Folly Beach: A Lowcountry Tale

Dorothea Benton Frank
William Morrow (2011)
ISBN 9780061961274
Reviewed by Tracey Rock for Reader Views (8/11)


Cate Cooper is a middle-aged housewife from New Jersey.  She never really had much of her own life as she was too busy taking care of her husband and their two kids.  She lived for them.  She lived as her husband wanted her to live for twenty-six years.  He had everything he wanted for himself, but, apparently not enough because he committed suicide.  Cate is just emotionally devastated.  At the funeral, Cate learns that her husband was in such great debt that everything they own is being repossessed.  Left penniless, Cate goes to Folly Beach to stay with her Aunt Daisy and her life partner with the hopes of putting her life back together and finding her true self.  While there, she helps her aunt with her rental properties and stays at one of the cottages they called Porgy House, which is where playwrights DuBose and Dorothy Heyward lived while the legendary opera “Porgy and Bess” was being written.  Dubose and Dorothy Heyward are also a part of the novel as their lives are featured in the form of a play as they struggle to get George Gershwin to write the music for “Porgy and Bess.”  Their lives are intertwined with the one commonality, Folly Beach.

“Folly Beach” was written in a very interesting structure to where it went between scenes from a script of a one woman play and a narrative, both in the first person.  Some are going to find that a bit difficult to follow and not want to read in this fashion.  The book also starts out a bit confusing and slow in the first couple of chapters.  If you can get past that, then the rest of the book will come together nicely.  What stood out for me in “Folly Beach” was the humor.  I think it was funnier than most novels.  Where there were areas of predictability, the author made up for it in humor.  I actually found myself laughing out loud. I also like reading some historical truth behind a novel, so if you are into a little bit of that, you will find plenty in this book.  “Folly Beach” has a little bit of everything in it and is one of those stories that can be interpreted so many different ways. I think readers will more than likely either love it or hate it. I found it entertaining and different. Not one to miss.

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