On June 10th we meet at the home of Charmaine Lewis to discuss Songs in Ordinary Time by Mary McGarry Morris. We all decided it was a dark story that involved MANY characters who live in the town of Atkinson during a sweltering period of the summer. In this small town many of the black widow spider webs connect back to the Fermoyle family. The bad guy is a door to door salesman. The youngest son, Ben witnessed the murder committed by the salesman. His name is Omar Duvall and he is great at selling himself to everyone he meets (especially Ben’s mother). They all want to get rich on his sceme of selling soaps. As I said there are lots of characters 52 to be exact and what a diverse group they are. We have business people, a blind man who sells popcorn and hears everything. We also have the sheriff’s family, an insurance man who robs his clients, the town alcoholic who is Ben’s father and the priest and bishop from the Catholic church. The best part of the discussion was looking back at the imagination the author possessed in the vivid description of all the people in the town. We could see their expressions, smell their perspiration, visualize their offices, parks and even taste their meals. It is one big soap opera with few specks of sunlight but many learn their life lessons by summers end. It was a tough read but excellent characters to learn from.