“Saving CeeCee Honeycutt” by Beth Hoffman is a combination of “The Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood” meets “Steel Magnolias” and morphs into “The Secret Life of Bees”. Cee Cee is 12-year old Cecelia Rose Honeycutt. She lives with her psychotic mother, Camille Sugarbaker Honeycutt, and mostly absent father, Carl, in 1960s Willoughby, Ohio. The increasing deranged Camille is trapped in her moment in the sun as the 1951 Vidalia Onion Queen. She is the laughingstock of town as she flounces around Willoughby with smeared lipstick, in old prom dresses and with a tiara, perched on her head. CeeCee’s father, a traveling salesman, is rarely home, and when he is, he drowns his sorrows in a bottle of booze. CeeCee’s life is miserable. She has no friends and is her mother’s mother. CeeCee’s only escape is reading.
When the Happy Cow Ice Cream Truck runs over Camille, Great Aunt Tootie Caldwell comes to the rescue. Arriving in a vintage Packard, Aunt Tootie takes CeeCee to Savannah and a world of Southern gentility, prosperity and eccentricity. A cadre of strong, independent women (Ya Ya Magnolia Bees) take CeeCee under their wings and changes her life for the better.
Great Aunt Tootie is Southern gentility at its best. She is a prominent Savannah society woman whose is passionate about the restoration of historic homes. In her home CeeCee finds a sanctuary, love and understanding.
The outlandish Thelma Rae Goodpepper, Tootie’s next door neighbor, is rather exotic for staid Savannah. She bathes in her outdoor bathtub under the watchful eye of her pet peacock. Garden slugs are her weapons of choice in her undeclared guerilla war with her next door neighbor, Violene Hobbs.
Violene Hobbs, also a neighbor of Tootie, is the town gossip, and a social climbing, racist hypocrite. Violene aknows no shame. While holding a clandestine tryst with a married cop, Violene lands in the hospital after slipping on one of Thelma Rae’s slingshot launched slugs.
Oletta Jones is Tootie’s tough-on-the-outside but soft-on-the-inside housekeeper/cook. Along with Tootie, Oletta provides CeeCee the love and stability she so desperately craves along with the best cinnamon rolls in Savannah.
While “Saving CeeCee Honeycutt” touches on issues of snobbery, racism, insanity and neglect, it breaks no new ground, but it is a fun read. In the words of one reviewer, it is a “Southern charmer”. The male characters are weakly drawn, but the female characters are delightfully quirky. If you are looking for a light, airy read and a few good chuckles, I recommend “Saving CeeCee Honeycutt” by Beth Hoffman. This is Hoffman’s first novel.
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