Synopses & Reviews
Welcome to Roxboro, North Carolina, a crossroads hamlet where, in 1920, tobacco and bootleg liquor thrive and most folks seem to agree that women are meant to know their place. But four extraordinary, determined young ladies are about to leave their boot prints on this small Southern town, and nothing will ever be the same.
Bertie, a hello-girl for Wheelers Telephone Company and the only woman in Person County to own a Model T, is staunch in her support for female suffrage, and has an opinion on everything, including church, Negro rights, matrimony, and men, and considers every one of those opinions worth listening to.
Berties cousin Guerine, perpetually engaged to her former desk-mate from their school days, believes theres no problem that cant be solved by either a fashionable dinner party or something ordered from the back of a womens magazine. Her attempts at cooking and entertaining are legendary.
Doodle is the quiet farmers daughter who can usually be found in mens overalls, feeding her handmade dumplings to her prize-winning geese. When her father passes away, leaving her with a shocking secret, Doodle discovers theres more to life than livestock . . . maybe even love.
Newcomer Ina is a pampered debutante, a Virginia blue blood who seems far too glamorous to be teaching in Person Countys one-room schoolhouse, especially swathed in a cloud of tragedy: Her beloved husband dropped dead on their New York honeymoon.
When these four very different ladies come together in friendship, facing struggles and earning triumphs, they realize that they can achieve almost anything. These delightful, conspicuous women will steal your heart and inspire your soul.
On Account of Conspicuous Women is a wonderful tale of human nature, Southern gentility, and great social change in a small town. With her brilliant debut novel, Dawn Shamp has captured perfectly a slice of 1920s life that is still relevant today, and she has crafted a marvelous world you wont want to leave.
Dawn Shamp received an MFA in writing from Spalding University in Louisville, Kentucky. She received a fellowship to the Vermont Studio Center and attended the Sewanee Writers Conference. She lives in Durham, North Carolina. This is her first novel.
Roxboro, North Carolina thrives on tobacco and bootleg liquor and most folks in the southern crossroads town agree that women are meant to know their place. Dawn Shamp's four female characters cross paths in Roxboro and their unlikely friendship, their trials and triumphs, drive her first novel, On Account of Conspicuous Women.
Bertie, a hello-girl for Wheelers Telephone Company and the only woman in Person County to own a Model T, is staunch in her support for female suffrage, and is proud to have her own opinion on everything, including church, Negro rights, matrimony, and men.
Berties cousin Guerine, perpetually engaged to her former desk-mate from their school days, believes theres no problem that cant be solved by either a fashionable dinner party or something ordered from the back of a womens magazine. Her attempts at cooking and entertaining are legendary.
Doodle is the quiet farmers daughter who usually wears mens overalls while she feeds handmade dumplings to her prize-winning geese. When her father passes away, leaving an unexpected secret behind, Doodle discovers that theres more to life than livestock.
Local newcomer Ina is an educated Virginia blue blood who seems far out of place in Person Countys one-room schoolhouse. Once a pampered debutante, she seems out of place in all of Roxboro, especially because she has come to town alone: her new husband died suddenly in the middle of their honeymoon in New York.
On Account of Conspicuous Women is a character-driven tale of human nature, Southern gentility, and great social change in a small town. Dawn Shamp has captured clearly a slice of 1920s life in the South that remains relevant today. In her exquisite debut, Dawn Shamp gives us an amazing portrait of four suffragette-era women struggling to find their way in 1920s rural North Carolina. Shamps accomplishment lies not only in her characterizations but also in the deft evocation of a time and place. The detail is just fascinating, and Shamp employs it all in service of a marvelous tale . . . historical fiction at its finest.”Lynn York, author of The Sweet Life and The Piano Teacher
Shamp has a wickedly funny intelligence, sharp as a splinter.”Brad Watson, National Book Award Finalist and author of The Heaven of Mercury
With humor, wisdom, compassion, and refreshingly lively language, Dawn Shamp transports us to 1920s Roxboro, North Carolina, where the big issues of womens suffrage and racial equality are explored through the experiences and friendships of four strong-minded young women. I fell in love with Bertie, Ina, Doodle, and Guerine, as well as all the other characters inhabiting this delightful, irresistible novel.”Pamela Duncan, author of Moon Women and The Big Beautiful
Here is a novel that is as fulfilling and bursting with flavor as the finest of Southern meals . . . [the] characters are so real and hilarious and endearing that youll swear they might rise right up off the page and shimmy across the room. Shamp has created a world so bright and palpable, I didnt want to leave it.”Silas House, author of Clays Quilt and The Coal Tattoo
Dawn Shamps wonderful debut novel is a compelling tribute to widely varied voices: those belonging to the unforgettable women gracing the page and those whom these characters are striving to protect and offer a public forum. Race, gender, class, religionall lines are crossed in this perfectly depicted 1920s small Southern town.”Jill McCorkle, author of Carolina Moon and July 7th
Review
“In her exquisite debut, Dawn Shamp gives us an amazing portrait of four suffragette-era women struggling to find their way in 1920s rural North Carolina. Shamps accomplishment lies not only in her characterizations but also in the deft evocation of a time and place. The detail is just fascinating, and Shamp employs it all in service of a marvelous tale . . . historical fiction at its finest.” ---Lynn York, author of
The Sweet Life and
The Piano Teacher“Shamp has a wickedly funny intelligence, sharp as a splinter . . . youll want to devour the whole blessed, cockamamie feast. I recommend you get set and dig in.” ---Brad Watson, National Book Award Finalist and author of The Heaven of Mercury
“With humor, wisdom, compassion, and refreshingly lively language, Dawn Shamp transports us to 1920s Roxboro, North Carolina, where the big issues of womens suffrage and racial equality are explored through the experiences and friendships of four strong-minded young women. I fell in love with Bertie, Ina, Doodle, and Guerine, as well as all the other characters inhabiting this delightful, irresistible novel.” ---Pamela Duncan, author of Moon Women and The Big Beautiful
“Here is a novel that is as fulfilling and bursting with flavor as the finest of Southern meals . . . [the] characters are so real and hilarious and endearing that youll swear they might rise right up off the page and shimmy across the room. Shamp has created a world so bright and palpable, I didntwant to leave it.” ---Silas House, author of Clays Quilt and The Coal Tattoo
“Dawn Shamps wonderful debut novel is a compelling tribute to widely varied voices: those belonging to the unforgettable women gracing the page and those whom these characters are striving to protect and offer a public forum. Race, gender, class, religion---all lines are crossed in this perfectly depicted 1920s small Southern town.” ---Jill McCorkle, author of Carolina Moon and July 7th
Conspicuous talent Shamp shines in debut novel
Review by Jim Robertson, special to the Press-Register
Mobile Press-Register, July 6, 2008
Readers of Dawn Shamp's debut novel, "On Account of Conspicuous Women, " will no sooner finish the final word before they will demand a sequel to reveal the next chapters in the lives of Bertie, Ina, Doodle and Guerine, four completely different young women whose paths intersect in more ways than one might imagine in the 1920 town of Roxboro, N.C. Although the story is largely theirs, the author skillfully weaves in the perspectives of male characters, including Sam, the local tailor who most townsfolk, including Guerine, assume will one day marry her after a long courtship, and Colon, the rural letter carrier who finds more reasons than simple kindness and neighborly manners to attempt to help a proud Doodle manage the family farm after her father's death.
Not that Doodle - or Bertie or Ina for that matter - are seeking a man's assistance to get on with life, which is no mean feat in the South of 1920, a time when Confederate veterans still hobbled down Roxboro's main avenue. Shamp's four female characters breach protocol as the "modern era" seeps into Roxboro. Bertie, daughter of a bigot, champions newly-won voting rights for women of all colors; Ina, a former Virginia debutante recently widowed after appendicitis fells her husband on their honeymoon, moves to Roxboro to take on the task of educating six grades of children in a one-room schoolhouse; Doodle stubbornly refuses outside assistance in maintaining the family homestead, even when her financial position becomes precarious; and even Guerine, who most closely hews to the traditional role of a young woman seeking to marry and settle down, shears her long hair for the latest movie-star bob.
The author masterfully balances the storylines of each woman. None of the four protagonists is immune to heartbreak or disappointment, misunderstandings or willful pride, but it is their reaction to those circumstances that makes the novel shine. After the introductory chapters, it's easy to forget that these people arise from the author's imagination. No doubt Hollywood actresses would plunge into any of the four roles, as Shamp's style is cinematic - and often hilarious. Bertie, who begins the novel as a telephone operator, staves off the unwanted advances of her boss, who compares her to "those raw peanuts that you're so fond of. All you need is a little roasting." The reader cheers when she makes good on her threat that if he touches her knee again, she'll knock him "into next week," as she's "downright murderous."
No, Bertie doesn't kill the oaf. It's not that sort of book. Rather, Shamp eases her audience into the lives of these four women until we discover that after stopping by for iced tea on a hot afternoon, dinner with this assemblage would be awfully nice as well, followed by regular visits. That is the mark of a fine writer - one who not only builds a strong story with flesh and blood characters, but allows the reader to reflect on the truth that every choice has a consequence. Shamp shows without lecturing that the right decision is not always the obvious choice in every circumstance, but selfish impulses almost invariably lead to unintended results. The four conspicuous women of this debut author's novel become so because they ultimately make choices that bring them into the spotlight, whether intended or not. It is this reviewer's great hope that they remain there for many stories to come.
Jim Robertson is a writer and lawyer who lives in Mobile.
Synopsis
Welcome to Roxboro, North Carolina, a crossroads hamlet where, in 1920, tobacco and bootleg liquor thrive and most folks seem to agree that women are meant to know their place. But four extraordinary, determined young ladies are about to leave their boot prints on this small Southern town, and nothing will ever be the same.
Bertie, a hello-girl for Wheelers Telephone Company and the only woman in Person County to own a Model T, is staunch in her support for female suffrage, and has an opinion on everything, including church, Negro rights, matrimony, and men, and considers every one of those opinions worth listening to.
Berties cousin Guerine, perpetually engaged to her former desk-mate from their school days, believes theres no problem that cant be solved by either a fashionable dinner party or something ordered from the back of a womens magazine. Her attempts at cooking and entertaining are legendary.
Doodle is the quiet farmers daughter who can usually be found in mens overalls, feeding her handmade dumplings to her prize-winning geese. When her father passes away, leaving her with a shocking secret, Doodle discovers theres more to life than livestock . . . maybe even love.
Newcomer Ina is a pampered debutante, a Virginia blue blood who seems far too glamorous to be teaching in Person Countys one-room schoolhouse, especially swathed in a cloud of tragedy: Her beloved husband dropped dead on their New York honeymoon.
When these four very different ladies come together in friendship, facing struggles and earning triumphs, they realize that they can achieve almost anything. These delightful, conspicuous women will steal your heart and inspire your soul.
On Account of Conspicuous Women is a wonderful tale of human nature, Southern gentility, and great social change in a small town. With her brilliant debut novel, Dawn Shamp has captured perfectly a slice of 1920s life that is still relevant today, and she has crafted a marvelous world you wont want to leave.
About the Author
Dawn Shamp received an MFA in writing from Spalding University in Louisville, Kentucky. She received a fellowship to the Vermont Studio Center and attended the Sewanee Writers Conference. She lives in Durham, North Carolina. This is her first novel.