The Tea Wasn’t Always Sweet

F. Diane Pickett’s second novel, THE TEA WASN’T ALWAYS SWEET, is an ambitious saga spanning a good portion of the 20th century and into the 21st century, about the life of a determined Southern woman fighting sexism to achieve independence. Sissy’s mother left the Sissy and her brother Robbie when they were young. Her strict father brought them up as a single father, unusual in those times, and the stigma of growing up without a mother in the house scarred both Sissy and her brother in different ways. Sissy marries a closeted gay man in the 1950’s, and eventually divorces him when he makes her life unbearable. She goes on to build a strong career, but her brother’s suicide leaves her caring for his children. The book is framed primarily in conversations Sissy has with her favorite cousin Joyce, her best friend “Super Sue” and her brother, discussing the injustices and social changes of the various decades. Sissy is the center of the book, rendered in her complexity, determination, pain, and humor. Any woman who lived through the era of the book will recognize and champion Sissy’s struggles, and the book serves as an important history lesson for those who didn’t.