Faith Bass Darling's Last Garage Sale

I just finished this book, and while I wasn't sure what to make of it at first, it was fabulously entertaining. One by one, a cast of characters from this little Texas town were introduced. Each with a distinct personality, each with a memory or a thought about the Bass/Darling family.

What starts out as an ordinary garage sale on the last day of the previous millenium, turns into a day of redemption and reckoning. We learn the truths of these characters in a way that makes us root for each of them and their own personal battles.

You will be intrigued to find out why Faith Bass Darling is emptying her mansion of antiques and selling everything for next to nothing. Spanish linin tablecloths - 10 for $1. Dining room table - $20. Four poster Chippendale bed - $20.

You will be interested to hear about Bobbi, who went to the mansion only once as a child, but it became her dream to know more about these treasures.

You will be fascinated by the elephant clock, a treasure of epic proportions, that is worth of a museum, not just a big ol' mansion in a small Texas town.

You will fall in love with the Deputy Sheriff who has a history and a deep dark secret and looks out for Mrs. Darling.

You will loathe Claude Angus Darling, the deceased husband of Faith, who was not kind to his wife, to his children, to his children's friends.

You will love that the water lily painting - through divine intervention - makes it back home.

You will love the feeling of coming home that was written into the pages of this book, no matter where you grew up or where you currently live.

You will want to purchase this book because the read is so worth it.

While the world braces for computer chaos on the eve before Y2K, Faith Bass Darling has a different priority. She is the sole occupant of the family mansion in Bass, Texas. On December 31, 1999 she decides she will die the next day. To prepare, seventy-year-old Faith dons her best white summer dress and matching sun hat. She pays teenage boys to carry her belongings out onto the big wrap-around porch and front lawn. Tiffany lamps, an antique French clock, and an heirloom wedding ring from 1870 are some of the "bargains" she tags for a garage sale. Her Alzheimer disease hides any memory of the care given to these heirlooms by generations of her family.

Faith's life is told in a series of flashbacks. Her family losses are moving and sensitively told. Her garage sale and bargain-pricing of invaluable items show she puts little stock in worldly possessions. What ultimately matters to Faith Bass Darling is freedom from her mind, which she constantly struggles to keep intact.

Ironic and interesting are the sections titled "Provenance" where the author values and explains the history behind the "priceless" items Faith sells for a pittance. The book draws a line between rich and poor and is an important message that wealth doesn't necessarily bring happiness. Well-written and original, Faith Bass Darling's Last Garage Sale is a debut deserving of your attention.

Reviewed by Holly Weiss, author of Crestmont

Lynda Rutledge's first novel is a tremendous accomplishment. She is a writer with a wonderful sense of style. Her language breathes and holds the reader's attention with every turn of phrase. Structurally, the novel is brilliantly conceived. Centering the action around the single day of her main character's garage sale gives the novel a tremendous sense of energy and cohesion. Choosing the last day of the last millennium for the story adds to the momentous quality of the action. The whole history of Rutledge's characters is brilliantly realized in memory flashbacks when the occasion demands. The characters are beautifully drawn, from the Alzheimer's addled Faith herself to everyone contingent upon the effect of her garage sale. I picked up the novel one Sunday morning and finished it the same day--I just could not put it down. Lynda Rutledge very well could be a major author, writing about the trials of people in a small Texas town the way Anne Tyler writes about the denizens of Baltimore. I must chime in with the blurbs on the book's cover: I can't remember the last time I enjoyed a first novel so much. This would be a great book for high school curricula as well--its quality is such that it deserves to be taught to students as much as A Separate Peace and Catcher in the Rye.

On the last day of the millennium, right after midnight, Faith bass Darling, the richest old lady in Bass, Texas, heard a voice she hadn't heard for many years - the Almighty's. Considering that Faith and the Almighty hadn't been on speaking terms for some time, Faith decided she needed to listen. And apparently the Almighty himself told Faith to have a garage sale as part of a deal - a deal about death and dying and her late husband Claude and all that had happened in the 75 preceding years.

So dawn found Faith Bass darling dragging all sorts of precious antiques onto her front yard: a Louis XV elephant clock, a roomful of Louis Comfort Tiffany lamps, silverware, china, breakfronts, and sterling silver tea services.

When asked if she is losing her mind, Faith replies, "As we speak."

Simultaneously, heading back to town after being gone lo these many years is Faith's daughter Claudia. Faith is convinced that Claudia stole her heirloom wedding ring 20 years earlier. Claudia, in fact, did not steal the ring. Instead she left it tucked into a pigeonhole in the oak rolltop desk, and wrote her mother a letter telling her where it was.

Among the treasures being displayed on the front lawn are the rolltop desk... and a bundle of unopened letters from Claudia to her mother.

And so, as the townsfolk come to gawk and walk away with maybe a Monet for a nickel, Bobbi Ann, local antique dealer and longtime friend of Claudia's, is frantically summoning Claudia to deal with the situation and John Jasper, local lawman and boyhood friend of Faith's died-too-young son Mike, is trying to help Faith and understand all that she is telling him.

Faith, on the other hand, is divesting the mansion of its contents while confronting memories of her precious son, her less than precious and quite dead husband, and her willful disowned daughter, all before the 20th century goes out with a bang.

Here then, are the top ten things that are great about "Faith Bass Darling's Last Garage Sale."

10. An evocative sensual description of a Texas oil town, made great generations ago and now moving on... or not.

9. Faith's insights on possessions. "Do you think it's a coincidence that `possessed' and `possessions' are the same word?"

8. A quick antique lesson, through Faith's collection and Bobbi's love of them. Did you know there were different types of Tiffany lamps? That Louis XV had a clock that was an elephant automaton? You will when you finish the book.

7. A sense of humor. Lynda Rutledge tells her tale with whimsy, warmth, and humor. Sure, it's about death and dying and the dead, but Rutledge sees it all with a smile.

6. Great characters. Besides Faith herself, there's the woman who used to clean for Faith, and was the keeper of the table of Tiffany lamps. Each week she made them shine. Now she's a professional woman, but she still remembers the joy the lamps gave her. John Jasper, whose promising football career ended the day Mike died, who watches over the town but never goes near the old bridge. The lonely minister, besotted with Faith, who gave her the painting from the rectory office and now thinks he should probably get it back. The characters are rich and varied, and their stories twisted and quirky and intriguing.

5. Interesting take on the slow slip from reality. Faith is on a journey many of us may take. Is this what it's really like?

4. Interesting history. You'll get a glimpse of Texas oil days.

3. Some great thoughts on aging and dying. "Without our memories, who are we, John Jasper?" Faith's gaze wandered again. "I'd rather not have some of my memories, and God knows it's been a small bit of grace not to remember them for long stretched of time. But good or bad, they're mine. They're who I am. And when the last one goes, what will I be? A celery stalk..."

2. Unraveling of sad and twisted tales - how Faith's son died, what happened to Claude, why John Jasper can't drive by the oil field. Each story is revealed, piece by piece, until we have the whole... or as whole as we're allowed to have.

1. It goes out with a bang. All the storylines come together in a grand finale where everyone gets a little bit of what they want, and perhaps a little bit of what they need.

Lynda Rutledge takes us on an existential journey through the concept of "stuff". Are we defined by how much "stuff "we have, how much money our "stuff" is worth, or how much others think our "stuff" is worth? Does our "stuff" really matter if it is not appreciated? Is this "stuff" a definition of our lives, a tangible thing that reflects who we are and what we deem important? Does our "stuff" define us or do we define our "stuff"? Is our "stuff" something that weighs us down and keeps us from growing and examining more important issues?
Long after you have read this book, you will be thinking about the issues around your own "stuff". Ultimately, the book is about the importance of relationships and how choosing to discard or value our "stuff" helps us examine issues that may have been kept under a layer of dust in the attics and closets of our minds.
Like an unexpected garage sale find, this gem of a book is worth more than its face value. The message, presented with humor and pathos through endearing characters, will continue to speak to you long after you read that last page.

Think Steel Magnolias in Texas. My favorite character is the Episcopalian Priest. He seems to embody the undercurrent of our inner lives which many of us never face. In fact, the author gives each of the characters a depth that makes me proud to say I'm from a small town! Everyone should read this book. And just in case they don't -- it definitely needs to be made into a movie. But, please, don't make the antique dealer wear a pink pantsuit all day again! Ha....ha...

The cover of this book is so eye-catching, I don't know how anyone could walk by it and not pick it up. Faith Bass Darling, the elderly wealthy woman whose family founded the Texas town of Bass, has heard the voice of God and he wants her to have a garage sale and sell all of her worldly goods. This won't be any ordinary garage sale; Faith has collected hundreds of expensive antiques over the years. She pays some high school football players to haul her items out of her house and place them on the lawn.

When word spreads about the sale, and the fact that Darling is selling antique Tiffany lamps for just a $1, people race to get a deal. Bobbie Blankenship, the town antique store owner and friend of Faith's estranged daughter, is torn between shock at what she sees going on and the desire to get her hands on some of the more valuable items for herself. When Bobbie tries to talk some sense into Faith and get her to get a proper appraisal and hold a real auction, Faith brushes her off. Bobbie realizes that Faith is suffering from dementia and calls Faith's daughter Claudia to get home on the double.

As the story progresses, we meet Claudia, and John Jasper, a sheriff's deputy and former best friend to Faith's son who was tragically killed in an accident when he was in high school. When he asks Faith why she is doing this, she tells him that she killed her husband years ago.

No one can talk Faith out of giving her items away, and she can't explain to them exactly why it is necessary to do this. Through the antiques, we get the back story of what has happened to the Darling family, and why they are estranged. Some of the pieces have important stories of their own, stories that explain how Faith has gotten to this point in her life.

The writing really draws you in, and the characters seem like real small-town people that you would know. You feel like Bass, Texas is a real place, and if you went there, you'd run into Bobbie and John Jasper on your journey through the town. The story fascinated me, and one question leads to another. I liked Faith Bass Darling and how her search for the truth behind memories and the meaning of possessions and spirituality in your life comes together for her.

One elderly wealthy widow. One prodigal daughter. One former high school football star. One antiques dealer with hometown ethics. One depressed Episcopal priest. A supporting cast of small-town Texans and departed relatives. All of these come together in an orchestral crescendo on the day when Faith Bass Darling hears the voice of God and starts hauling the family antiques out of her Victorian mansion and spreading them around the front lawn.

With that intriguing kickoff, this novel spins away in several directions--some tragic, some comic, all fascinating. We learn that Mrs. Darling is struggling with Alzheimer's and old resentments--and she's certain that today, December 31, 1999, will be her last day on Earth. Yet she can't seem to get things clear in her mind, and when her long-estranged daughter arrives, Faith doesn't know her. She does know John Jasper, her dead son's best friend who is now a deputy sheriff, but everyone else comes and goes, illusion and reality fading into each other. She's selling priceless antiques for whatever anyone is willing to pay, while one of her daughter's old friends rushes to rescue major items from the avid bargain-hunters.

In the course of the long and eventful day, virtually everyone who comes into contact with Faith finds ways to examine their own lives and memories, coming to terms with their own ghosts and clearing up old mistakes and misunderstandings. Even the Episcopal priest, whom she gifts with a dimestore portrait of Jesus that isn't what he really wants, becomes part of the wave of new insights and, some might argue, small miracles that sort of fall into place.

This is a lovely novel--funny, moving, thoughtful, truthful--with characters you can't help but like and care about. It leaves you pondering on what is really most important in your life, and hoping that Lynda Rutledge will write another book soon.

There are many things that things going for this book. One, the plot sounds really interesting and wholly unique. Two, the cover is fantastic. Three, it's a debut and that's always exciting. For me, though, it held a lot of unfulfilled promise.
The main issue that I found with it is that it is rather dull. Slow-paced and convoluted, the narrative is not nearly interesting enough to keep the reader fully focused on the page. Many times I found myself skimming, which is horrible both for the reader and for the writer. No one wants her words ignored. None of the characters are likeable in a manner that will keep you looking to see what happens next, and there seemed to be a lot of "filler" scenes that didn't do much for the story or for character advancement.
There were a few moments which were well written, with wit and managing to avoid the pathos that permeate the rest of the book. I'm not saying it's an easy topic to write about. It's very tough to avoid melodrama when dealing with Alzheimer's as a plot point, but it can be done. Just, for me, not like this.
I can't really recommend this, although I'm sure there are many people out there who'll say the complete opposite. It's just wasn't as deep and lovely as I thought it'd be.

I picked this for my book club to read and it was a GREAT discussion! I loved the well developed characters not to mention the twists and turns this novel takes to make for a great book with depth. Get reading!!