back to cove road
a review of Joan Medilicott's latest book in the Ladies of Covington series
by byron ballard

The best part of being a book reviewer is reading good books. Another part of the process that is near to my heart is meeting the folks who write them. I see Joan Medlicott at least once a week at the bookstore and it’s always a treat, always.
And it is another treat to tell WNC Woman readers about Medlicott’s new book The Spirit of Covington (in hardcover, from Simon and Schuster’s Altria imprint, $25.00).

This is book four in her best-selling Covington series, which is set in western North Carolina and features a cast of believable folks in situations that ring true. This cast is headed by the original ladies of Covington, Hannah, Grace and Amelia. We’ve followed their adventures, their loves and their heartbreaks through The Ladies of Covington Send Their Love, The Gardens of Covington and From The Heart of Covington. When we join them in the opening sentences of Spirit, the stage is set for tragedy.

I grew up in these hills and the first chapter of this book took me right back to my childhood, when the late summer woods were bone dry and any careless spark a danger. I could smell the burning leaves and recall the orange glow in the hills that spelled wildfire.

Medlicott’s evocative writing takes us through the initial trauma of a terrible fire on Cove Road and stays with us for the clean-up, rebuilding and inevitable change that follow. Joan knows her characters so well that they never misstep. Hannah, for those of you who know the ladies, is the quick-thinking, take-charge person we expect her to be. Grace, with the help of her beau Bob, bring us into their own drama as their relationship shifts and reforms. We have so little good writing about older folks in their quest for meaningful, balanced and healthy relationships, I am grateful to Medlicott for letting us peek in on Grace and Bob as they work through their coupling.

But it is Amelia, shattered by the loss, who is so interesting to watch through her recovery process. All the characters are engaging, and, I must say, some of the “minor” characters will steal your heart. George Maxwell, Laura and Hank, little Olivia—all this attention to detail pays off in creating a world where you feel you know the characters and could cheerfully live next door.

I don’t want to spoil the plot for you but there are enough twists and turns to keep you turning the pages and yet you feel that Medlicott’s sure hand is there guiding her characters and her readers to a satisfying conclusion.

Read it. It’s yummy

Byron Ballard is a playwright, poet and writer of miscellany, with deep and gnarly roots in Buncombe county. She strives to be like that other Byron (George Gordon) by being “mad, bad and dangerous to know”.