 |
| Harper Collins November 2015 |
This is a tale where everything
is true except the bits that are made up…
Elsie Lavender and Homer Hickam
Snr. were high school sweethearts in West Virginia. When they graduated high
school, Homer wanted to marry Elsie but fate intervened, and Elsie decided to
head to Orlando and to her rich uncle Aubrey, where she embarked on a
relationship, of sorts, with an aspiring actor named Buddy Ebsen. When Buddy
headed for a more challenging career in New York, Elsie realises that her dream
of a life with Buddy is over. She heads back home and falls into marriage with
Homer. But Elsie yearns for what might have been and her daily reminder of what
was lost is Albert, the alligator who was an unusual wedding gift from Buddy.
Keeping an alligator in the only bathroom in the house is not without incident
and when Albert scared Homer once too often, an ultimatum was reached “Me or that
alligator!” Elsie decided that there was nothing for it but to load up the
Buick and carry Albert home.
This is the story of what happens
on that journey and of the people they meet on the way there, the decisions
they reach, and the fun they have when all about them seems to be going awry.
It’s undeniably a funny story, but it’s also a story filled with compassion
and a true understanding of human nature. There is no doubt that Homer Hickam is a
talented wordsmith, the writing literally leaps off the page, and such is the
power of his words that you really are compelled to read on in order to find out just what’s going to
happen next on this intrepid adventure.
I was lucky to get a hardback copy of this
book and found the photographs at the end of the story, of Elsie, Uncle Aubrey, Homer Jnr and his brother Jim, quite fascinating. I must admit that I did
have to Google, Buddy Ebsen to discover who he was, and I was delighted to find that I recognised him as
Jed Clampett from the 1960’s television sitcom, the Beverley Hillbillies, which
sort of made the giving of an alligator as a wedding gift not so surprising
after all.
There’s something rather special about Carrying Albert Home, and even as the premise of carrying an alligator back to Orlando seems a little nonsensical, you can’t help but be drawn into a story which looks at the vagaries of life in all its many moods and also of the overwhelming power of love.
Best read with cups of crystal
cool water and hunks of home baked bread with thick slices of smoked ham.
My thanks to Harper Collins for
my copy of this book.
~***~
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for taking the time to comment - Jaffareadstoo appreciates your interest.