Divorcing Dwayne
J.L. Miles
Reviewed by Cynthia Murphy
J.L.
Miles’s latest novel, Divorcing Dwayne,
offers a hilarious look at one woman’s messy divorce.
It is also filled with Southern humor. (If
you liked the television show Designing Women, you’ll
love this book.)
Divorcing Dwayne contains great characters, funny dialogue, and a
nicely
twisted plot.
The book begins with Francine
Harper sitting in the Hall County jail.
Francine has just been arrested for shooting at her husband,
Dwayne, and
his girlfriend. Dwayne’s girlfriend,
Carla, is a stripper at the Peel-n-Squeal.
When Francine discovered them in her Sleep Number bed complete
with a
headboard that her daddy carved for a wedding present, she snaps and
starts
shooting. She doesn’t hit anything but
the treasured headboard, but she faces felony assault charges.
The main plot of the novel focuses
on Francine’s divorce and assault trial.
The proceedings hit numerous snags along the way.
There is also a secondary plot involving the
local mob. There is even a third subplot
involving a movie shoot in Francine’s hometown.
The movie subplot ties in with the main plot very well. J.L. Miles does a great job of weaving the
plots together. Some of the details seem
a bit farfetched, such the local mob boss named Joe Bob Banana, but
Miles
presents everything so well that the reader simply goes along for the
ride.
The setting for Divorcing Dwayne is perfect. The action takes place in Pickville Springs,
Georgia. It’s a small town where
Francine says, “Everyone knows whose check is good and whose husband
isn’t.” Pickville Springs sounds like a
more colorful
version of Mayberry. There are bars, a
strip club, and the annual pig-pull event.
Miles does a beautiful job of capturing small town life in the
South. Much of the action depends on the
links between the town’s residents. For
example, Francine deals with both Carla and Dwayne’s ex-wife, Sheila. Such a setting is perfect for this type of
story.
The
characterization in this novel is great.
Miles gives a well-defined voice to Francine.
She has a definite rhythm to her speech, and
you can almost hear the Southern accent.
The supporting characters are also well-drawn.
Francine’s sidekick, Ray Anne, provides her
own wacky humor. Francine’s crazy
grandmother, Nanny Lou, provides some very funny moments. Her behavior is the hospital towards the end
of the novel is absolutely hilarious.
There are a
lot of clichés in the novel, but they are acknowledged in a
tongue-in-cheek way
through some of Francine’s comments.
There are also a number of absurd moments. However,
the absurdity works. One of the most vivid
scenes in the novel
occurs when Francine and Ray Anne drive Dwayne’s tractor through the
window of
Dwayne and Carla’s proposed topless barber shop. The
scene is well-crafted and laugh out loud
funny.
I really
liked the layout of this book. Miles has
added newspaper headlines at the beginning of each chapter. The headlines sound just like something you
would see in a small town newspaper. My
personal favorite is “Alligator Crashes Wedding.” Each
headline announces the main plot point
of the coming chapter. This is a
particularly nice touch because Francine’s father is a linotype
operator for
the local paper.
If you are
looking for a funny book with bit of Southern twang, Divorcing
Dwayne is the perfect book for you. It
provides a great setting, fabulous
characters, and loads of Southern charm.
So pour yourself a glass of sweet tea, sit back, and get ready
to laugh.
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