Home, Sweet Home by Saralyn Richard
Home, Sweet Home
by Saralyn Richard
I live on an island, and there’s a saying around here that when you cross the causeway coming into the island, you leave all your troubles behind. The saying must be true, because everyone I know says they experience something truly spiritual whenever they drive into town. It happens to me every time—a lightening of the mood, a warming of the heart, and sometimes, a tear in the eye.
Home is more than a place. It’s an atmosphere, an attitude, a group of people whom you love and who love you back, an album full of memories.
I left my island home many years ago, but the connection remained strong. I moved back in 2005, back to the house I grew up in. Not many people are lucky enough to do this, but I was, and I’m so grateful.
Here in this house, I sat at the kitchen table with my entire nuclear family, had girlfriends spend the night, was picked up for my first and subsequent dates, brought my husband-to-be home to meet my family.
The house and I have been through celebrations and tragedies. I know its every cranny, every pebble in its concrete, every branch of its trees.
No wonder, then, that the homes in my novels are practically characters, especially the estates in the Detective Parrott mystery series, located in Brandywine Valley. Bucolia, Manderley, Sweetgrass, and Moonglow—each with its own special characteristics—serve as places, but also figure into the books’ plots. Secrets abound within their walls.
What connotations of home have you found in some of your favorite books? How did the author breathe life into the homes in those books?
Saralyn Richard writes award-winning humor- and romance-tinged mysteries that pull back the curtain on people in settings as diverse as elite country manor houses and disadvantaged urban high schools. Her works include the Detective Parrott mystery series, two standalone mysteries, a children’s book, and various short stories published in anthologies. She also edited the nonfiction book, Burn Survivors. An active member of International Thriller Writers and Mystery Writers of America, Saralyn teaches creative writing and literature. Her favorite thing about being an author is interacting with readers like you. If you would like to subscribe to Saralyn’s monthly newsletter and receive information, giveaways, opportunities, surveys, freebies, and more, sign up at https://saralynrichard.com.
Usually the books where I remember the “homes” have physical details about the rooms, but it is what the characters do in the rooms that make me remember the homes.
Good observation, Debra. I can think of so many scenes in literature where people make the environment memorable. One that comes to mind is the museum explosion in The Goldfinch.
I always set my books in real places that I know well. Readers often tell me how excited they got when they realized they had been to the very places they were reading about in my books. As an author, I love the connection that creates with readers.
I agree, Lois. I’ve traipsed all over Brandywine Valley, for sure!
Two books come to mind: The Yellow House, by Sarah Broom, a memoir of her family and the generations who grew up in a shotgun house in New Orleans East. It was a 2019 National Book Award Winner, and a wonderful read. And Housekeeping, by Marilynne Robinson, an extraordinary, beautifully-written book.
I haven’t read either of those books, Gay. Glad for the recommendations.
Your setting description reminded me of C. Hope Clark’s Edisto Island series. Love that you can go home again, Saralyn. So many of us have treasured memories in which we wish we could make that happen.