THE ELBOW GREASE LEGACY by Beverly A. Li chronicles the lives of Idalia Sheridan and her youngest daughter, beginning at the end of the Great Depression and continuing for several decades. Idalia marries Jacob without knowing very much about him and subsequently endures his abusive and otherwise irresponsible behaviors for the remainder of their lives together. They have five children, including Tallulah. The family moves often, usually due to Jacob’s employment situation. Jacob leaves the family on several occasions, sometimes to check into a halfway house for alcoholics, and Idalia always takes him back.

Tallulah goes to different schools as her father moves them from place to place, her teenage years spent in the deep South where discrimination runs rampant. She then attends college, majoring in art and psychology, marries a college student and supports them until he graduates, at which time he lands a job in Texas. There, they raise two boys together. Many readers will be able to relate to Idalia and Tallulah’s stories. Their situations, their actions, and the settings in which they take place are customary and believable. The main characters’ raw emotion, honesty, and pain add to the story’s credibility. Absent of plot and narrative arc, THE ELBOW GREASE LEGACY reads more like a memoir than a novel. The narrator describes various elements of Idalia and Tallulah’s lives, which the characters later reexamine and offer a different perspective based on their reflection and introspection. Also similar to a memoir, the underlying theme of the story for the two main characters appears to be their trying to attain a clearer sense of purpose, self-acceptance, and the courage to move forward while going through the motions of their lives.

The amount of internal dialogue and self-reflection outweighs the action and interaction in this book, which will engage some readers but may annoy or bore others by interrupting the flow of the narrative and causing the story to lose momentum. Tallulah, in particular, spends considerable time processing her father’s actions, the relationship she had with him, and how he had influenced her life. Li writes with a unique, expressive voice—playful at times, clinical and somber at others depending on the context of the narrative.

With a writing style that is fluid, well-structured, and easy to read, Beverly A. Li’s THE ELBOW GREASE LEGACY is a memoir-like novel that will engage those who favor character self-reflection and introspection over action and interaction.

~Florence Osmund for IndieReader