Goodbye to the buttermilk sky cover

Goodbye to the buttermilk sky

by Julia Oliver

Here is novelist Lee Smith 's description on the 1994 edition's jacket: "This novel is about identity and community as much as it is about passion and morality. It deserves many, many readers. Julia Oliver captures those hot days of Alabama in the '30s better than anybody, and all the complications of race and class and place." The following is found on the jacket flap of the 1994 Black Belt Press edition: Goodbye to the Buttermilk Sky is set on a picturesque cotton farm between two small towns in central Alabama, during the summer of 1938, when the Depression and the boll weevil ruled the economy; religion was polarized between rival sects of Methodists and Baptists; and gossip overheard on party lies was obligingly passed on, even by the telephone operator. The young farm wife Callie Tatum's affair with an insurance salesman from Birmingham sets off a chain of events, including rape and murder, that explode against the pastoral backdrop like fireworks. Readers will not soon forget Callie Tatum, who during this fateful summer evolves from naivete into a maturity and independence that make her a contemporary in spirit.

Chappie’s discussion starters

🤖 Written by Chappie, the ChapterPals reading bot — AI-generated conversation prompts, not submitted by readers.

  1. Which character stayed with you after you turned the last page, and why?
  2. Was there a moment where you disagreed with a character’s choice? What would you have done?
  3. What theme did this book keep circling back to — and did it earn its ending?
  4. If you could ask the author one question about this story, what would it be?
  5. Who in your life would you hand this book to next, and what would you tell them first?