A Better Place by Barbara Hall: Book Review

FictionA Better Place, Barbara Hall, Southern fiction
Released July, 2014

270 Pages
Bottom Line: Read it.
Affiliate Link: Buy from Amazon
Source: eGalley provided by publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Plot Summary of A Better Place:

Valerie Caldwell, a small-town Southern belle living in LA, leaves her screenwriter husband and returns to her Virginia hometown, creating upheaval for her old friends. 

My Thoughts on A Better Place:

A Better Place came to me from Pat Conroy’s publisher (hint hint: naming Pat Conroy in your pitch is a surefire way to get me to review a book!) and, for that reason, I decided to at least read the first chapter and see what I thought. Frankly, I wasn’t expecting much, but I was pleasantly surprised! It’s a quick, easy read that would be great for fans of Southern fiction.

Valerie is one of those Southern belles that owned her tiny town (Maddock, VA) when she was growing up. She’s gorgeous, popular with the boys, has more “minions” than actual friends, and always dreamed of moving on to bigger and better things outside of Maddock (kind of like a less slutty Tyra Collette from “Friday Night Lights”). Following her split with her husband, she assumes she’s going home to reclaim her former glory…but things don’t quite work out that way. 

While the overall story is light and somewhat frivolous, the writing is not. Hall offers some wise nuggets on life and deals with broader themes that give the storyline a bit more depth. This is a story of the romanticized notion of “home” and first loves, the power dynamics of friendships, and the incestuous nature of the small-town dating game (I mean, Riggins did date both Lyla and Tyra on “FNL”, didn’t he?!). But, the biggest theme Hall tackles is, the difference between “people who act and people who don’t act”, as a minor character in the book puts it. It’s a story about taking control of your life or letting it control you:

No one had ever told him what to do in the absence of someone telling him what to do.

Hall also captured small town life in the South to a tee:

Valerie disliked urgency; it was one of the things she disliked most about L.A., and one of the reasons she had never really contemplated living in New York. She thought it cast people in a vulgar light, all that hurrying, the frantic chasing of opportunity. People in Maddock were content to let opportunity find them, and if it never came, at least they had spared themselves the indignity of hunting for it.

Southerners. When in doubt, make coffee. Coffee and iced tea are the solution to any social dilemma.

The characters in A Better Place are all flawed and there isn’t really one person I felt myself rooting for. However, it didn’t bother me that much because each one serves a purpose in the “life wisdom” themes Hall addresses. Each character represents a different cautionary tale. If you feel more comfortable with books where you like the characters, this may not be the choice for you.

Finally, I grew up in Richmond, so I enjoyed the Virginia setting of A Better Place. The fictional Maddock, VA is located near the NC/VA border and has a military academy. This made me think of the real life Hargrave Military Academy in Chatham, VA. There were also numerous references to UVA (my alma mater), University of Richmond (only a few minutes from my childhood home), and Danville (my mother-in-law’s hometown). So fellow Virginians, you may enjoy this one!

A Better Place would make a great beach read and is going on my 2014 Summer Reading List.


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2 Comments

  1. Cleo wrote:

    This does sound good, I’m with you when you state it isn’t always necessary to be ‘rooting for’ a particular character as long as they all add something meaningful to the story.

    Posted 8.11.14 Reply
  2. Living in Virginia, this might be a great one for me. I enjoyed your review.

    Posted 8.11.14 Reply

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