Friendship Cake: A Novel

From Publishers Weekly How many Southern women does it take to put together a cookbook? Five, in Hinton's sincere but frothy debut novel, in which several female congregants of the appropriately named Hope Springs Community Church in North Carolina decide to create a cookbook; each has her own special recipe to share and a story to tell. On the cookbook committee are pragmatic Margaret, whose down-home wisdom makes her the community confidant; 63-year-old Louise, nursing the unrequited love of her life, another woman, through Alzheimer's; Beatrice, with a finger in everyone else's pie; Jessie, the only black woman in the all-white congregation; and Reverend Charlotte Stewart, their first woman preacher. The project originates as a form of female bonding through food, but as the committee holds meetings to review their progress, a lot more is stirred up than soups and stews. Also on the table are death and sex, friendship and love. The characters introduce themselves in the opening chapters, and their voices are like a potluck dinner, unsophisticated and oddly comforting. Hinton, herself a North Carolina pastor, successfully endows Charlotte with all of the self-doubts that a cleric might feel facing her first congregation. Mostly, though, this is thin fare, with complex issues like interracial marriage and the tragic death of a child resolved by one easy remedy: love. There are 17 recipes included, but these are also pretty basic--banana pudding, relish, grits--leaving readers to wish there were something as satisfying as fried green tomatoes on the menu. Agent, Sally McMillan. 10-city author tour. Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library Journal The reaction of the Hope Springs Community Church women's group to the idea of writing a cookbook is lukewarm at best until Beatrice breaks down and confesses that she came up with the idea in hopes that sharing a project will make them better friends. They are an unusual group: Beatrice, the town gossip and make-up artist for the funeral home; Margaret, a reclusive widow; tough Louise, who needs the strength of others as the woman she's secretly loved for 40 years enters the final stages of Alzheimer's; Jessie, an African American, who attended a white church on a dare and found a stronger commitment to the Lord; and Charlotte, the young pastor, who tries to be everything to everyone and risks losing her faith along the way. As these women share recipes and a love of the Lord, they make a friendship cake to last till the end of their lives. Hinton (Meditations for Walking) tackles issues dividing churches today, particularly homosexuality and interracial relationships, in a caring and forthright manner. A deceptively simple first novel; for all collections. Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.