As Hot as It Was You Ought to Thank Me

January 24, 2005
Kincaid's fourth novel (after Crossing Blood
; Balls
; Verbena
) is a deliciously intimate portrayal of the sunstruck small town of Pinetta, Fla., as seen through the eyes of Berry, a 13-year-old trying to make sense of adult indiscretions and her own sexual awakening. Berry's father, Ford, is the town's self-righteous school principal; her mother, Ruth, has a crush on the preacher; her good-looking older brother, Sowell, has his "mind... on tits"; her younger brother, Wade is a specialist in "elaborate animal funerals." When Ford mysteriously disappears in the middle of a tornado with Rennie, the town's tragic teenage wannabe starlet, Berry and her family become the subject of much gossip and attention. In her father's absence, her mother shifts her attentions to a rich, hot-tempered neighbor, and Berry develops a crush on Raymond, a smooth-talking convict in town to help clean up after the storm. When Raymond saves Berry's life by coming between her and two rattlesnakes, it's she who fearlessly volunteers to suck the poison out of his leg. Hungry for affection, Berry ultimately gets what she's after, though when she's had it, she's not sure what to make of it. Narrated with childlike honesty and dead-on Southern flavor ("Used to be we would all get in the tub like a can of worms spilled into shallow ditch water"), this is a sticky, sultry gem.

February 15, 2005
During a steamy summer, small town Pinetta, FL, has all the interpersonal drama of the colder Peyton Place. To adolescent Berry, the shift from child to adult is happening abruptly. Her school principal father disappears amid rumors that he has run off with a local girl, who is also missing, and her mother's romantic interest in their preacher shocks the church community. When a chain-gang convict saves Berry from a snake bite, she struggles with her own conflicts and confusions, watching over him before the sheriff picks him up. Kincaid ("Verbena") has crafted quirky characters and evoked a Deep South sensibility, which combine to make a well-developed fictional world. Colorful and engaging, this novel should find an audience in public libraries. -Ann H. Fisher, Radford P.L., VA

Copyright 2005 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from December 15, 2004
Berry Jackson's life is turned upside down one scorchingly hot summer when a tornado tears through Pinetta, her small Florida town, and her father, the local school principal, vanishes into the night. Is he dead? Has he run away with the young woman who has also vanished? And what will this mean to barely adolescent Berry, who has always defined herself as "the principal's daughter"? Small southern towns, vanishing husbands, and adolescent narrators are staples of Kincaid's earlier fiction, and once again her great strength is the creation of a memorably regional, wryly funny, and naturally artful first-person voice. Like seemingly everyone else in Pinetta--where the heart is definitely " not "a lonely hunter--Berry looks to love for answers, unwisely becoming infatuated with a young prisoner who has been brought to town on a chain gang in the wake of the storm. Love's lessons are sometimes painful ones, but Berry--a terrific character--discovers she can cope when others can't. Kincaid brings a wonderfully engaging authorial sensibility to her story, while her obvious affection for her characters--and theirs for each other--is downright irresistible.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2004, American Library Association.)