When her Elvis-obsessed husband Stu finally succumbs to cancer, his grieving widow Claudia is left with one last task: return an ugly and unwieldy 3-ft Elvis bust to its rightful owners. The only problem is that the rightful owners aren't known. The cancer had so destroyed his brain by the time he wrote the note that the only thing she could positively discern was that she had to go to Memphis and she had to go with her Aunt Rae. Everything else was as good as anyone's next guess. So Claudia saddles up with her Aunt Rae and Ivy, the eternally cranky teenage daughter of her late-husband's best friend, to take Elvis home. As they head out of Dallas in Stu's vintage Cadillac with Elvis in the back seat they each nurse painful secrets close to their hearts.
Claudia never understood Stu's obsession with Elvis, so when she learns that not only did Rae and Stu spend many hours before his death conversing about Elvis, but also that Rae knew Elvis personally, Claudia is hurt and a little jealous. Rae shares her knowledge of the King in bits and pieces as they make their way through the south and the unlikeliness of it makes it that much more believable. Both women do their best to draw out the uncommunicative teen, Ivy, but it's painfully obvious that something is on her mind that she doesn't want to share. Once the women reach Memphis the real search begins and all the secrets begin pouring out. Each one tries to reconcile the events in her life with the presence of God and belief therein. For one of the women, it will take a lot of soul-searching to accept what has already happened, while another is trying to accept what is about to happen.
I can't say that I particularly cared for this book. It was the typical chick-bonding story with lots of God thrown in. In fact, I felt as I was being clubbed with a big God-stick. However, in the author’s defense, this is a Christian Inspirational book and I am not a Christian. Beyond that, I just didn't like the story. It was trite and cliched and I had it figured out before they even reached Memphis. The dialogue felt forced and the characters were very two-dimensional. I've read good Christian Inspirational books before and this isn't one of them.
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Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: B&H Books (January 1, 2008)
ISBN-13: 978-0805446968
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