The Summer We Got Saved
by Pat Cunningham Devoto
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Book Summary Information
Author: Pat Cunningham DevotoEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2006-04-10
ISBN: 044669715X
Number of pages: 432
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Book Reviews of The Summer We Got Saved
Book Review: One of the better novels about the civil rights movement
Summary: 5 Stars
They say that the plot of every story is either that someone goes on a journey (real or metaphorical) or else a stranger comes to town. This novel, set in the South in the 60s, involves both plots: a young white girl from a small town in Alabama goes on a journey -- both real and metaphorical -- as a result of her aunt from California coming to town. Likewise, a young black girl from a small town in Alabama goes on a journey -- from a polio hospital to a backwoods black church, where she is expected to prepare the uninterested congregants to register to vote.
In the first journey, a progressive but not very sensible California aunt takes a young white girl and her older sister to Monteagle, Tennessee, to the really existed civil rights camp so influential in the civil rights movement. This was the camp attended by a number of sixties civil rights activists (including Rosa Parks)
The girls' parents (Southern moderates) think they're all off visiting friends of the aunt. At Monteagle, the girls are exposed to a whole different way of thinking, and the young white girl develops a relationship -- and eventually a friendship -- with a young biracial girl from the north.
While this is going on, in a separate story that finally connects to the story of the girls at Monteagle, the young black girl settles in at the backwoods church and starts holding classes. No-one is interested in registering to vote (not surprisingly, given the dangers) but they are interested in other things -- so she gets them involved in building a float for the annual town parade.
I give this book five stars not because it's the best book ever written about race in the South, but because it is memorable -- and takes its own view of events, as a number of stories unfold.
As to the choice of the word "saved" in the title, at least two people are saved, but not in the religious sense. They are saved existentially --changed for the better -- by being exposed to new ideas. Additionally, the aunt and the two girls are also saved from some very real danger.
I found the beginning too slow, but once the stories get going, it moved right along.
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