The various motifs in Beth Hoffman’s Saving CeeCee Honeycutt have all been done before: tragic circumstances, a wide-eyed and courageous young protagonist, The South with its moss-covered trees and exotic flowers and buzzing critters, eccentric Southern women, including a wise, loving, tough-as-nails black housekeeper. No, there isn’t much to call “original” about Saving CeeCee Honeycutt, but I loved it anyway.
What the novel had in addition to all I’ve mentioned was this: HEART. It was beautifully written, and perhaps best of all, was told in the powerfully small, earnest, awakening voice of 12-year old CeeCee Honeycutt herself.
While everything else seems a bit like fantasy (the great mansion she comes to live in, the wealth she’s suddenly surrounded by, the near perfection of the women around her), it’s CeeCee’s voice that brings a real sincerity to this story and helps push past the familiar sets and designs. Her character tugged at my heart several times and I really did cry during some pivotal scenes.
There are also pearls of wisdom strewn throughout the story that are hard to deny. I read this book on my eReader, but have already decided I’ll pick up a paperback copy someday and make notes under some of the more wonderful ideas, like each of us having a Life Book (and thanking God that certain people are written in it). It’s also a book I would like to own so I can lend it to others. It’s a fast, easy, clean read with a gentle punch that I think many readers will enjoy.
BOOK:30 