THE SPIRIT OF SWEETGRASS
by Nicole Seitz
Essie Mae Laveau Jenkins is 78 years old. To support herself, she weaves sweetgrass baskets and sells them in a little stand out on the highway. Her husband, Jim, who’d passed on close to ten years before, sits with her sometimes. Inspired by her Aunt Leona, Essie Mae starts weaving “love baskets,†praying over them, to get people she thinks belong together united forever. But sometimes, her love baskets don’t work out exactly the way she has in mind.
Essie’s daughter, Retta, is trying to put Essie into a nursing home, since Essie hasn’t paid taxes on her house in ten years and now the governor is going to take the house away from her. Will Essie discover that she still has work to do, or can she go to her heavenly rest?
I really enjoyed reading THE SPIRIT OF SWEETGRASS by new novelist Nicole Seitz. Ms. Seitz is a very talented author and I’m looking forward to reading more of her works. Written in first person, I feel I got to know Essie Mae well, and I came to care deeply for her.
The faith message is expertly woven in, and is not preachy. The story is told like Miss Essie is sitting right beside you the telling the story (I could almost smell the sweetgrass and see her weaving baskets). Toward the middle of the book, it got a little weird for my taste, but the story was still well told and held my interest. I highly recommend THE SPIRIT OF SWEETGRASS as a southern fiction novel you won’t want to miss. $13.99. 304 pages.
Reviewed by Laura V. Hilton
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