Review Detail
5.0 2
Young Adult Fiction
236
I heard it through the grapevine
(Updated: June 12, 2026)
Overall rating
5.0
Plot
5.0
Characters
N/A
Writing Style
N/A
Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)
N/A
Reader reviewed by Maine Reviewer
I Heard It Through the Grapevine", January 16, 2003
Reviewer: mainesfwriter (see more about me) from Augusta, Maine USA
Beth Ann Dixon's life in Grapevine, Kentucky, doesn't look too bad from the outside. She's married to (and still in love with) her high school sweetheart, Billy Ray. She owns her own business, the Kut-n-Kurl beauty shop. But while the love hasn't gone out of her marriage, the physical magic certainly has; and the President Trailer Park is not where she wants to spend the rest of her days. Beth Ann has had enough of living at such close quarters with the likes of crazy Troy Finkmyer-his battered wife, Mary Jo-and nosey old Janet Higgins. She's also had more than enough of reading about the Park residents' antics in local gossip columnist Shirley Snodgrass's sensationalized weekly offerings.
So now Beth Ann is going to get out! She's got a new computer (bought with church bingo winnings), and she's writing the steamiest, sexist novel she can dream up. That book's the ticket to elsewhere for Beth Ann and her Billy Ray.
Writing it most certainly will change Beth Ann's life. Not to mention Billy Ray's, and-before all is over-the lives of everyone else in President Trailer Park. Or should I say the lives of everyone else in Grapevine, Kentucky?
This is one of the few books I've read in recent years that has literally made me laugh out loud. It also made me think that my own 10-year stint as a mobile home park resident was positively boring, compared to the adventures of Beth Ann and Billy Ray. Yet this comic novel has its serious moments, too; and many of them are quite touching.
The authors have done something I love in humorous fiction. They've taken familiar (even hackneyed) stereotypes, and then deftly fleshed those stereotypes out into genuine, believable individuals. The result is characters about whom readers can't help caring. Even while also laughing their heads off!
Don't miss this one. It is priceless.
---
Reprinted here with permission of author.
I Heard It Through the Grapevine", January 16, 2003
Reviewer: mainesfwriter (see more about me) from Augusta, Maine USA
Beth Ann Dixon's life in Grapevine, Kentucky, doesn't look too bad from the outside. She's married to (and still in love with) her high school sweetheart, Billy Ray. She owns her own business, the Kut-n-Kurl beauty shop. But while the love hasn't gone out of her marriage, the physical magic certainly has; and the President Trailer Park is not where she wants to spend the rest of her days. Beth Ann has had enough of living at such close quarters with the likes of crazy Troy Finkmyer-his battered wife, Mary Jo-and nosey old Janet Higgins. She's also had more than enough of reading about the Park residents' antics in local gossip columnist Shirley Snodgrass's sensationalized weekly offerings.
So now Beth Ann is going to get out! She's got a new computer (bought with church bingo winnings), and she's writing the steamiest, sexist novel she can dream up. That book's the ticket to elsewhere for Beth Ann and her Billy Ray.
Writing it most certainly will change Beth Ann's life. Not to mention Billy Ray's, and-before all is over-the lives of everyone else in President Trailer Park. Or should I say the lives of everyone else in Grapevine, Kentucky?
This is one of the few books I've read in recent years that has literally made me laugh out loud. It also made me think that my own 10-year stint as a mobile home park resident was positively boring, compared to the adventures of Beth Ann and Billy Ray. Yet this comic novel has its serious moments, too; and many of them are quite touching.
The authors have done something I love in humorous fiction. They've taken familiar (even hackneyed) stereotypes, and then deftly fleshed those stereotypes out into genuine, believable individuals. The result is characters about whom readers can't help caring. Even while also laughing their heads off!
Don't miss this one. It is priceless.
---
Reprinted here with permission of author.
G
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