My Last Days as Roy Rogers by Pat Cunningham Devoto Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of My Last Days as Roy Rogers
Book Review: Hot Gossip and Iced Tea!
Summary: 5 Stars
Tab has a great gift in her friendship with Maudie Mae and the brothers. Together they crawled in drainpipes, played football, watched moonshine sales, fished and let their imaginations run wild in this charming first novel. Pat Cunningham DeVoto has brought together the ultimate villians - the Ladies Help League and polio. One is unquestionable and the other unresolvable, and they both change Tab's life profoundly. I can almost smell the talcum powder clouds that hovered about the Ladies Help League members, who, like my grandmother's card club members of the 50's, served hot gossip with iced tea. I remember, too, (with near-forgotten fear) the summers of diseases and superstitions. Isn't strange how we look back at those times as simpler and safer? Perhaps the times don't change nearly as much as our perceptions of those times. Any woman who had a childhood summer filled with mystery and fun will enjoy reading "My Last Summer as Roy Rogers".Book Review: A superb first novel
Summary: 5 Stars
Devoto writes of one summer in a sleepy Southern town in the '50s, telling the story through the voice & eyes of a young white girl, Tabitha. The story relates the adventures of Tabitha & her best friend, a black girl named Maudie May. This could be described as a women's version of Tom Sawyer. Devoto's skilled writing creates page-turning suspense, alternating with humor. The social problems of the day are waiting, just beyond the innocence of a childhood summer. Of course, it is Tabitha's last innocent summer.
The author's portrayal of life in the 50s includes the good and the bad, the freedom for children in the relative safety of a small town where everyone knows each other versus the fear of polio.
Book Review: Excellent storytelling with characters I'd like to know
Summary: 5 Stars
A recent conversation on summers past where innocence was permitted, a friend reminded me that the summers of the 50's were not all great. She suggested that I read a new book that brought out the fears and cautions of the polio summers in Alabama. Picking up "My Last Days as Roy Rogers" at Union Station, I was tempted to put it back. Thinking that it was probably more of a coming of age book, I didn't see its relevance to a 50's something from the Northeast. Glancing at a few pages, I was captivated though and as it turned out stayed up late on this engrossing novel.The author is a master storyteller. Ms. Devoe has the ability to bring the reader into her setting and make us eyewitnesses to the events. The events are woven together in an enticing story but each chapter is in itself a true tale. We can see the locations, feel the heat and even get caught up in the gripping events. What caught me the most, however, were the characters. Ms. Devoe makes each (well excepting the "twins") a real person. Without ever describing physical details, she enables the reader to see, know and like each of them. Even the most despicable of characters has both redeeming value and likable. It made me wish that this were a biography so that I could meet the individuals.
Maudie May and Tab where charming, but the adults, especially Tab's mother and father, were the heroes. This is a story that conveys true family values without any preaching.
My hope is that this is the first of many works by this talented author. She can keep her audience captivated and should do so often.
I strongly recommend this for those of my generation who remember when unlocked doors were normal and coming from another state was the same as coming from across country. I also suggest that the grandparents give this to their grandchildren as a way to convey this wonderful, but not always pleasant time.
Book Review: An extraordinary first novel
Summary: 5 Stars
An extraordnary first novel. Devoto has captured a childhood that is everyone's secret dream. A childhood of confident, bold innocence played out against a dark background of adult fear of the unknown predator that was polio. All of the elements that made 1950's Alabama are filtered through her heightened sense of drama and intrique. I have never felt so much a part of a child's world. Highly recommended....a real joy!! I will be the first in line to see the movie.Book Review: Will make you homesick for southern summers
Summary: 5 Stars
"My Last Days as Roy Rogers" made me (a New Jersey resident now) homesick for the southern summers of my childhood. It transported me back to the warm, lazy days of building forts and playing tag to the sound of tree frogs on a humid August evening. I loved it and recommend it for anyone who has lost touch with their Southern roots.