North Gladiola: A Novel (Voices of the South) - Tapa blanda

Ethyl Mae Coco's rambling Victorian home on North Gladiola - the Main Street of Tula Springs, Louisiana - is the only residence left at the business end of town, but it's a hotbed for chaotic comedy. Mrs. Coco, aged fifty-seven and feeling somewhat left behind herself, pours her considerable energy into keeping those around her in line: her remote, obsessively bargain-hunting husband; members of the Pro Arts Quartet chamber music group, which Ethyl Mae aspires to turn into an accomplished cultural jewel; her six unruly grown children, none of whom keeps the Catholic faith to their staunch convert mother's satisfaction; and the other assorted, eccentric, and endearing people of Tula Springs. Meet Duk-Soo Yoon, a forty-nine-year-old Korean doctoral candidate in tourism at nearby St. Jude State College and the Pro Arts second violinist, who suffers a secret passion for Ethyl Mae; and Gyreen LaSteele, owner of the next-door Tiger Unisex Salon, who accuses Mrs. Coco of killing her beloved chihuahua, Tee-Tee. Nothing is simple - or quite as gossip portrays it - in Tula Springs, but after all upheavals and sunders pass, this wired family and community remain strongly connected.

James Wilcox is currently Visiting Professor of Creative Writing at Mississippi State University.