Mason combines the homely and the hip, the old-fashioned and the latest fad, but from this mixture she distills timeless wisdom. Albert E. Wilhelm, Tennessee Technological Univ., Cookeville Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.