Jenny by Nature

From bookjacket:The heroine of the new novel by America's most widely read author is an outspoken, life-loving, woman of courage who knows how to speak up for herself: "I'm Jenny by name and Jenny by nature, and I couldn't be changed even by legislature. I never was one to make a pretense of not wanting a man for company."Jenny's romming-house on Morningside Street, Sallisaw, Indianola County, Georgia, belonged to her house and lot, free and clear. When those gospel-shouting Rugged Cross people built their church right spang up against Jenny's property line close enough to shut out her sunlight, thinking she'd take the hint and move away, they just didn't know Jenny. When the complained that it was a sinning shame for her to take in Shorty (3 feet) Goodwillie as a roomer, her friend Judge Milo Rainey told her what she already knew -- she was in her rights. Of course, when it came to her other roomer, attractive Betty Woodruff, the Rugged Cross preacher had different ideas -- a strong and compelling urge to meet Betty at the Pleasant Hours Motel. It was mighty embarrassing for everybody, especially Preacher Clough, when SHeriff Cling Huffman got called to the motel by a member of the congregation.But of all Jenny's acts of courage, the bravest was the time she rented a room to dark-skinned Lawanna Neleight, when no one else in the whole of Sallinaw would -- because Dale WOmack who ran the town said they couldn't. Lawanna said she was part-Indian, but Dade said she was a Negro and what Dade said went. Judge Milo Rainey warned Jenny she was headed for big trouble and there wasn't any way of stopping it, but Jenny went ahead and did what she thought was right.Într-un orăşel din Georgia sudistă, Veasey Goodwillie, un pitic de circ neastâmpărat, Betty, o fostă profesoară libertină şi Lawana, o mulatră în căutarea unei slujbe îşi găsesc cu toţii adăpost în căminul primitor al lui Jenny Royster, o proprietăreasă durdulie şi inimoasă, de mult trecută de prima tinereţe, cu un trecut furtunos şi un prezent pe măsură. Înzestrată cu o tenacitate excepţională şi sprijinită de un prieten de nădejde, Jenny se confruntă rând pe rând cu nemulţumirile stârnite de moravurile chiriaşilor săi, cu pericolul de a-şi pierde proprietatea, cu prejudecăţile rasiale şi nu în ultimul rând cu ignoranţa şi bigotismul unei comunităţi înapoiate.Cu siguranţă unul dintre cele mai apreciate romane ale lui Erskine Caldwell, Jenny combină cu succes comedia spumoasă cu pasiunea, deschizând totodată o fereastră asupra realităţilor dure ale unei epoci controversate din istoria americană.