REVIEW: The Moonshine Women by Michelle Collins Anderson
From a well-camouflaged still in the moonshine-slicked mountains of Prohibition-era Missouri, to the drink order of a Hot Springs gangster, and even the hidden depths of her own heart, a Strong woman knows how to keep a secret…
Every batch of Strong moonshine has its own special flavor, thanks to the secret ingredients that matriarch Lidy Strong adds to the barrels of fermenting corn mash. Whether a bucketful of golden peaches, a ripe melon or juicy, jewel-toned berries, that extra “something something” is what makes the Strong “shine” so prized—and allows the family to survive after crop prices plummeted in the wake of the Great War.
Each of the Strong sisters, too, is distinct. The stoic and steadfast eldest, Rebecca, finds more comfort in nature than with people…until she finds a new home in the love she discovers for the woman who restores her health after a near-devastating accident. Middle sister Elsie is kind, beautiful—and itching for a life more thrilling than the farm can offer. And Jace, the bold and wild-hearted youngest, is known far and wide as “Shine,” a name that suits her fiery personality and flaming red hair as much as her innate skill with a still.
Their father, Hiram, has been drowning himself in grief and liquor ever since his wife died. But the moonshine business is unforgiving, especially with Prohibition agents turning up in every creek and holler. When tragedy strikes, it falls to the Strong women to keep the still running, the family together, and hope burning on the horizon.
From the Ozark mountains edged in oak and pine, to the outlaw paradise of Hot Springs, Arkansas—where gangsters like Al Capone line the bar at the Southern Club—the sisters’ quests for vengeance, healing, and love will drive them forward, in search of a future as transformative and powerful as the purest Strong moonshine.
CW/TW – Bootlegging, murder, domestic violence, infanticide, rape (off page), euthanasia, alcoholism
Dear Michelle Collins Anderson,
Given the CW/TW I included when I reviewed “The Flower Sisters,” I wasn’t surprised by some of the stuff that happens in this book. Times are indeed hard in Missouri throughout the story (which stretches from bits and pieces in 1912 through mainly the late 1920s, early 1930s and to 1941) but the Strong women are tougher.
Matriarch Lidy is known far and wide for her mountain knowledge and granny cures. She’s helped her neighbors without asking for anything in return, though neighbors usually pay with what they can. She’s also made some tough decisions though the one to send her violent husband on to hell was an easy one for her to make. Some of her other choices might raise eye-brows and drop jaws but Lidy has lived a hard life and knows to survive in these mountains takes hard work and sometimes ruthless actions.
Rebecca hunts and farms, being more at ease with silence and taking care of the stock. She sees a lot, ponders what she’ll say, and pays a price to help the family. Elsie shamelessly shrugs off hard work while she longs for something better than a hardscrabble existence on a farm that grows as many rocks as corn. Youngest Shine has soaked up her daddy’s and her granny’s – afterall Lidy was the one who taught Hiram – knowledge about making their famous moonshine. Her temper is also hair-trigger and she’s likely to act before thinking.
This is a story about this insular family who might wrangle between themselves but stick tight to each other in the face of outsiders. When some arrive looking for stills and moonshiners, their actions will change the family forever and in ways that aren’t obvious at first.
The Ozark mountains are beautiful but making a living there has never been easy. Readers who are astonished at how the Strongs eke out a living need to read up on how difficult farm life was even into the late 1930s. But I think neighbors were more likely then to pitch in and help, regardless of how little they, themselves, had. The reasons for making moonshine are similar to the 1790s in that corn was more profitable by the gallon jug than by the bushel.
All the sisters will be faced with things even harder than they grew up with. These things will test them and change them forever. Family sticks together but what makes a family? As Shine later says, someone can become a father but being a daddy is a choice.
The middle section of the book slows a bit and do be aware of the CW/TW I’ve included. Readers might not agree with various choices that are made along the way. The characters themselves have regrets and second thoughts at times. Revenge vs letting nature take its course. Accepting what can’t be changed. Learning from mistakes. I like the way the sisters, and others, grow and how everyone finds their place and the life they want by the end. B
~Jayne
AmazonBNKoboBook DepositoryGoogle
Leave a Reply