Girl from the South

by Joanna Trollope

When Gillon comes back to her native Charleston, she has a young Englishman in tow. He has accompanied her on a lark, planning to take pictures. But he soon falls in love with the sights of South Carolina, with Gillon's family-and perhaps, with Gillon herself...From the acclaimed author of Marrying the Mistress, this is an unforgettable novel about feeling like a fish out of water-and finding those with whom we can breathe more easily.

Genres: Fiction, Chick Lit, Romance, British Literature, Southern, Contemporary, Novels

337 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published June 3, 2002

About the author

Joanna Trollope Potter Curteis (aka Caroline Harvey)

Joanna Trollope was born on 9 December 1943 in her grandfather's rectory in Minchinhampton, Gloucestershire, England, daughter of Rosemary Hodson and Arthur George Cecil Trollope. She is the eldest of three siblings. She is a fifth-generation niece of the Victorian novelist Anthony Trollope and is a cousin of the writer and broadcaster James Trollope. She was educated at Reigate County School for Girls followed by St Hugh's College, Oxford. On 14 May 1966, she married the banker David Roger William Potter, they had two daughters, Antonia and Louise, and on 1983 they divorced. In 1985, she remarried to the television dramatist Ian Curteis, and became the stepmother of two stepsons; they divorced in 2001.

From 1965 to 1967, she worked at the Foreign Office. From 1967 to 1979, she was employed in a number of teaching posts before she became a writer full-time in 1980. Her novel Parson Harding's Daughter won in 1980 the Romantic Novel of the Year Award by the Romantic Novelists' Association.

Reviews

[Phrynne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wow but this book gets some low ratings. It certainly isn't the author's finest work but it is not that bad either!
I found it a little depressing in that every character had such a jaded outlook on male / female relationships. While I was reading I did wonder whether the author was going through one of her own times of marital disharmony when she wrote this book as her opinion of males in general seemed to be very low. Just one happy partnership in there somewhere might have lightened the load. Nevertheless I enjoyed Henry and was happy for the way things turned out for him. The descriptions of life in Charlestown were also worth reading.
Not an exciting read but well written as Trollope's books always are.

[Dana Opperman · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book took me a long time to finish. It never "grabbed" my attention the way a good book does. I would not recommend it.

[Amy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I bought this at the library for about 20p (I love those amazing bargain tables!) and to be honest, I'm very glad I didn't spend any serious money on it.

Even if you've never read it, you might know the (tedious love) story already. Confused girl, confused boy, confused parents wondering how they've messed up their children so badly... yawn. Two dimensional characters that you can't care tuppence about, a boring plot and a curious way of really clinging like a dog with a bone to the clash between the American South and the English ways of looking at things. Yes, their views are different. No, it's not as interesting as you think it is.

It's fine, really. I didn't love it and I won't read it again but I've read worse (oh wow, what a compliment there!) but it's a 3/10 book through and through. It's already gone to the charity shop.

[Hallie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I found this book to be extremely boring. It's one of the few books that I can say that I've hated. There were a million plot lines, and all the characters were struggling with something different, which is normally a quality I find interesting in a book. However, in this case it was completely ineffective. No situation had enough exposition. Every person's problem seemed to come from nowhere, which made them seem unimportant. I felt like the plot was going nowhere. All of the dialogue was extremely vague, boring, and hollow. Actually I would say hollow is a pretty good word to describe this book. From the characters, to the plot, to the dialogue-- none of it has any depth. I would say that it's not worth the time to read it.

[Dona Matthews · Rating 4 out of 5]

i savoured every page of this book-- gotta read more of hers--slow pace, interesting characters, full of surprising insights

[Andrea Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting read about identity and one's own sense of self.

[Betty Kaye · Rating 4 out of 5]

Talks about relationships - friends, family, love - British and American Southern. I liked the ending because it didn't tie all the relationships up into a "happily ever after." The author left all the relationships open to change.

[Laureen · Rating 3 out of 5]

3. 5 stars for me. I don't know why this novel got such low ratings. I found it a very good read. The American accents at the start irritated a little on the audio book but that soon passed as the story moved to England and then back to Charleston. The story was the sort that I like; examining people's personalities and their life and aspirations, their foibles and their talents, lost love and finding out about themselves in the process. Yeah, I liked it.

[Maia · Rating 2 out of 5]

I hoped this would be a fun, easy read but I was completely wrong. I thought the plot was boring and the whole thing tedious.Most of the characters annoyed me, in particular, Gillon and her lack of direction/ motivation. Expecting a quick, light hearted book, I instead got a story that never managed to capture my attention and that was difficult to finish.

[Carmen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A novel of infinite delights and startling insights. Set partly in London and partly in South Carolina it follows the fortunes of a small group of the young and the single of sixties. swingers.

[Cath Hughes · Rating 3 out of 5]

An OK book. Yet another book in which the characters are 30 years old living carefree lives with commitment issues.

[Corey · Rating 1 out of 5]

I picked this book up on the side of the road in Goa after having finished my previous book. The English-language pickings were slim and I decided to go with this one because I have seen Joanna Trollope’s name and books around for a long time, so went with my “Try Famous Authors Once” rule – by which I try at least one to see why everyone else is reading it, and then decide whether I like it and will continue or not.

So, this was a huge flop and I will not be reading any more Trollopes. That’s for sure. Not only was this the worst kind of sentimental chick lit – full of needy and unformed female characters whose only ambition in life is a white wedding with a poofy dress – but it was also just poorly written. This was definitely the case of a British author trying to write Americans and getting all sorts of phrasing and expressions wrong. Also, it felt like it was written in a huge rush, so was very shallow and needed some serious editing for continuity.

Essentially, the plot of this book was that an American college grad goes to work in London for a summer. She meets a dude who was the boyfriend of her friend. The friend+ boyfriend break up and the dude ends up in the girl’s hometown in the USA. It takes a while (and some pointless and terrible travelogue sections of the girl showing the dude around her historic hometown) until they decide they are in love. This makes the girl’s family happy because she is Southern and there are expectations on her for decorum, etc. The end.

I was super tempted to throw this in the Indian Ocean because if there’s anything that can ruin a beach vacation it’s a beach read that makes you want to gouge your eyes out. But I didn’t have anything else to read so I sucked it up and finished it.

[Julia · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm an expat from Charleston, so in many ways this book should have touched a chord with me. It's a simple pleasure for me to be able to read about the streets of my hometown, a favorite museum, the churchyard my relatives are buried in. I enjoy reading Southernisms, and Joanna Trollope did a fairly good job of capturing them. (Though someone might have pointed out to her that there are no basements in Charleston, and is there really a wrong end to Queen Street?).

But I didn't wind up liking the book enough to give it three stars or read it again. The Charleston bits eventually felt like the results of a long series of interview questions. The characters (besides Gillon's mother) seemed pasteboard-like and, well, annoying. I was happy when the book was over, not because of the way it wrapped up, but because it wrapped up.

[Kristen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't really like the writing for some reason. It just didn't... flow. I kept having to go back and reread sentences because I'd get to the end and it wouldn't have made sense.

I appreciated that it didn't leave everyone paired up and happily ever after at the end. That's a nice change from most "women's fiction". But the author didn't show us why Henry fell in love with Gillon. During nearly the entire book she behaves indifferently (bordering on mean) to him and the only thing she talks about is the burden of her "perfect" family and their expectations and disappointment in her, and the burden of her roots in Charleston. Yes, she had no expectations of him, but that was because she was entirely wrapped up in her own self-pitying drama. She was, perhaps, the LEAST interesting character in the book!

[Ariella · Rating 4 out of 5]

I put four stars but am debating between 3.5 and 4. I read some other Goodreads reviews that were less favorable- mostly from people who have read other Trollope novels and felt that this was not her finest book. I have not read many of her novels, if any and I did like this book. It took some time to get into but I think that is mainly because the nature of the book was about relationships rather than anything 'happening'. I felt Trollope had a good handle on her characters, their relationships and the way they changed and developed as the book moved along. It is a quiet subtle book that grows on you. Ok, I will stick with the four stars.

[Joy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I normally enjoy Joanna Trollope's novels, finding them easy to read and yet interesting with a bit of depth, even when there is little 'plot' the focus is on family relationships and dealing with changes in life. But this one failed to engage me, and I quite honestly don't know why I finished it, I guess I was expecting it to get better! There didn't seem to be much direction, or story development, and I didn't really identify with any of the characters except perhaps Tilly. Boring! I think it is trying to portray differences between family life in the American South compared with England, but even that could have been done so much better.

[Lucie Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quick review: I can understand this books low rating. Although I am a huge Joanna Trollope fan, this book felt a bit lacking. Particularly because I did not like the leading trio- Tilly, Henry, and especially Gillon. There was a lack of connection to the setting, and the whole thing played out in such a cliche way, as if the characters were merely going through the motions.

[Emma · Rating 1 out of 5]

Predictable and none of the characters were likeable.

[Paulinchen · Rating 2 out of 5]

2,5 Sterne

Ufff irgendwie war dieses Buch wirklich langweilig und auch ein bisschen verwirrend. Es wurde aus zu vielen verschiedenen Perspektiven geschrieben und ich hab lange gebraucht bis ich verstanden habe wer wer ist. Der Großteil der Charaktere war emotional gar nicht zugänglich und ich habe mich über viele Entscheidungen sehr aufgeregt. Es war irgendwie ein ganz komisches Buch. Eine Storyline habe ich aber genossen und für die gibt's die 2,5 Sterne.

Leider keine Empfehlung, aber gut vor dem Einschlafen zu lesen, da wird man schnell müde.

[Ann Boytim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gillon is a southern American woman from a traditional southern family but she is not the typical southern belle. Gillon goes to London to work and meets a young woman named Tilly who is a features editor for a magazine and they become friends. Tilly introduces her to Henry her flatmate who she is a long term relationship with but this relationship is not going anywhere. Eventually Henry who wants to pursue his photography work is invited to go to America and stay with Gillon's family. A story involving relationships that seem to go in all different directions.

[Dana · Rating 5 out of 5]

This novel was Trollope at her finest! She did her very best job at creating imperfect characters who were endearing and sympathetic. The story begins in Charleston, SC, with a 29 yr. old woman lamenting her dead end job as an art intern, her somewhat smothering upper class genteel (or so they seem) family, and her lack of romance. She heads to London, where the story really takes off. There, she encounters Tilly, a bright woman who has been dating/living with Henry, a photographer, for way too many years (according to Tilly, anyway, who longs to be married. Tilly invites Gillon to share their flat (there is an extra bedroom, as Henry's college friend, William, has just vacated the extra bedroom in their flat. And from there we are pleasantly swallowed up into the stories of these people, Tilly & Hentry & Gillon & William & William's semi-girlfriend, Susie, and the families of these characters, especially the very interesting southern family of which Gillon is a member. Gillon has a fabulous grandmama, Sarah, who has kept a secret for 50 years, and has parents who are struggling to find a way to connect after raising children and becoming new grandparents. Gillon's sister and brother also play rolls in the story, especially when Henry moves to Charleston to figure out his life.
Trollope has such a way with words that I always feel I am watching her scenes play out in front of me, and I always care deeply for her characters who are good people, just trying to figure it all out and not hurt too many others along the way, while remaining true to their own heart.
I LOVED this book. I have read at least 10 of Joanna Trollope's novels, and this one just may be my favorite.

[Cathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a good book, a thinking book, great fiction but cuts to the heart and soul of relationships, all kinds, in families, husbands and wives, sisters and brothers, friends, and more than friends, lovers, and no one does it better than Trollope. A lot of partners change up in Girl from the South, some in good ways, others with much revelation as to why they hooked up in the first place or why they are still together. This book is about an era, about 20 something adults whose parents had so much freedom unlike their own parents and especially in the American steadfast South, and these young adults just can't decide on jobs, what they want to do, marriage, who they want to be with because basically, they are unsure of themselves and there is too much choice.
Gillon is used to leaving Charleston for other places, running away from any commitment, perhaps, or just hasn't found the thing she wants to be or do. Henry after meeting Gillon in England, through his girlfriend Tilly, is invited to Charleston to photograph wetland birds. He jumps at this chance to be more, do more. What about Tilly left behind? And so is goes, each character is peeled back and laid bare, their wants and desires, their needs, their innermost fears. Great lines and observations: says one character, "You can't make something into something it isn't, just because you want it to be different." Beautiful descriptions of Charleston and area and the familiar grit and feel of London and Oxford. The characters are complicated and wonderful. A great big good read.

[R · Rating 1 out of 5]

No connection. Just random sections. The conversations are stilted. I love Trollope, this was such a surprising disappointment.

[Louise · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the first novel I've read by this author and was quite taken with her ability to be humorous and to interweave her characters the way she does. It was like watching a chessmaster move pieces on the board!

From back cover:

"Gillon is an American Southerner, but definitely not a Southern belle. An art historian, she takes a job in London largely to escape the family and social pressures of her home town, Charleston, South Carolina.

Once in London, she meets Tilly, the features editor on an arts magazine, and makes her first English friend. She also meets Henry, a wildlife photographer and Tilly's long-term boyfriend. Henry, like so many of his generation, can't commit to the one thing Tilly wants above everything - marriage.

Inadvertently, Gillon offers Henry an escape - the chance to go and photograph the wonderful wildlife in South Carolina. Neither he nor she bargains on what he will find there, nor on the effect his departure will have on Tilly and the world he leaves behind."

[Kirsty Darbyshire]

Not the best of Joanna Trollope's books.

(I seem to have thought all of the last handful of books I've read tobe not as good as others by the same author so this is quite possiblyme just not being in a good reading mode rather than all these authorsbeing not in good writing mode.)

I thought there were a lot of interesting themes and issues raisedbut none of them got explored properly and the characters weren'tfleshed out enough to make the story worth it without the themes. Thebook wasn't long enough to tell the characters stories properly. TheCharleston family, grandmother Sarah, mother Martha and granddaughtersGillon ("the girl from the South") and Ashley would have populated agood book by themselves. And the London contingient could also havepopulated a book though I don't think it would have been as interestinga book. And whilst the intermingling of these two sets of characters isfun it all feels rather superficial. I felt like I didn't really get tothe heart of the matter.

[Diana · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a thoroughly irritating book! I had just devoured my first Joanna Trollope book, the engaging An Unsuitable Match, so I was eager to see how the author would approach my home state of South Carolina. My take was that she had done little research, much less actually visited Charleston. Fort Sumter was misspelled; the ACE Basin was spelled "Ace," an obvious miss of the three rivers' acronym; and the South Carolinians all used British expressions when they weren't resorting to the corn-pone language that the outside world assumes we speak (especially the highly unlikable, one-dimensional main character, Gillon). But by far the most irksome aspect is Gill and Henry's focus on social justice, and the assumption that the South is a backwater of racial bias. I would suggest to Trollope that if she wants to write a 21st-century novel with a subtext of slavery, she should set it not in the American South, but in a nation where enslavement is still practiced -- perhaps Africa, China or Pakistan.

[Jeanne Jenkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book. It took place in two interesting places, Charleston South Carolina and London England. Some of the characters traveled to both cities. Their lives, and the lives of their families, connected. At some place in the book, I thought that all of the characters were a bit disfuntional. It kind of made me feel better about myself. Even though everyone seemed to have issues, they all grew and changed. I was sad when the book ended, because I wanted to know more about them, and where their lives ended up. I think that it is good to know that wherever we are today, we don't have to stay there. We sometimes feel that what our families 'want us to be' is what we 'have to be'. Not true. We need to make our own path in life. We need to be given permission to have the life that we need/want. I think this book will give you something to think about. It also gives you a very small hint of life in Charleston and London. Two great places to visit.

[Suzanne · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was the first Joanna Trollope book I have ever been disappointed about.

It starts with a couple in London who have living together for a long time. One wants to move forward with more commitment; the other (Henry) may be losing interest. Then a woman (Gillon) from Charleston, South Carolina happens to meet one by accident in London, moves in as their roommate & provides a non-romantic catalyst for the man to decide to move to Charleston to further pursue his wildlife photography.

The long term relationship breaks up; one does well & one struggles. Then Henry & Gillon "happen to" unwillingly fall in love & Henry "conveniently" is the "answer" to sooo many of Gillon's family members' problems/issues. Please. Really?. Whole thing wasn't very plausible and weak in the storytelling.

[Julia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this book but never had the sense that it was really going anywhere. There are some great snippets in it and some good characters, whose differences and whose experiences I can relate to either directly or as a result of what I'm told about their lives and their culture through the book. But whilst it seems to draw a clear enough picture of life in the South and of a group of grown up children of divorced parents, and to spell out some truths about this generation, it never quite becomes a gripping read, never quite develops into an unputdownable story.

I enjoyed it, and maybe I would get more from a second read, but I fear this one won't stay on my bookshelf for long.

[Juliet · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not up to Joanna's usual par. Seemed really disjointed, and despite what the characters said to each other, nobody really seemed to be much in love with anybody. I read in an interview with her that she said she always thought it was stronger of at least one character to decide NOT to wind up paired off. This book seems to be overly-engineered to try to get people to pair up, and then to keep anybody from staying that way. Makes me wonder if she herself is maybe toying with the idea of a divorce? Anyway, I'll keep reading her stuff, but this one was a disappointment relative to her earlier novels.