Book Review: Flies on the Butter

A few weeks ago, I went to the Christian bookstore and found several books on sale for $5. I picked up a couple that I thought would be good "summer reading". I have two other books I am reading, but wanted to read something "light" on the cruise.

Denise Hildreth is a new author for me. I found her book, Flies on the Butter a wonderful read that was light yet thought-provoking.

This book is about Washington D.C. child advocate Rose Fletcher. When Rose left her hometown of Mullins, South Carolina, she intended to never look back. But this story centers around an event that finds Rose in her car heading South.

Rose is forced to deal with her past and the present chaos that defines her life as she makes her way to visit the family that she left behind. This book is filled with southern charm as Rose relives many chapters of her childhood during the drive.

I found Hildreth's writing charming and oh so refreshing. I also found myself challenged to once again make sure that there are no "flies on the butter". I love the picture that Hildreth paints of swatting those flies. Rose is reliving the childhood memory of her Mamaw shooing the flies from the butter when we find out the deeper meaning:

"Why do you keep swatting at those flies, Mamaw? They ain't going
nowhere. They just keep landing when you're not looking."

"You got to stay on them, Red," her granddaddy said. "Let those
flies have the butter, and the next thing you know, they'll want your biscuits
too. You've got to be vigilant about some things in life. Ain't that
right, Mama?"

"That's right," Rosey's Mamaw said with another swat.

Hildreth notes in her acknowledgements that Flies on the Butter is a song that she first heard sung by Wynona Judd. One line in the song says, "You can dream about it every now and then. But you can't go home again." Hildreth shares that when she first heard the song, she was moved to tears. It caused her to remember a time when life was less complicated.

And while I think the "time travel" is fun in this book, it is also quite necessary for even the reader. For it's in going back that we can see the places where we forgot to swat the flies and let them "have the bisuits too"!

I hit "publish" on this post then noticed the Bible verse that showed up on my blog today. I simply think it's neat how related it is to this whole lesson:

I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labor. Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun. Ecclesiastes 2:10-11

I'm glad I took the time to read this book. Now, somebody pass me that fly swatter!