Girls in Trucks

Katie Crouch
Little, Brown and Company (2008)
ISBN 9780316002110
Reviewed by Danielle Feliciano for Reader Views (2/08)


“Girls in Trucks” takes us on a journey with Sarah Walters, a debutante who is a member of the ages-old Camellia Society in Charleston.  She lives a traditional life surrounded by hypocrites who exemplify hypocrisy.  Sarah’s role models include a promiscuous older sister, a mother who has a tendency to have just a bit too much to drink and friends who she can’t stand but is required to be friends with as fellow Camellias. 

This book shows us who Sarah is and what her life is about through a series of snapshots, seamlessly tied together regardless of timeframe.  Beginning with her Cotillion training, through high school and into her college experience in New York, Sarah struggles with the dichotomy of being a Camellia yet trying to find herself and her own identity.

Sarah has a predilection for making poor choices, but that is admirable because at least she is making choices, as opposed to doing what everyone else tells her to do.  She is not perfect; she clearly is an alcoholic, is promiscuous and a bit selfish, but despite that all she is endearing and hard not to identify with.  She searches for love and companionship in all the wrong places, going so far as to travel to another country in the hopes that a past lover will be able to fill in the gaps in her life. 

Throughout her life and her travels, Sarah is able to slowly distance herself from the Camellia lifestyle while maintaining just enough ties to remind her where she came from.  She finds herself to be a single mother as the result of yet another misguided affair.  After a family tragedy, Sarah and her daughter return to Charleston to take care of Sarah’s mother.  This is where Sarah finally comes to have a better understanding of who she is and where she came from. She sees that no matter how far she tried to run, home never changed. 

The best thing about this book is that there is no tidy ending.  Rather than tie everything up in a neat bow and giving the “happily ever after,” Ms. Crouch ends with a touching moment, but also the knowledge that this is not the end.  While in that moment everything is perfect, it will not last.  This is life, this is reality, and, more importantly, this is Sarah’s life.  She has not changed that drastically or that quickly, but she is more aware now, leaving open the possibility of a happy ending in her future.  It is courageous of Ms. Crouch to end her book in such a way because it is entirely too easy and too frequent that authors give an unrealistic happy ending.  Kudos to Ms. Crouch, and to her character Sarah, for not always making the popular choice, but for being strong enough to make their own choices.

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