Reviewed by Rosetta D. Hoessli, Author

***** (Five Stars)


 The Rag Lady, by Susie Black, is a scream of a book – mostly. Our heroine, Holly Schlivnik, is a 4’9” hot-tempered, slightly pompous, well-educated, wannabe reporter know-it-all who blows her first interview upon college graduation when informed by her prospective boss that she, like all female reporters, must ‘start out in the secretarial pool.’ She explodes in feminist fury and crawls home to her parents and grandmother in Miami, her tail between her legs and hoping for a little sympathy.

 But her Jewish nana never wastes time on regrets or looking backward, and refuses to allow her granddaughter to do so, either. From the moment Nana walks onto the page, she stole my heart. To me, she’s the engine that makes this story run, and Holly, for all her flaws, loves her with her whole being. Nana is filled with practical Jewish analogies and superstitions, sort of a female Tevya from Fiddler on the Roof, without being so steeped in tradition that she can’t move forward. She’s a thoroughly modern grandma whom Holly accuses of missing ‘the day they taught Jewish Grandmother Nurturing.’

It isn’t until Holly’s father, a successful sexy apparel salesman with a huge territory and an even bigger heart, has a family emergency and begs Holly to help him that she decides to climb out of her comfort zone and try something completely different. She takes on a portion of her father’s territory – some of the Deep South – and discovers that the United States of America might as well be two different countries. Maybe even three or four.

A scene in which she listens, appalled, to her dad talking to truckers over his CB radio – in a totally foreign language – is absolutely hysterical, and through snorts of glee I could definitely relate. Being vertically challenged myself, I screamed with laughter as I saw her pushing racks of garment bags across streets, so tiny no one could see her, and then bristling with indignation whenever a gentleman offered to help. Her discovery and ultimate opinion of the southern staple ‘grits’ (‘slop’ in her view) mirrored my own – I’ve never been able to stomach it, either, even though I’ve lived in south Texas for more than fifty years.

But it's the characters she meets – Jody, a 6’6” transwoman who once played in the NFL, Cora Lee with the ‘enormous cone-shaped breasts pointed straight out at attention,’ Wanda Lou, a bottle-blonde waitress who says ‘bone appetite’ when she serves orange juice ‘fresh from the can,’ Herman Neumann, a wealthy businessman and a concentration camp survivor, and countless others – who flesh out this coming-of-age tale with the intimacy of your favorite childhood friends. 

Susie Black’s The Rag Lady is filled with thought-provoking lessons, and as Holly learns them all, she begins to evolve and grow into herself. While some of the lessons are riotously funny, others are frightening, and still others are downright tragic, but they’re all important. Holly learns the only constant in life is change, not to judge books by their covers, to appreciate her failures far more than her successes, and most importantly: Don’t be afraid to live.

As her nana always says, “Man plans, and God laughs.”

The only downside to this terrific novel is that the author sometimes goes into a bit too much detail on the apparel business - but that could just be me. I’m one of the few women I know who don’t like to shop. But the business itself seems much more interesting than I ever figured, especially the interactions between buyers, models, and sales reps. I also found it fascinating that Jewish people were so deeply involved in business in the south as far back as the Civil War, but that there was so much bigotry against them in the late 1970’s – two facts that the author skillfully weaves through her story.

This unique prequel is a great standalone novel. It will give readers a terrific introduction to the other books in the Holly Swimsuit Mystery Series, which I haven’t yet read but intend to read as soon as I can. The Rag Lady is a book that grew on me, and that I enjoyed even more after I’d finished it because it gave me so much to think about.

You’ve done a superb job with this novel, Susie Black! I’m giving The Rag Lady Five Stars!