Heading Out to Wonderful / Robert Goolrick / 296 pages

It's 1948 and Charlie Beale is a charming young man home from the war who is wandering the country with a suitcase full of money in search of some place wonderful.  He thinks he has found it in Brownsburg, a small Virginia town, and starts to settle down until he meets the meanest, richest man in town's wife, Sylvan Glass and becomes completely possessed by his desire for her.  Sylvan is a lonely, starstruck, backwoods teenage girl, who Boaty Glass buys from her father for cash and a tractor.  This is a book rich in characters, history, setting, and emotion.  The passionate relationship of Charlie & Sylvan destroys them, warps an innocent young boy, and changes the entire town.  Great choice for a book discussion group.  I wonder sometimes what authors would do if they couldn't write about life in small towns!