Literary Life | The Peach Keeper by Sarah Addison Allen

A quick and easy read, The Peach Keepers by Sarah Addison Allen follows the lives of Willa Jackson and Paxton Osgood in a little town called Walls of Water, North Carolina. Between the two girls, there's a lot of shared history and a lot of secrets that quite literally become unearthed.

It was an enjoyable read for the most part, but it was a little 'small town' for me to love it completely. I had distinct recollections of The Vampire Diaries when I was reading this, with the town's innate history and the implausibility of a single place possessing such magic. I like history and I like fantasy, but the combination here was sometimes hard to digest. I'm also (probably very ignorantly) a bit wary of stories of Southern ladies. Guess I have Gone With the Wind, Tennessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie and my knowledge of the civil rights movement to blame! To be fair, I'm generalising horrifically, but with parts of the story dating back to 1936, it's hard for my history-hardened brain not to jump there. 

Nevertheless, the book is definitely rich in other ways and its sensory detail is welcoming. In terms of characters, I liked Colin best; the twin brother of Paxton who sweeps back into Walls of Water like a breath of much-needed fresh air. He quickly finds himself wanting to win over a woman and the question becomes whether he can see her beyond the way her saw and admired her at school. Where I found the book to lack a little in plot, it made up for on its commentary of women. The way we bond, the way were live - I thought those elements were particularly well captured. There was a whole paragraph that really cinched this discussion on women, during an episode where Paxton gets drunk and finds herself on the streets late at night. I could type the whole thing, but I think The Peach Keeper is worth reading simply for this paragraph. I've chosen just to quote the last few lines but the sentiment is still as strong.

I loved the description of women being part of a collective unconscious because for a large part, I think it rings very true. That's why I think it's such a shame when women hate on other women - do we not have enough to fear in the world as it is, without fearing the judgement of other women? 

So whilst that may not have been what Allen intended as her take away message from The Peach Keeper, that is the one that will no doubt stick with me.