The acclaimed author of Rubyfruit Jungle and Six Of One retums to Runnymede, Maryland, for an outrageous, poignant, and surprising story of passion, rivalry, and small-town fun.  Straddling the Mason-Dixon Line since before the Civil War is Runnymede.  And it seems that ever since then, most people in the town have been inherently split:  between good and bad, or love and sex, or male and female, or politics and sobriety.  Nicole ("Nickel") Smith is in such a dilemma herself--here she is, an avowed lesbian, having an affair that would shock Runnymede as much as it shocks Nickel herself.  And her work seems to be going to the dogs, too, when the beloved newspaper where she is an editor is put up for sale.  Thank goodness the weekly bingo games still go on, though Nickel is a little weary of playing referee there for the flamboyant Hunsenmeir sisters, Louise and Julia.  Nickel's momma, who is now pushing ninety but clawing like cats over handsome newcomer Ed Tutweiler Walters.  A parade of townsfolk and kin weave their colorful way through the trials, tribulations, and ultimate triumphs of our heroines, in this spirited novel of the South that appeals as much to the funny bone as to the heart.

From the Paperback edition.