Starred review from June 1, 2016
Welcome to Eden Hill, KY, 1962. Local gas station owner Virgil Osgood feels the acute pain of change when a Zipco chain opens across the street. His wife of 14 years takes magazine quizzes and finds their marriage lacking. Meanwhile, those unwitting harbingers of social and economic transformation, Zipco proprietors Cornelius and JoAnn Alexander, await a new baby. Using a small Southern town as a microcosm of the larger world, Higgs nails the feel of the early 1960s when the world teetered on the brink of a monumental shift in how people lived. He touches upon the beginnings of the feminist movement, big business, and the transition in social norms. But there is one thing that isn't altered--the need for people to come together in faith and love. VERDICT Higgs's first novel will resonate with baby boomers everywhere as his characters struggle to cope with the revolutions of the tumultuous 1960s while holding on to the reassurances of the past. Recommended for fans of domestic fiction.
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