Big Stone Gap

Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Ave Maria isn't the person she thought she was - it wasn't until her beloved mother's death that Ave finds in a penned letter that the aloof father she knew wasn't her birth father. She had always felt different and looked different than the townsfolk in Big Stone Gap, a tiny town in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The town loved her mother, who served as a seamstress to every wedding and prom over the years. Ave helped her mother, stayed clear of her father, and then went to college to take over the family pharmacy. But now at 35, Ave believes that finding her father's family in Italy is the key to her fear of finding love. In retrospect, Ave will find that there is one man who has loved her since sixth grade and will quietly do anything to help her find herself and her Italian family.

This is a story of waiting on love with the help of funny, quirky characters like Iva Lou, sexpot, operator and librarian of the Bookmobile. What small town doesn't have them including my own. I suppose that's why I enjoy Trigiani's novels so much.

A favorite quote is: “...I've made it my business to observe fathers and daughters. And I've seen some incredible, beautiful things. Like the little girl who's not very cute - her teeth are funny, and her hair doesn't grow right, and she's got on thick glasses - but her father holds her hand and walks with her like she's a tiny angel that no one can touch. He gives her the best gift a woman can get in this world: protection. And the little girl learns to trust the man in her life. And all the things that the world expects from women - to be beautiful, to soothe the troubled spirit, heal the sick, care for the dying, send the greeting card, bake the cake - allof those things become the way we pay the father back for protecting us...”

The novel's sequels are: Big Cherry Holler, Milk Glass Moon, and Home to Big Stone Gap.

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