Author Cassie Dandridge Selleck’s southern voice is so captivating I imagined sipping sweet iced tea with Miss Ora as we sat on her front porch.
The Pecan Man (pronounced Pee-can) is a name given by the neighborhood children to an elderly black man in the small Florida town of Mayville. The novella takes place 30 years earlier in 1976 and is told by an elderly woman, Ora Lee Beckworth. In her mid-fifties at the time of the story, recently widowed and childless, Miss Ora hires the Pecan Man, whom she calls Eddie, to mow her lawn and tend her flower and vegetable beds.
Blanche has been Miss Ora’s housekeeper for years and the two women have formed a strong bond. Blanche, the mother of 5 and also recently widowed, crosses from the “colored section” of town six days a week to clean and cook for Miss Ora. One day a violent tragedy occurs to Blanche’s youngest daughter. In an effort to protect the little girl, lies are told, lies that perpetuate until truth and lies form an impenetrable web that send an innocent man to prison.
I was captivated by this novella. The author, a native of Central Florida, uses the dialect of the area with ease, giving the book an authentic flavor of place. I highly recommend The Pecan Man.
