Why Mattie marries Jimmy Lee Turner is a

question she can t really answer. He d been

better off, she says, marrying "somebody like

my sister-in law Celeste...One of those girls born

knowing who she is and what she s supposed to

be doing at all times. Bloode"

New novelist Rebecca Godwin has created

the voice of Mattie Tnrner so skillfully that

reading Private Parts naturally slips into eager

listening. Godwin s craft becomes a living voice

in the ear, like the telephone gossip Mattie can t

hang up on.

Not that Mattie wasn t thrilled to go out on

dates with Jimmy Lee. But their brief courtship

is transformed overnight into a near-silent mar

riage, she going through her motions, he throwing

fits behind a door. Even on their honeymoon,

Mattie lies awake thinking while Jimmy Lee

snores. Mattie feels alone-abandoned by her

mother, distant from her boyish husband,

scorned by Iris higher-class thmily, and at best

amused by the other women in Red Hill, South

Carolina. From passive acceptance of what life

ofl~rs, Mattie grows to expect more. And when

a violent storm tears into town, she finds she

must break out of the stifling existence she s

endured tbr too many years.

In Mattie Turner, Godwin gives life to a