CAKEWALK

By Rita Mae Brown

For all those long-time, loyal Rita Mae Brown fans, this book is the first to be seen in The Runnymede series in over a decade (the first story being “Six in One” published back in 1979). Taking place in the spectacular community of Runnymede, Maryland, where the Mason-Dixon Line runs right through it, readers are transported back to 1920.

America is just pulling itself up by the bootstraps now that WWI has come to a close. Prohibition is sneaking up on the country and women are working hard to get the vote. Two sisters, Louise (AKA: Wheezie) and Julia (AKA: Juts) Hunsenmier are our main characters. The very beautiful and wealthy Celeste, along with her prim sister Carlotta, and Best Friends Forever Fairy and Fannie Jump, are also inhabiting Runnymede.

Wheezie’s time is spent setting the town’s fashion at the Bon Ton; Juts, who is in the tenth grade, is in battle mode with an unbearable schoolmate named Dimps Junior, starting fights and scrapes and counting the days until she’s out of school. The lovely Celeste is dealing with a troubling situation; her long-time lover, who happens to be a woman, is expecting a baby and has married the baby’s father. Obviously this has left Celeste in limbo, to say the least, but now she’s intent on finding herself a man of her own.

With each new day, and the way the world is changing all around Runnymede, readers get a full, colorful, vibrant story that encompasses everything good in life. This huge tale that moves along quite quickly delves into everything from love to whiskey to religion, fashion and even baseball, as it explores the small town that had “one foot in the North and one foot in the South.”

According to the author these characters were inspired by her family members, and Ms. Brown’s exceptional writing is something that all readers are sure to love. Hopefully it will not take another decade to see these fantastic characters again.