Today it's my turn on the BlogTour Birdie and Jude by Phyllis H. Moore. It's literary fiction with elements of racism and homophobia, and yet ultimately it is a tale of kindness and hope.
Phyllis H. Moore wants to live life experiences more than once: doing it, writing about it, and reading about it. The atmosphere of the south draws her in and repels her. The characters are rich with dysfunction and redemption, real. She’s had two careers and two retirements.
Both careers gave her inspiration for her novels: The Sabine Series, Sabine, Billy’s Story, Josephine’s Journals and Secrets of Dunn House, Opal’s Story, Tangled, a Southern Gothic Yarn, and The Bright Shawl, Colors of Tender Whispers, The Ember Months, Birdie & Jude, and an anthology of spooky short stories inspired by real places and events, The Bridge on Jackson Road. In 2018 she also released a new genre for her, A Dickens of a Crime, a Meg Miller Cozy Mystery. She has authored one nonfiction book, Retirement, Now What? Phyllis has been published by Caffeinated Press in the anthology, Brewed Awakenings 2, Fifteen Tales to Jolt Your Mind Awake.
Phyllis is a retired social worker and former owner/operator of a small bed and breakfast. She’s lived in the rural areas and cities of south Texas. She currently lives on Galveston Island with her husband, Richard.
Follow on @Phyllishmoore on Twitter, on Pinterest, on Facebook, on Goodreads, Visit phyllishmoore.com, Buy Birdie and Jude
A moving novel of loss, regret, denial, and discovery on Galveston Island, from the author of Opal’s Story and The Ember Months.
Birdie has lived to regret many of her decisions, but she doesn’t regret offering a stranger, Jude, shelter from an approaching hurricane. Their serendipitous meeting will form a bond that will change their lives forever.
In a character driven story with memories of the protests and inequality plaguing the 1960's, Birdie’s reached middle age and questions her life. Jude is striking out on her own, but has been derailed by a fatal accident claiming her only friend. Although their backgrounds and lives are vastly different, they recognize something in the other that forges a friendship.
As their relationship solidifies, they share glimpses of their pasts. Birdie is a product of the '60's, an aging hippie, with a series of resentments. She had a sheltered childhood in an upper class family. Her parents longed to see her make the Texas Dip at the Mardi Gras ball. Jude, however, entered foster care as an infant. Her parents, victims of a murder/suicide, left her and her siblings orphaned and separated.
There is something about their connection that strikes Birdie as familiar. Can souls know each other in different lives? Birdie struggles with the awareness that she has had regrets and hasn't lived an authentic life, while Jude faces an uncomfortable truth about her own. It has all the feels.
Review
It's a beautiful story. A tale of souls meeting and recognising each other. Proving that life is often more than what science and logic purports it to be. Sometimes there is more to life than logic dictates.I enjoyed, and was relieved, the fact that Moore didn't bring that sense of connection, belonging and souls back to faith or religion. There is enough space for thoughts of the inexplicable, without dragging mythology or religious beliefs written by man and imposed by man, onto the beauty of the ethereal plane.
The relationship between Birdie and June is founded on something we have forgotten to listen to - instinct. Birdie stopping on that beach and offering a hand is kindness, also something society seems to be lacking at the moment. Asking nothing in return and just helping another human being in their time of despair and need.
The recognition of connection through time is there, but doesn't interfere with reality. Instead it is the conduit to Birdie's past, more specifically her childhood. As the reader is taken back into time, here and there, we meet an entirely different Birdie. The Birdie she should have been, but was never allowed to be. The Birdie who saw a sameness, a connection and a friend. There was no skin colour between Henry and Birdie. Others brought their skewed ideology and racism to the two of them.
This story has the same emotional draw that Beaches has. Just two people and a true depth of feeling. At the same time it confronts the reader with uncomfortable truths about the past. Racism, homophobia and oppression. It makes this a tale of a life lost, a lifetime of opportunities denied, because Birdie didn't fit the stereotype of being a straight, white and black-hating gal.
It's literary fiction with elements of racism and homophobia, and yet ultimately it is a tale of kindness and hope. I really enjoyed it.
Buy Birdie and Jude at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Buy at Amazon com.
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