Most Recent Review of Southern Winds A' Changing

reviewed by Anita Lock

"She said our relationship be remarkable.  A white woman and Afro-American woman living like sisters."

The year is 1932. Allise DeWitt is a well-educated white woman and the wife of a landowner. Maizee Colson is an uneducated Afro-American woman and a sharecropper's daughter, living and working on DeWitt farm. The two women who seem to have nothing in common actually have more than one may expect. For starters, they are connected via Quent, Allise's husband, who rapes and gets Maizee pregnant--unbeknown at the time to a very expectant Allise.  As a result, Allise and Maizee give birth to his boys who are roughly the same age. Maizee longs to be respected as an individual. Yet to speak up will only bring more trouble to her and her family. While Allise's voice, too, is limited because she is a woman, her restrictions are only exacerbated when she reaches out to help her black neighbors and provides better housing for Maizee and her son. Southern Winds A' Changing chronicles Allise's tenacious fortitude toward equality and her amazing relationship with Maizee and three decades of tumultuous racial tension.

Award winning author Elizabeth Carroll Foster provides a window into time periods that may still feel like yesteryear for baby boomers and older readers. Although the Great Depression seems ancient and World War II just another war, the Civil Rights Movement and Vietnam are still vivid within the minds of those who lived to tell their own accounts. Zeroing in on a handful of clearly defined characters, Foster deftly captures the imagery associated with those and other historical markers that are a part of Allise's and Maizee's ever-changing world.

Allise and Maizee are undeniably dynamic characters. The two women have different backgrounds and experiences that slowly begin to overlap and often times merge as they share the same vision of equality. Foster's third person narrative is replete with their year-to-year trials and tribulations. And while the historical perspectives are nothing less than dismal, Foster periodically lightens her plot with comedic moments, such as Maizee's way of getting back at Quent by feigning that she has syphilis and then repeating her story to her family.

In addition to the aforementioned literary tools, Foster keeps her storyline always fresh and fluid by alternating character scenes from chapter to chapter, and by closing with cliffhangers. Many scenes reflect the subtle nuances of each historical event that carefully displays the intense conditions of the human heart, ranging from the extreme racial hatred of Quent and the Pure Pride (KKK) to the near Gandhian compassion exemplified by Allise. Yet while this is all taking place, Foster dexterously interweaves a continual flow of un-hackneyed twists and turns.

The key aspect of Foster's historical novel, however, is not in the many imperative literary skills that make her story so engaging. It is, in fact, an underlying theme that racial tension is not just an issue of the past--another historical marker entrapped in yet another history book. But rather it is a real attitude of the mind and a condition of the heart that has only evolved and still exists in each and every neighborhood on the face of this planet. A timely message, especially in light of the current events and related protests. Southern Winds A' Changing is undoubtedly a must read!

RECOMMENDED BY the USR

Copyright 2014 All Rights Reserved - The US Review of Books 

Southern Winds A' Changing Reviewed

Great Review for Novel
by US Review of Books

   The year is 1932. Allise DeWitt is a well-educated white woman and the wife of a landowner. Maizee Colson is an uneducated Afro-American woman and a sharecropper's daughter, living and working on DeWitt farm. The two women who seem to have nothing in common actually have more than one may expect. For starters, they are connected via Quent, Allise's husband, who rapes and gets Maizee pregnant.--unbeknown at the time to a very expectant Allise. As a result, Allise and Maizee give birth to his boys who are roughly the same age. Maizee longs to be respected as an individual. Yet to speak up will only bring more trouble to her and her family. While Allise's voice, too, is limited because she is a woman, her restrictions are only exacerbated when she reaches out to help her black neighbors and provides better housing for Maizee and her son. Southern Winds A' Changing chronicles Allise's tenacious fortitude toward equality and her amazing relationship with Maizee amid three decades of tumultuous racial tension.
   Award winning author and novelist Elizabeth Carroll Foster provides a window into time periods that may still feel like yesteryear for baby boomers and older readers. Although the Great Depression seems ancient and World War II just another war, the Civil Rights Movement and Vietnam are still vivid within the minds of those who lived to tell their own accounts. Zeroing in on a handful of clearly defined characters, Foster deftly captures the imagery associated with those and other historical markers that are a part of Allise's and Maizee's ever-changing world.
   Allise and Maizee are undeniably dynamic characters. The two women have different backgrounds and experiences that slowly begin to overlap and often times merge as they share the same vision of equality. Foster's third person narrative is replete with their year-to-year trials and tribulations. And while the historical perspectives are nothing less than dismal, Foster periodically lightens her plot with comedic moments,  such as Maizee's way of getting back at Quent by feigning that she has syphilis and then repeating her story to her family.
   In addition to the aforementioned literary tools, Foster keeps her storyline always fresh and fluid by alternating character scenes from chapter to chapter, and by closing with cliffhangers. Many scenes reflect the subtle nuances of each historical event that carefully displays the intense conditions of the human heart, ranging from the extreme racial hatred of Quent and the Pure Pride (KKK) to the near Gandhian compassion exemplified in Allise. Yet while this is all taking place, Foster dexterously interweaves a continual flow of un-hackneyed twists and turns.
   The key aspect of Foster's historical novel, however, is not in the many imperative literary skills that make her story so engaging. It is, in fact, an underlying theme that racial tension is not just an issue of the past--another historical marker entrapped in yet another history book.  But rather it is a real attitude of the mind and a condition of the heart that has only evolved and still exists in each and every neighborhood on the face of this planet. A timely message, especially in light of the current events and related protests, Southern Winds A' Changing is undoubtedly a must read.

Southern Winds A' Changing by Elizabeth Foster

   Allise, a young Quaker school marm from Pennsylvania, is ostracized because of her racial intolerance, religion and provincialism in the small fictional town of Deer Point, Arkansas. She marries handsome Quentin DeWitt, a farmer and the town's favorite native son, and attends church with him. Today, Quent's mood swings might cause us to call him bi-polar. The couple have two children, Peter and Cleesy.
   Quent rapes 18-year-old Maizee Colson, daughter of one of the DeWitt's black tenant sharecroppers, on the night Allise gives birth to Peter. Maizee gives birth to Nate, Quent's son.
   Quent and his brother, Sam, farm Daddy Joe's large river plantation. Daddy Joe frequents Vickery. a mulatto, and dies nude as a baby bird in her house. The brothers inherit the farm. Quent hates farming and dreams of stunt flying, while Sam is a son of the soil.
   A flood wastes the cotton crop, and the Great Depression hovers over them. Allise learns about the sharecropping system and has verbal run-ins with her racially biased husband and others. She loses Quent to war and wards off Sam's love for her.
      Allise takes Maizee and Nate under her wings, causing conflicts with her children and the townsfolk of Deer Point. Maizee finds happiness in caring for the DeWitt children and Miz Allie, who returns to teaching. After enduring arrest and a trial, Maizee finally marries Hatch.
   Enduring a long courtship, Allise finds happiness with Dro McClure, but is estranged from her children.
   Nate serves during the Korean War, returns and graduates Morehouse College. During the Civil Rights Movement, he, a college professor, is beaten on a Freedom Ride, regains consciousness but cannot speak.
   Peter, of little ambition, marries Jill, who is as racially biased as himself. Cleesy is a drug-using flower child.
   Allise's crowning achievement results from educating her students.

awards

My memoir, Follow Me: The Life and Adventures of a Military Family, won first honorable mention in the Military Writers Society of America's national book competition.  MWSA held its annul convention in October in Ohio.

I recently spoke to Friends of the Coronada Center Library about how I became a writer, and read from my novel, Southern Winds A' Changing. This book was recently nominated for "Editor's Choice" by an iUniverse evaluator.

I participated in Author's Day 2014 at the Garland County Public Library, Hot Springs, Arkansas.
I will speak to book clubs, church groups and civic organizations.

All three books, including Musings, Mutterings, and Aw Shucks (a collection of short stories), are available from iUniverse.com, amazon.com and barnesnoble.com.

Arkansas author honored for work

     Southern Winds A' Changing, a novel, has received good reviews. The novel received the iUniverse's Editor's Choice award in 2013. It sports a new jacket cover in both hard and softcovers.
Follow Me: The Life and Adventures of a Military Family, a memoir, received an honorable mention award at the Military Writers Society of America convention in 2012. The organization honored me Author of the Month in their Dec. 2011 Dispatches publication.
     MWSA Dispatches reviewer Charlene Rubush recommends "Follow Me: ... She wrote: "Her story will resonate with many who have lived a life in the military ... It is a testament to the bravery and courage of the distaff side of military life, and a validation of their many sacrifices."
     Latest book, Musings, Mutterings, and Aw Shucks, is a collection of short stories.
     The National Assn. of Professional Women's featured "Woman of the Year (2010-2011).
My books are available from iUniverse.com, Amazon.com, and Barnesnoble.com, That Bookstore in Blytheville, Trolley Line Books in Rogers, AR, and from me, hteb963@suddenlink.net.

2010 Book Published

Follow Me: The Life and Adventures of a Military Family, was published in February 2010.

   Twenty-five years of following my Army officer from pillar to post with four kids and a dog, the moves, his temporary duty absences, a year in Korea and two year-long Vietnam tours.
    Two years of life in Karachi, Pakistan--1959-60. A week of rest and relaxation in India with tours in New Dehli, the Taj Mahal, and many other historic sites. Our family returned to the States via two ocean liners, the Italian ship, Victoria, and the USS Independence with port stops in Aden, Nice, Naples and 5 days in Italy--Amalfi Drive, Pompeii, and traveled by train to Rome, the Vatican, the Catacombs, the Coliseum, ... Back in Naples, board the Independence, ported in Genoa, then on to New York.
   Perhaps the most difficult of husband's assignments was strenuous 9-month-long stint at the Navy Test Pilot School, Patuxent, Maryland, in 1961. John was the first Army officer to complete the Navy course.
    Following TPS and another year with the Navy in Maryland, John was sent to the Army Test Activities Center on Edwards Air Force Base in California, for 4-and-a-half years. He completed his unusual career with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in Washington, D..C., retiring in 1975.
   Follow Me relates the many stories of our military journey. Some of our adventures were funny, some weren't so funny, but my children and I regard the military stint as a good life.