This novella set in a small town in Florida explores a white woman's conscience and consciousness in the late 1970's as she and her black maid come at some ugly truths with distinctly different approaches. When a black child is raped and the white teenager responsible is stabbed to death, Mrs. Ora Beckwith, a recent widow with an outlook she considers enlightened, believes she knows the best way to handle things. Some of her solutions, though, are rejected outright by the individuals she tries to help, and others have long-term consequences she could never have anticipated. The story begins in the country's bicentennial year, and is told by Miss Ora 25 years later, when she is the last of the principals still living. She feels the need to clear her conscience by telling the truth that only she knows about the "Pecan Man" who has died in prison serving 25 to life for the murder. Miss Ora's self-examination and soul-searching are the point of the story, and well played out on the page. The motivations of other characters are more subtly presented, sometimes barely hinted at, but just as clear upon close reading, and equally important to the impact of this brief, moving tale.
Review written in 2015 ( )

5 stars. An unexpected wonderful book! Had a few twists throughout but the biggest one was at the end. Turned out some of it was written around Christmas which was a nice surprise considering I read it in November. I will definitely be reading more of this authors books. ( )

Don’t be fooled by the slender appearance of this novel, it is meaty. It speaks to the time in which it is set, 1976 Mayville, Florida, but it speaks to today just as clearly and it teaches lesson about where we have been and also where we are now.


I could not help thinking about all the homeless individuals that crowd our city streets, who are passed by daily and treated like the great unwashed. Beneath each of those faces is a person, an individual, and while some of them might fit the stereotypes we impose upon them, most do not, but if we never look beyond the surface, we will never know that. Selleck’s pecan man is one of those individuals. Ora Lee initially sees only his surface, but as the novel progresses, we are allowed to see beneath it and glimpse the complicated human being who occupies his skin.


And, skin is also a theme. The color of skin is a subject that gets discussed often these days, and in literary circles the tales that involve skin color are often so lopsided that you are only hearing one voice or another. Selleck has managed to allow us to hear all the voices. She has created flawed human beings, who make earth-shattering decisions because they must, and sometimes choose the wrong path and sometimes do not know, even twenty-five years later, if the path they chose was the correct one. Because paths, like people, are hard to define. They are made up of so many twists and turns and unseen corners. I loved all the people in this book: Ora Lee, Eldred Mims, Blanche Lowery, Marcus, Judge Harley Odell, Chip Smallwood...I loved them because if you scratch their skin, they bleed, and if you want to pigeonhole them, they defy you.


One of the lessons I took away from this book was that we can mean the best, be good and kind people, and still we can hurt someone or hold them back with some subtle behavior that we are cognitively unaware of. What makes Ora Lee a wonderful woman is not that she is perfect, but that she strives to see her flaws and when she does to correct them. Can we ask anything more of one another than that?
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A compelling story. I read it overnight. Interesting interactions between the races. Written by a white woman who grew up in the south. I was glad to see her catch herself making problematic statements. A bit of the whites as savior to this story. I am more challenged by books like this now that I have done more reading on antiracism. Good characters, very real. The twist caught me by surprise and I had to ponder for a bit. Engaging writer. ( )

I loved this little book so much- it has a very powerful story about lies and how they hurt people, even if some lies are told for good. It also explores the meaning of family and how family isn’t always a blood relative.
The Pecan Man is a homeless man, and Ora Lee Beckworth hires him to care for her lawn. This decision causes some neighbors to question her sanity-but Ora Lee is kind and wants to help.
When Ora’s housekeeper’s, Blanche’s, daughter, Grace is harmed, it sets off a series of events that changes all of their lives.
Ora Lee develops an understanding of race relations and how her part in society didn’t always reflect the right way. Still Ora Lee perseveres.
This is a short book (136 pages), but it packs a punch! So good!
#ThePecanMan #CassieDandridgeSelleck ( )