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Summary
Summary
Lunch at the Piccadilly
Author Notes
Clyde Edgerton was born on May 20, 1944 in Durham, North Carolina. He received a B.A. in English education in 1966, a M.A.T. in English education in 1972, and a Ph.D in curriculum and instruction in 1977, all from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He teaches creative writing at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington.
Hi first novel, Raney, was published in 1985. His other novels include Walking Across Egypt, Killer Diller, Where Trouble Sleeps, Lunch at the Piccadilly, The Bible Salesman, and The Night Train. He has also written a book of advice entitled Papadaddy's Book for New Fathers and a memoir entitled Solo, My Adventures in the Air. He has received several awards including the Lyndhurst Prize and the North Carolina Award for Literature.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Edgerton writes with warmth about the plight of the elderly in his latest, an ensemble portrait that tracks the ups and downs of a group of nursing home residents at the Rosehaven Convalescent Center. The central figure is contractor Carl Turnage, who devotes most of his time to caring for his dotty, eccentric aunt, Lil Olive, after a fall puts her in convalescent care. The friendly, rambunctious Lil quickly strikes up several friendships at the home, organizing a series of cute but ill-advised adventures as the various patients battle to keep their driving rights and other privileges. Turnage, meanwhile, becomes involved in an adventure of his own with another resident, a flamboyant preacher-cum-musician named L. Ray Flowers who talks him into playing bass in a duo after he sets some of Turnage's lyrics to music. Edgerton hits the mark with his quirky characterizations, and his sympathy for his subjects is evident as they struggle to retain their dignity through their twilight years. Much of the humor is stuffy and outdated, and the comic material involving elderly driving is off-key. But Edgerton compensates with a strong finish: Lil is suddenly hospitalized, and Turnage is forced to come to terms with her mortality, even as a lurid incident involving Flowers's flagrant behavior with the female residents forces another crisis on him. This underplotted novel isn't one of Edgerton's best efforts, but it remains a solid, touching treatment of a neglected subject. 25-city author tour. (Sept. 19) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
For sheer likability it'd be hard to beat Edgerton's affectionate portraits of small-town oddballs in the South. His eighth outing is a breezy comedy, tinged with sadness. Carl Turnage is a mild-mannered, thoroughly decent guy, but not a commanding presence in his North Carolina town; if only he were a little taller, his voice a little deeper. A middle-aged bachelor, he was raised by his mother and her two sisters; the sole survivor is his aunt Lil, now at Rosehaven nursing home and shrinking fast, though still an occasional driver, and that's a problem. Carl (he and Aunt Lil are real close) is bracing himself to tell her she must stop, just as we brace for more old-folks-behind-the-wheel jokes; but they still have some real zip in this go-round, shot through by the old folks' somber awareness that their final spin may be the beginning of the end. The other principal here is L. Ray Flowers, a flamboyant if loopy former evangelist whose sermons might begin with your feet ("Don't be afraid to buy expensive shoes"). He went through a bad patch when a woman he was "healing" fell off the stage and killed herself, and now he has a cockamamie scheme to combine churches and nursing-homes, but so what? He gets Carl back to writing country songs (their gig together is Carl's dream come true), and he sure perks up all the old ladies; the exception is Darla Avery, who remembers their nightmare date 40 years ago, when L. Ray masturbated in the car after the eighth-grade dance. This is all the ammunition Rosehaven's hard-nosed owner needs to have L. Ray, an obvious troublemaker, evicted. Meanwhile, Aunt Lil has started "sundowning" ("They get confused after the sun goes down," explains the nurse). There can be no happy ending here, but even a stroke and a death are handled with a light touch. Underplotted, but with the fast pace, you scarcely notice: another small gem from Edgerton (Where Trouble Sleeps, 1997, etc.). Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
With wry humor and priceless dialogue, Edgerton ( Walking across Egypt, 1987) pulls off the near impossible--he turns a nursing home into the most convivial of establishments. The halls of Rosehaven Convalescent Home are far from grim. Mrs. Maudie Lowe and Mrs. Beatrice Satterwhite are engaged in a heated debate about whether Clara Cochran removes her glass eyeball at night. Preacher L. Ray Flowers has got the ladies all worked up about his idea for a new religious movement--making nursing homes and churches interchangeable (nurches ). Eightysomething Lil Olive insists that she is perfectly capable of driving, even though she keeps looking for stoplights on telephone poles. And then there's Lil's patient nephew, Carl, whose lifelong dream is fulfilled when L. Ray teaches him to play bass guitar and puts music to his lyrics (How Come I Miss You When You're with Me All the Time? ). With equal parts skill and whimsy, Edgerton creates a screwball portrait of this life after life, effortlessly convincing us that it's better, much better, to laugh than to cry about it. --Joanne Wilkinson Copyright 2003 Booklist
Library Journal Review
Carl's mother has passed on, and his favorite aunt, who never had any children of her own, has landed in the Rosehaven Convalescence Center, where he visits her regularly. The poignancy of old people giving up their apartments and their independence is mingled with the hilarity of the goings-on at Rosehaven once elderly preacher L. Ray Flowers tries to organize the ladies there into a "movement." Carl's kindness to all the residents and his awkward attempts at romance with social worker Anna reveal his gentle humanity. Despite their failing eyesight and lack of mobility, Aunt Lil and her buddies manage to (mistakenly) steal a car for a final, disastrous shopping spree. The novel blends humor and sadness to a remarkable degree. Edgerton, the author of such fine books as Raney and Walking Across Egypt, is a treasure.-Ann H. Fisher, Radford P.L., VA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.