Hung Over with Grandma

Second in the series of the life of an Appalachian woman, Hung Over with Grandma continues the love story of Stella and Jonas, her Inupiat boyfriend for nearly three decades. It spans the distance from Lindside, a rural community in West Virginia to Atqasuk, a small town in Alaska. His elderly mother, suffering from the beginnings of dementia, and her brother, committed to a state hospital awaiting trial for murder, create a bumpy road for the new marriage and the lives of Stella and Jonas. When Stella says “I do” to Jonas, she discovers quite the surprise — a sudden honeymoon takes the newlyweds from the winter cold of West Virginia to the freezing depths of the Arctic night in Barrow, Alaska. There she is thrust into adventures she never imagined possible. Greater even than facing the journey and the below zero temperatures, the real shock is the culture and the new and remarkable mother-in-law, Mary Jo. Jonas’ mother is sometimes withdrawn and enigmatic and sometimes a mighty force in the lives of Jonas and Stella. The clashes are there, but as Jonas revisits the home country of his youth and Stella finds her way in the complex family relationships, both recognize that even with huge cultural differences between the Arctic and West Virginia there are deeply shared values: love of the outdoors, humor, love and loyalty to family, and even the fun of bingo games. Circumstances created by the early ravages of dementia bring the newlyweds home with two companions — Mary Jo and her sister Phoebe. These elderly, lively, wildly mischievous, and clever women are immediately more than a handful for Stella and Jonas. They soon become players in the family fight to defend Stella from her brother Timmy Lee, now a fugitive escaped from a psychiatric hospital and hell-bent for deadly revenge on Stella and willing to roll over two old women to get it. Bonus material includes sections from the final book in the series.