Main Street in the small town of Paris, Arkansas, has been dying slowly for years as, one after another, family owned businesses close their doors and the shoppers head to the enormous Fed Mart megastore. A close group of friends still live in Paris: Wood McIlmore, third generation doctor, and his beautiful wife, Milan, who grew up achingly poor in the town's most dysfunctional family; Earl Brundidge, single father of two little girls and owner of the local liquor store; Mavis Pinkerton, Milan's best friend and owner of the bakery; and Carl Jeter, a quadriplegic who was injured at age 17 during a football game. The town is abuzz with the news that Elizabeth McIlmore, the lovely daughter of Wood and Milan has just accepted the marriage proposal of Luke Childs, and that Luke is the son of Katherine Duffer ("Duff"), the girl that Wood had seriously dated in high school and had dumped when Milan told him she, herself, was pregnant with his child. Although Milan has loved Wood fervently for more than 20 years she knows that she certainly loves him much more than he loves her and that the reintroduction of Duff into their lives will definitely cause problems. Wood and Duff's reunion will lead to devastating consequences in the lives of their friends and family that may never heal.

Although I enjoyed this book very much I didn't think it was ever going to end. Those were some of the most densely-written 341 pages I have ever come across. There is so much narrative and so little conversation that it seems to drag on forever at times, but the backstories of the main characters, as well as, it seems, anyone who ever stepped foot in Paris, Arkansas, lend a true charm and deep-rooted history to the story. The engagement of Elizabeth and Luke is a very small part of the entire book as it deals primarily with the circle of friends, their pasts and present interactions, and the consequences of their decisions. Wood is mostly likeable although hugely flawed when it comes to Milan and Duff. Duff is probably the most selfish character I have come across in a story. Milan seems like a fashionable doormat sometimes but she is inwardly the strongest character in the book. Mavis is loud, brash and definitely the comic relief. Earl and Jeter are the perfect best friends who, although they love Wood, know he is treading on thin ice and have no problems telling him so. These are very interesting and intricately detailed characters that I enjoyed getting to know.
( )

I loved this book! It isn't about Paris, France, as I initially hoped. I started out quite slow, actually prepared to toss it aside because it seemed boring and ordinary reading about the lives of small town in Arkansas. But was I surprised to get so drawn into the lives of the characters, so realistically written by Thomason. ( )

This is a good book and well written. It contains a unique combination of humor, pathos, wisdom, folly and symbolism. The writing is filled with little gems worthy of being quoted (see examples at the end of this review). However as with most novels, some improper activity is required to create a crisis that needs to be overcome. The improper activity I'm referring to in this case is numerous and varied, but most significantly includes marital infidelity (which I don't approve of). But readers of this book who persevere through to the end are rewarded with a surprise, but happy, ending.

But to be fair, I need to warn social conservatives that the ending is probably not to your liking. This book does a reasonably good job at capturing the spirit of a typical small American town. However, most small towns have not been liberated in the manner described by this book.

With reference to the book's title; We're talking Paris, Arkansas, not the other Paris. And the word, 'liberating,' is not referring to World War II. I was surprised to learn that the author didn't use a fictitious name for the town's name. There actually is a Paris, Arkansas, population 3,700. I wonder what people who live in Paris, Arkansas think of this book. The downtown business district of the Paris described in this book has mostly boarded up store fronts because all commerce has moved to the edge of town where the big box 'Fed-Mart' (think Wal-Mart) store is located. I wonder how that compares to the actual conditions in the real Paris, Arkansas. The author is a native of Poplar Bluff, Missouri and a graduate of MU. Which makes me wonder, why did she pick on Paris, Arkansas? As far as I know this is the only novel that Linda Bloodworth Thomason has written. She is obviously a good writer, and has written numerous screen plays for television. I hope she decides to write more books.

The following are some quotations from the book:

This is the reflection on the life of an old man who is about to die:
'The boy and his horse had once set out for the sun and quickly learned what others had tried to put into words---that becoming is probably better than being, that there is only one thing in between and that is the ride. The ride is everything---not the arrival at some distant or imagined spot of light from which you would probably just see another spot of light and then another until you didn't know where you were or maybe you would even fall from the sky like Icarus for flying too near the sun or end up floating facedown in your swimming pool like Gatsby, who had worshipped too closely to the green light at the end of Daisy's dock. No, there was no question about it: Forget about the light, Just keep you head down and stay on the ride.'

These are the complaints of an older woman about the new big-box super store located at the edge of town:
'This is everything we don't wish our little town to be---ugly, impersonal, and, frankly, based on the Communist assumption that larger and undistinguished is better. I personally do not care to join the hoards of slack-jawed strangers overflowing their rubber thongs while steering pushcarts filled with T-shirts, plastic junk, and babies who sneeze Popsicle juice on you.'

These are the musings of a traditionally built woman wishing the world would appreciate her body type more:
'What Mavis wanted to see waddling down the catwalk was a huge, happy, honking three-hundred-pound 'you can kiss my fat ass' kind of gal, with celluite forearms and hamhock thighs draped in some fabulous designer togs.'

The following is advice offered by a Holocaust survivor to a newly widowed woman who is suffering from depression:
'Keep moving. Have a goal, One day you will arrive at a place that is better than the place where you were, even if it is only in your head.' ( )

terribly disappointing. milan was never redeeming nor deserving-boo! ( )