Strong for Potatoes
A Novel
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Cynthia Thayer's acclaimed debut novel, Strong for Potatoes, is the resonant story of the difficult youth of Blue Willoughby, a remarkable girl growing up in eastern Maine. In a life beset by tragedy, beginning with the death of her twin sister Berry only days after their birth, Blue must discover on her own strength she needs to survive.
Blue's true ally is her grandfather, a full-blooded Passamoquoddy Indian who teaches Blue life's most vital lessons: that the ways of nature can illuminate life, that family can be depended on, that true passion is worth waiting for, and that grief can heal. Most important, he passes on the ways of his ancestors-knowledge that Blue will need to find a sense of her own true self amid the chaos of her adolescence.
Reminiscent of Dorothy Allison and Barbara Kingsolver, Strong for Potatoes is a rich, evocative literary debut by a gifted writer and teller of the most rewarding kind of story: beautifully crafted, authentic, moving, and ultimately uplifting.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A college student named Blue Willoughby comes to terms with her Indian heritage, her dysfunctional family's past and a series of terrible mishaps in Thayer's well-crafted, if somewhat maudlin, debut. Leafing through her father's snapshot collection, Blue relives the golf cart accident that ruined her child-star looks, the prom date that ended in pregnancy and the death of her twin sister, who, born without a brain, died shortly after birth. Emotionally neglected by her self-centered mother and withdrawn father, Blue receives love and acceptance from her Passamaquody grandfather, who explores with her the woods that surround her home on Maine's east coast, as well as from his kindly neighbors on the Passamaquody reservation and her bespectacled sidekick, Brian, who adores her from a (mostly) comfortable distance. With their help, Blue grows into a strong young woman. By the end of the book, even readers weary of saintly good guys, dysfunctional jerks and Blue's relentlessly wide-eyed innocence will be hopeful for her as she faces motherhood, college and the beginning of a nurturing lesbian love affair.
