Passing Through Perfect. Bette Lee Crosby

Passing Through Perfect
Bette Lee Crosby
Published: Bent Pine Publishing
Date: January 2015
Format: ebook
Pages: 256
Genre: Historical Fiction
Source: from the author

It's 1946. The war is over. Millions of American soldiers are coming home and Benjamin Church is one of them. After four years of being away he thought things in Alabama would have changed, but they haven't. Grinder's Corner is as it's always been--a hardscrabble burp in the road. It's not much, but it's home.

When Benjamin attends a harvest festival in Twin Pines, he catches sight of Delia. Before their first dance ends, he knows for certain she's the one. They fall madly in love: happily, impatiently, imprudently, in love. It doesn't matter that her daddy is staunchly opposed to the thought of his daughter marrying a cotton farmer, never mind a poor one.

It's true Benjamin has little to offer; he's a sharecropper who will spend his whole life sweating and slaving to do little more than put food on the table. But that's how things are in Alabama. Benjamin is better off than most; he has a wife, a boy he adores, and a house that doesn't leak rain. Yes, Benjamin considers himself a lucky man until the fateful night that changes everything.

Passing Through Perfect by Bette Lee Crosby is #3 in the Wyattsville series.  This is the story of Benjamin, his dad Otis, his wife Delia and his son Isaac. It has the warm depth of family weaving through its pages and sadly also discrimination is alive and active.

When the story opens in Alabama Benjamin has just returned from the war, he then works alongside his father to farm the land, a hard and sometimes rewarding work.  When he marries Delia they have a son Isaac.  

Benjamin is a hard worker, he loves his family and they mean everything to him.  Life is full of struggles and challenges but when there is love you can get through.  However Benjamin also experiences loss and it is that experience that catapults him into moving north.  

I loved meeting up with the Klaussners again and Paul and Ruby.  It was wonderful to see them so settled and happy and open to being good friends with Benjamin and Isaac.  I loved their loyalty, thoughtfulness and deep heartedness.  Really they embodied one path people can take in life, in my view the better path as opposed to those who were so bigoted. 

This novel explores the best of family and the thoughtfulness and kindness toward strangers.  It also explores the discrimination that African Americans suffered at that time, and sadly has not yet resolved yet in today's world.  A book like this highlights the need for a change of heart. So where is Perfect? Well read the book and find out. It's a perfect title I do believe.

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