The View from Mount Joy by Lorna Landvik

The Abingdon Branch group met in April to discuss The View from Mount Joy. I was not present for this meeting as I was in the Pacific North-West in Portland and Seattle, during a very cold & cloudy week where I managed not to see Mount Hood, Mount St. Helens, and Mount Rainier, so I certainly didn't get any views from any mountains. In general, however, the group enjoyed this book though some didn't like some episodes of bad language. This novel is set in the early seventies and mentions drug use and has language appropriate to the characters.

Publishers Weekly says:
Landvik's latest light drama opens as Joe Andreson transfers into a Minneapolis high school as a class of '72 senior. Like everyone else, Joe has a major thing for head cheerleader Kristi Casey—a version of Reese Witherspoon's character in Election. Joe gets some action, but is estranged from Kristi by graduation. As the years pass, and they stay in touch sporadically, Joe, who narrates, can't quite let go of his infatuation. He becomes an innovative grocer, still unmarried at mid-book, and Kristi transforms into a Bible-thumping radio/televangelist. Joe builds solid relationships with his mother and her new husband, and reconnects with high school friend Darva Pratt (who returns to town with her daughter, Flora), while Kristi sets her sights on the White House. Landvik (Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons) deftly mixes humor and pathos in Kristi's ditzy On the Air with God radio show, starkly contrasted by her quietly powerful portrait of Joe, a man with real family values. (Sept.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A list of discussion questions may be found at:
http://www.readinggroupguides.com/guides_V/view_from_mount_joy1.asp

Lorna Landvik has written several novels including Angry Housewives Eating Bonbons, and The Tall Pine Polka. She lives with her family in Minneapolis.
Information on the author can be found on the Random House website at:
http://www.readinggroupguides.com/guides_V/view_from_mount_joy1.asp