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Deep South Books
Goodbye to the Buttermilk Sky
This highly praised first novel by fiction writer Julia Oliver is the story of one young woman's struggle with fidelity and identity in depression-era rural Alabama.
A beautifully narrated novel of time and place, Goodbye to the Buttermilk Sky re-creates a southern summer when the depression and the boll weevil turned hopes to dust. With the extraordinary talent to make the reader see the Ball canning jars on the kitchen table, hear the clicks on the party line, and feel the bittersweet moments of 20-year-old Callie Tatum's first experiences with adult desire, Oliver portrays a young wife’s increasingly dangerous infidelity with cinematic precision and palpable suspense. Soon, with only her housekeeper as a confidant, Callie breaks society’s rules about race and class as well as her marriage vows. The result is a chain of events that will lead to tragedy and a woman’s stunning decision about love, passion, and the future of her life.
Originally published in cloth in 1994, Goodbye to the Buttermilk Sky received considerable attention nationally and became a featured selection of the Quality Paperback Book Club. Its inclusion in the Deep South Books series from The University of Alabama Press will extend the book’s reach and its life, while offering new readers access to the enthralling story.
The richly drawn, fully developed characters of Buttermilk Sky live on in the reader’s mind long after the book has been finished. Against the emotional and physical isolation of rural Alabama in 1938, the threads of family ties, whispered gossip, old secrets, and unfulfilled dreams weave a powerful, evocative story that captivates its reader until the very last word.
A beautifully narrated novel of time and place, Goodbye to the Buttermilk Sky re-creates a southern summer when the depression and the boll weevil turned hopes to dust. With the extraordinary talent to make the reader see the Ball canning jars on the kitchen table, hear the clicks on the party line, and feel the bittersweet moments of 20-year-old Callie Tatum's first experiences with adult desire, Oliver portrays a young wife’s increasingly dangerous infidelity with cinematic precision and palpable suspense. Soon, with only her housekeeper as a confidant, Callie breaks society’s rules about race and class as well as her marriage vows. The result is a chain of events that will lead to tragedy and a woman’s stunning decision about love, passion, and the future of her life.
Originally published in cloth in 1994, Goodbye to the Buttermilk Sky received considerable attention nationally and became a featured selection of the Quality Paperback Book Club. Its inclusion in the Deep South Books series from The University of Alabama Press will extend the book’s reach and its life, while offering new readers access to the enthralling story.
The richly drawn, fully developed characters of Buttermilk Sky live on in the reader’s mind long after the book has been finished. Against the emotional and physical isolation of rural Alabama in 1938, the threads of family ties, whispered gossip, old secrets, and unfulfilled dreams weave a powerful, evocative story that captivates its reader until the very last word.
- GenresNovels
192 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1994
42 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
October 25, 2022
In this debut novel published in 1994 and set in the American South during the years of the depression, Oliver mines a familiar theme as a slick, older, city man seduces a young, naïve, country girl.
It is 1938 in Alabama and twenty-year-old Callie Tatum is her heroine, a listless, bored and unhappy young woman who feels trapped in her home with her husband Russell, whose family has farmed the land for generations. The couple live in their small family-owned farmhouse with their young baby and his disabled father-in-law. Callie passively submits to Russell’s nightly couplings but experiences little satisfaction, waiting for him to finish and wondering how she can endure this dreary, tedious existence. Every day seems like the one that preceded it and life does not appear to be headed on any different path.
Times are difficult, signs of the depression are everywhere and many have little hope for the future. Things become worse when the cotton become infested with boll weevils and Russell is forced to abandon his fields and head to the city to work in the textile mill, leaving Callie behind, isolated and unhappy.
When insurance salesman Clifton Wade from Birmingham appears at her door and pays Callie some attention, she begins to feel the first heat of physical desire and quickly falls under his spell. She convinces herself they share a deep understanding, although it appears the couple is simply enjoying the physical pleasure provided by the opportunities they take whenever and where ever they can, to enjoy each other.
Callie falls headlong into this relationship without much thought, experiencing neither guilt nor shame about what she is doing or thinking about the future. When she becomes pregnant, she miscarries the child and from there events take a tragic turn.
Callie is not a sympathetic character despite her circumstances. She proves exasperating, using not a sliver of common sense in her decision making and readers may find themselves more inclined to give her a good shake than a sympathetic ear. After the tragedy which befalls her, she makes decisions which do not seem to fit with the character Oliver initially created, which was puzzling. As the plot unfolded there was no indication Callie had learned or benefitted from her experience.
However despite concerns about her main character, Oliver succeeds in creating an ambiance in this novel that sets the perfect tone for her story. She describes an accurate picture of the rural American South during this time seeped in the numbing hopelessness of the depression. She brings readers right into one of the small isolated farming communities where families depend on the success of their land, the whims of the weather and the withering markets for their livelihood. This is a place where people live in the same community for years, with strong family ties and surrounded by neighbours who feel that other peoples’ behavior is the business of the community in which they all live. A strict moral code underlies their relationships, gossip is rife, old secrets are kept hidden, wrong doing is never forgotten and censure is severe.
This novel provided a easy passage into Callie’s life as readers easily get caught up in this story of a young girl’s fall from grace and her subsequent attempts to regain her life. Oliver’s narrative provides an excellent background for those interested in the rural American South and the social conventions which tied families and anchored communities during the Depression. It was a popular read, reinforced by its choice as a selection for the Quality Paperback Book Club.
It is 1938 in Alabama and twenty-year-old Callie Tatum is her heroine, a listless, bored and unhappy young woman who feels trapped in her home with her husband Russell, whose family has farmed the land for generations. The couple live in their small family-owned farmhouse with their young baby and his disabled father-in-law. Callie passively submits to Russell’s nightly couplings but experiences little satisfaction, waiting for him to finish and wondering how she can endure this dreary, tedious existence. Every day seems like the one that preceded it and life does not appear to be headed on any different path.
Times are difficult, signs of the depression are everywhere and many have little hope for the future. Things become worse when the cotton become infested with boll weevils and Russell is forced to abandon his fields and head to the city to work in the textile mill, leaving Callie behind, isolated and unhappy.
When insurance salesman Clifton Wade from Birmingham appears at her door and pays Callie some attention, she begins to feel the first heat of physical desire and quickly falls under his spell. She convinces herself they share a deep understanding, although it appears the couple is simply enjoying the physical pleasure provided by the opportunities they take whenever and where ever they can, to enjoy each other.
Callie falls headlong into this relationship without much thought, experiencing neither guilt nor shame about what she is doing or thinking about the future. When she becomes pregnant, she miscarries the child and from there events take a tragic turn.
Callie is not a sympathetic character despite her circumstances. She proves exasperating, using not a sliver of common sense in her decision making and readers may find themselves more inclined to give her a good shake than a sympathetic ear. After the tragedy which befalls her, she makes decisions which do not seem to fit with the character Oliver initially created, which was puzzling. As the plot unfolded there was no indication Callie had learned or benefitted from her experience.
However despite concerns about her main character, Oliver succeeds in creating an ambiance in this novel that sets the perfect tone for her story. She describes an accurate picture of the rural American South during this time seeped in the numbing hopelessness of the depression. She brings readers right into one of the small isolated farming communities where families depend on the success of their land, the whims of the weather and the withering markets for their livelihood. This is a place where people live in the same community for years, with strong family ties and surrounded by neighbours who feel that other peoples’ behavior is the business of the community in which they all live. A strict moral code underlies their relationships, gossip is rife, old secrets are kept hidden, wrong doing is never forgotten and censure is severe.
This novel provided a easy passage into Callie’s life as readers easily get caught up in this story of a young girl’s fall from grace and her subsequent attempts to regain her life. Oliver’s narrative provides an excellent background for those interested in the rural American South and the social conventions which tied families and anchored communities during the Depression. It was a popular read, reinforced by its choice as a selection for the Quality Paperback Book Club.
August 4, 2016
This short novel has everything - deception, passion, rape, scandal, murder with a twist - all set in 1930's rural Alabama. Callie Tatum, 20-year old wife, mother, and caretaker to her blind father-in-law, is unaware of how to remedy her growing unhappiness. That is until Clifton Wade, a traveling salesman from Birmingham, seduces Callie, beginning a tawdry affair that soon turns tragic in more ways than one.
Once I began reading, I couldn't put down the book until I reached the end. Normally, I gravitate towards books that are either light-hearted fluff, YA fantasy, or nonfiction. However, I wanted to read beyond my comfort zone and was pleasantly rewarded.
Once I began reading, I couldn't put down the book until I reached the end. Normally, I gravitate towards books that are either light-hearted fluff, YA fantasy, or nonfiction. However, I wanted to read beyond my comfort zone and was pleasantly rewarded.
September 2, 2018
“Summer came in quietly that year, slipped in almost unnoticed on the tail of a kind and graceful springtime. The daytime air had thickened, but the nights brought cool, sweet-smelling breezes through the window screens.”
Lovely opening sentences. Oliver had me hooked from the very first page of this novel.
This is one of those books that sat untouched on my bookshelf for at least two years. You know how it is. You buy a stack of books and then one or two just don't seem to make you want to open the cover. Once I finally decided to give this one a try, I was pulled in from the start. The writing is excellent and the main character engaging.
Callie is a young wife and mother, barely 20-years old, born and bred in the farm country of Alabama. She is destined to live out her days on her husband’s father’s cotton farm. It’s 1934. There were strict standards of behavior for women in Callie’s part of the country in 1934. Eager ears listened in on party lines and country-church preachers weren’t always meticulous about keeping parishioners confessions private. Gossip, even unfounded, could tarnish a reputation forever and ruin a life. Lives were lived cautiously. People stayed well between the lines.
Callie was more or less content with her life. If not content, resigned. She loved being a mother and was happy enough being wife. Intelligent, but limited by the constraints of societal expectations, she tried not to question and worked hard to accept the lifestyle that God had given her. Then, one day, a well-dressed man from the city showed up at the farmhouse door in need of a bucket of water for his overheated car radiator. And everything changed.
This novel could easily have turned out to be just another variation on the “Bridges of Madison County” but, instead, it found its own unique voice. This novel is an excellent read with more than one startling development along the way to its very satisfying conclusion.
Lovely opening sentences. Oliver had me hooked from the very first page of this novel.
This is one of those books that sat untouched on my bookshelf for at least two years. You know how it is. You buy a stack of books and then one or two just don't seem to make you want to open the cover. Once I finally decided to give this one a try, I was pulled in from the start. The writing is excellent and the main character engaging.
Callie is a young wife and mother, barely 20-years old, born and bred in the farm country of Alabama. She is destined to live out her days on her husband’s father’s cotton farm. It’s 1934. There were strict standards of behavior for women in Callie’s part of the country in 1934. Eager ears listened in on party lines and country-church preachers weren’t always meticulous about keeping parishioners confessions private. Gossip, even unfounded, could tarnish a reputation forever and ruin a life. Lives were lived cautiously. People stayed well between the lines.
Callie was more or less content with her life. If not content, resigned. She loved being a mother and was happy enough being wife. Intelligent, but limited by the constraints of societal expectations, she tried not to question and worked hard to accept the lifestyle that God had given her. Then, one day, a well-dressed man from the city showed up at the farmhouse door in need of a bucket of water for his overheated car radiator. And everything changed.
This novel could easily have turned out to be just another variation on the “Bridges of Madison County” but, instead, it found its own unique voice. This novel is an excellent read with more than one startling development along the way to its very satisfying conclusion.
January 5, 2024
My cousin loaned me this book about 7-8 years ago. I've started reading it multiple times but never made it past the first couple chapters. I just got back into reading and I made myself finish this book so that after all these years I could give it back to my cousin lol. The book is good but it's not a book you can't put down until more than halfway through which isn't saying much since the book isn't even 200 pages. I also didn't like that I couldn't find a character to latch onto. The only character that wasn't a liar, cheater or judgemental, entitled jerk was Arletta "The Help". But I guess back in the 30's things were a lot different besides deceit and betrayal which will always be relevant. However I would still recommend the book, I did finish it and I wouldn't ever think it was a waste of my time.
May 8, 2019
Just finished book 24 towards my year-long goal of 36...this was such a quick, easy read that it doesn't seem fair to count it towards the goal.
Anyway, this story consisted of a bunch of stuff I like:
• Depression-era fiction
• takes place in the Deep South
• marital discord
• salacious infidelity
• heaving bosoms
I wouldn't suggest you rush out to your local library to borrow this book, but it's definitely worth tossing into your bag the next time you go to your local library $1 fill-a-bag sale.
Anyway, this story consisted of a bunch of stuff I like:
• Depression-era fiction
• takes place in the Deep South
• marital discord
• salacious infidelity
• heaving bosoms
I wouldn't suggest you rush out to your local library to borrow this book, but it's definitely worth tossing into your bag the next time you go to your local library $1 fill-a-bag sale.
March 5, 2025
Amazing read, full of love, laughter, tears, betrayal, dishonesty etc. Worth the read
July 14, 2012
The setting for this book is Alabama in the 1930s. It’s a hot summer and everyone is simply miserable. For Julie Oliver, however, it’s more than just the isolation her life has become. She’s lonely and wanting more than anything to discover something new and interesting. But she’s stuck taking care of her daughter, husband and invalid father-in-law.
Into her life walks a stranger … a man who offers her some excitement and boosts her self-esteem. He’s full of forbidden passion and they fall into an illicit love affair that gives her a new perspective. Yet, the guilt is almost too much for Julie. Every comment or look must mean someone has found out what’s going on behind her husband’s back.
I truly enjoyed this dark and foreboding novel. It’s a book that takes you into the depths of despair of a woman who wants only some happiness, but she seems to only find sadness. In some ways, the writing reminds me of Fredrica Wagman’s books, one of my favorite authors. It’s full of prose-like lines that explore a little piece of the human mind on the brink of insanity. I loved it!
Into her life walks a stranger … a man who offers her some excitement and boosts her self-esteem. He’s full of forbidden passion and they fall into an illicit love affair that gives her a new perspective. Yet, the guilt is almost too much for Julie. Every comment or look must mean someone has found out what’s going on behind her husband’s back.
I truly enjoyed this dark and foreboding novel. It’s a book that takes you into the depths of despair of a woman who wants only some happiness, but she seems to only find sadness. In some ways, the writing reminds me of Fredrica Wagman’s books, one of my favorite authors. It’s full of prose-like lines that explore a little piece of the human mind on the brink of insanity. I loved it!
February 21, 2008
This book takes place in the late 30's in Alabama and is about a very young mother/housewife who gets involved with an out of towner in a steamy affair that becomes tragic. It was the first book this author wrote and I thought they did a great job for a first book, I liked this book and read it in no time, it was a short read, but good!
November 14, 2014
Not a bad read at all, considering I got it for $1 at Half Price Books. This book reminded me of a Southern, less depressing, and not quite as well-written The Awakening. If you enjoy relationship dramas and Southern culture, you will appreciate this book.
May 23, 2008
I enjoyed this novel. It is a story of forbidden love during the great depression, and it has a pretty good rhythm to it. It does deal with extramarital affairs, murder and some pretty racy topics, so those with fragile constitutions beware! :)
July 24, 2016
I really liked this book and read it in a few hours.
April 2, 2010
I found the scenario very unrealistic. I did enjoy the final 40 pages of the book.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews