Senegal Peace Corps volunteer Melanie Sumner wrote The School of Beauty and Charm
The School of Beauty and Charm
Melanie Sumner
Cover to Cover is Georgia Public Radio’s interactive monthly book club, putting listeners and readers in direct contact with the state’s best writers.
Tune in this month as host St. John Flynn welcomes Rome, Georgia, author Melanie Sumner to the program to talk and take your calls about her first novel, The School of Beauty and Charm (Algonquin Books, 2001), the moving portrait of a father and mother, two good-hearted people doing everything wrong to win back their hell-raising daughter.
You’re invited to read The School of Beauty and Charm and to call in during the program with your comments and questions for Melanie Sumner. The toll-free number for the show is 1-866 RADIO GA (1-866-723-4642).
From the book jacket:
The School of Beauty and Charm is the story of the Peppers family of Counterpoint, Georgia. Henry, a stoic businessman, vies for rule of the house with his flamboyant wife, Florida, a pertinacious Baptist and aspiring artist. Their clear mission is to protect, guide, rein in, and keep well-dressed their children—asthmatic, hormonal Roderick, and hellion Louise, who flees the Maude Wilson College for Women to join the Arthur Reese Traveling Show. Louise tells the story.
And what a story it is, about how ponderous Henry, hysterical Florida, and hell-bent-for-rebellion Louise, awash in grief after Roderick's death at fifteen, go on living. Steady-at-the-helm, Henry buries himself in his work managing Southern Board, the local cardboard factory. Flamboyant Florida, with a fine-honed knack for losing her cool, redecorates their custom-built house, the Aerie, and takes up painting by numbers. Louise indulges her addictions: at nine, she discovers vanilla extract. After Roderick dies, she adds liquor, food, sex (at sixteen, she seduces a Southern Board laborer), and out-and-out danger, finally, at eighteen running off to join the circus (a carnival, actually). Louise gets to be the clown.
The School of Beauty and Charm is a daring roller coaster of a first novel that fuses wild, satiric humor and deeply felt pain. It is also a moving portrait of a father and mother, two good-hearted people doing everything wrong to win back a beloved child.
Melanie Sumner is the author of one previous book, Polite Society, a collection of stories. She won a Whiting Award in 1995, and was a regional winner in Granta’s Best Young American Novelists competition. Her stories have appeared in many magazines including the New Yorker and DoubleTake, and have been anthologized in New Stories from the South and Best of the South. She lives in Rome, Georgia.
Praise for Melanie Sumner and The School of Beauty and Charm:
--“Why was I laughing so hard while my heart was being broken by this book? All I can say is that its people seem to have taken up residence in my head and I don’t think they mean to move out any time soon.”—Lewis Nordan, author of Wolf Whistle
--“Remarkable ironies and insights guide these wholly original characters into a world you’ll never want to leave. The darkly comic brilliance of Melanie Sumner shines on, and if we’re lucky, will do so for a long, long time to come.”—Jill McCorkle, author of Creatures of Habit
--“A vividly drawn, good-humored coming-of-age tale.”—Kirkus Reviews
--“[A] tragically funny debut novel...both disturbing and comic.”—Library Journal
Join our discussion of The School of Beauty and Charm with Melanie Sumner and St. John Flynn on Sunday, June 30, at 8 PM, by calling with your comments and questions during the program. The toll-free number is 1-866 RADIO GA (1-866-723-4642).
