Rhett DeVane publishes 8th book in her Chattahoochee series
In her inimitable style, Rhett DeVane has once again brought to life the oh-so-colorful characters that inhabit Chattahoochee, Florida, in Ditch Weed, the eighth book in the series known to her legions of fans simply as “the ‘Hooch books.”
DeVane will host a book launch for “Ditch Weed” on Saturday, June 22, from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. at My Favorite Books, 1410 Market Street, Suite C-2.
Both new readers of the series and long-time fans will quickly immerse themselves in the world of the Cathead Biscuits and Casserole Brigades, the good-for-nothings and busybodies.
The characters are among the very best when it comes to loving, tolerant and enlightened people who strive to improve the lives of the new arrivals at the ‘Hooch, who find themselves faced with the need to reinvent themselves after an irreparable separation from their birth families caused by poverty, abuse and despair.
The ‘Hooch, DeVane’s hometown, described as “a place with two traffic lights and a mental hospital on Main Street,” has recently become the adopted home of two young women, girls actually, who have managed to find work, even though one of them came to town long before the other and the two don’t seem to know each other. Or do they?
We are introduced to the newcomer to town with this introduction to the novel: “Mama called me Danae, the ditchweed.” And Danae answers the reader’s inevitable question: “A ditchweed grows anywhere, anytime. It blooms even when everything else is turning brown. Besides, a weed is just a plant that grows in a place you don’t want it to be.”
Danae has the fortune to meet Mevlyn Jenson, owner and queen of the Wash-Away Laundromat, and the questionable fortune to meet Elvina Houston, queen of the Little Old Ladies Hotline.
Fans of the series won’t be able to roll their eyes when Elvina shows up again, but they know that while she’s annoying, she’s basically good. Mevlyn looks Danae over and decides that she’s clearly a PR person – no, not in the public relations sense, but a “Purty-much Ruined” girl, and Mevlyn knows one when she sees one.
Mevlyn is pleasantly surprised when Danae helps him professionally make the bed of Mevlyn’s dying husband Sam… and soon finds himself completely won over by Danae, even though she is completely ruined.
For fans, the names Jake Witherspoon, the florist who has a loving relationship with his partner Jon “Shug” Presley, and the now deceased but fondly remembered Piddie Longman, as well as many other already familiar characters, appear, but the new characters quickly endear themselves to readers – or, in the case of the privileged, racist and irredeemably spoiled son of one of the town’s fathers, they frighten them.
He shows nothing but hatred, condescension and contempt towards Danae and her black friend Malcolm, the son of police chief Jerome, who turns out to be a close friend of Mevlyn.
DeVane has a unique talent for delightful language and the use of ancient Southern expressions such as “Danae is from Ala-dang-bamer.” But she has an even greater talent for newly coined Southern expressions, as in the following examples attributed to Mevlyn: “The man she married would sooner spoil the hell out of her hair than appear anything but hygienic and neat,” and “If I had a nickel for every washing machine torn up in this practice, I could rent the Riviera and invite half the town,” and “You don’t have to beat that dead horse so long before you can make a tapestry out of it.”
But “Ditch Weed” is so much more than just entertaining, with its creative language, dialect, behavior and mannerisms.
DeVane weaves themes such as social injustice, aging, death, poverty, bullying, homophobia, and violence into her novel, and does so without the heavy-handedness often found in Southern literature.
Liz Jameson is a Tallahassee-based writer and editor whose current project is an autobiography about her life in Wyoming. She is president-elect of the Tallahassee Writers Association.
When you go
What: Book launch for “Ditch Weed” by Rhett DeVane
When: 1-3pm Saturday, June 22
Where: My Favorite Books, 1410 Market St., Suite C-2
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