The Summer We Got Saved by Pat Cunningham Devoto (Warner Books, $23.95)
Far from a clichéd coming-of-age tale set during the Civil Rights era, this authentic rendering gives us characters not at all eager for a consciousness-raising. We wince and rejoice at the painful, sweet awakening that comes when injustice is first recognized and demands a response.
The two main story lines revolve around Maudie and Tab, characters the author introduced as best friends in a previous novel. In this latest story, Maudie, a young black woman, fears the loss of her independence after polio leaves her using a crutch. Tab, a teenage white girl, is secure in her place as a beloved child in a well-respected, financially struggling farm family.
Their stories intertwine but never converge in this book. However Maudie and Tab share similar paths. When Maudie is asked to operate a voter-registration school at a rural church, she accepts--not because of a righteous desire to join Martin Luther King, Jr.'s movement but because she wants to escape a bleak future as a disabled woman. Tab's odyssey from the familiar comes about through her Aunt Eugenia, who, without the family's knowledge, tries to "save" Tab and Tab's older sister, Tina, by taking them to a camp for civil rights protesters.
In The Summer We Got Saved, Pat Cunningham Devoto delivers a powerful testimony on the struggle that rocked our nation, leading us to ponder our own responses to difficult choices. Nancy Dorman-Hickson
