Savannah Comes Undone

July 25, 2005
Savannah's mother has chained herself to a monument of the Ten Commandments in front of a federal courthouse in this lighthearted but lackluster follow-up to Savannah from Savannah
. Savannah spends most of her time trying to avoid both her mother and the TV cameras aimed in her mother's direction. The standoff between mom, the courts and the ACLU becomes the subject of two newspaper articles in fulfillment of Savannah's new role as human-interest columnist at the Savannah Chronicle
. In the course of the week, Savannah also attempts to win back an old love, benefits from a wise stranger's advice, befriends a beauty queen, moves into her own apartment and fights an attraction to the office hottie. Eventually, after some light philosophizing—cue the wise stranger—she makes up with her mom. Hildreth makes Savannah's conflict with her mother the main point of the novel, but doesn't explore that conflict with enough depth. Characters are relatively one-dimensional, and Hildreth occasionally slaughters metaphors ("I tore into that bathroom and scrubbed as if I were an exfoliant attacking a buildup of over-obsessing mothers and apathetic fathers"). Those looking for another installment of Savannah's antics may be disappointed by the slow pace and lack of significant events.

September 1, 2005
Another heaping dose of Southern charm and wit mark this sequel to "Savannah from Savannah". This time, the mortifying public antics of Savannah's beauty-queen mother are distracting Savannah from her new job, her new apartment, and, most important, one last try at winning back an old beau. When a curly-haired mystery man comes to town, he just might derail Savannah's plans. Hildreth lives in Nashville.

Copyright 2005 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.