Product Description

Hattie McNair and her cohorts at the FairAcres Home are back!

The popular novel Out to Pasture left readers begging for more, so Effie Leland Wilder approaches her second novel with the same good humor and strong faith found in her first.

This time, romance is in bloom at FairAcres, as Hattie's friends Retta Gooding and Sidney Metcalf ("the unelected but undeniable Most Eligible Widower of FairAcres Home") are drawn closer together while delivering Meals on Wheels. Hattie's writing career takes off and the FairAcres folks make new friends: elderly Ben Stringfellow and his two young neighbors, Jamie and Jeffrey. Ben's not quite ready for FairAcres but he is in need of some assistance, and Jamie and Jeffrey, stuck in a difficult home life, are looking for some honorary grandparents. Once again, different generations come together, and the results are entertaining and moving.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1727934 in Books
• Published on: 2005-02-15
• Released on: 2005-02-15
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: .70" h x 6.14" w x 8.20" l, .90 pounds
• Binding: Hardcover
• 192 pages

From Publishers Weekly
At first glance, readers may feel that octogenarian Wilder's sequel to Out to Pasture and Over What Hill? is a cliche-ridden trifle aimed only at those who laugh at the oldest of jokes and enjoy hearing about the ailments of the elderly. But after three chapters with the denizens of the barely fictional Fair Acres retirement home, one begins to see why Wilder's books have been so well received. The tales, gossip and ruminations of the author's canny alter ego, Hattie McNair, not to mention her very competent light verse, subtly work their magic and draw the reader into her little world, constricted now by age. Gently entertaining, the novel brims with the sweet and sour sensation of having achieved a considerable lifespan, including the poignant knowledge of mortality. McNair continues to "eavesdrop" on her friends at the home, through such events as the purloining of a hated portrait called "Ole Pukey Face," a tale-telling fund-raiser and a contest for naming a new car. Amid all this, she finds time to get gainfully involved in the life of her very young pen pal, Amanda. Fans hoping for further tales of Wilder's Southern characters can only cross their fingers and hope that Wilder is only kidding by sub-subtitling this effort "My Last Short Novel." Editor, Marian Gordin.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"[Effie Wilder] has the writer's eye and the storyteller's gift. Her tales are wry, funny, melancholy, philosophical. Her reflections strike a common chord." --James Kilpatrick, syndicated columnist
"Hattie's disarming and thoughtful first-person observations, recorded in diary form, display the good and bad to be found among seniors trying their hand at communal living." --Publishers Weekly

Ingram
Hattie McNair and her cohorts at the FairAcres Home are back! This time, romance is in bloom at FairAcres, as Hattie's friends Retta Gooding and Sidney Metcalf are drawn closer together while delivering Meals on Wheels. Hattie's writing career takes off and the FairAcres folks make new friends, elderly Ben Stringfellow and his two young neighbors, Jamie and Jeffrey. Once again, different generations come together, and the results are entertaining and moving.