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Thin Blue Smoke by Doug Worgul
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Sometimes you like a book, and you're really not quite sure why. That's how I've been feeling about "Thin Blue Smoke". This book is about black people and white people, poor people and rich people. People who've made big mistakes and picked themselves up and started over because their families and communities loved, cared for and supported them.

This may sound funny, but I grew to care about the characters in the book. . . LaVerne, A.B., Periwinkle (yes,Periwinkle) and Ferguson to name a few. They all have their own stories, but they all connect with each other through LaVerne's restaurant, Smoke Meat. Their lives are not always easy, but they carry on, just as all of us ordinary people do.

I loved the tough conversations that are held with friends, and wise advice that the older folks give to the younger ones. For example, Uncle Delbert to LaVerne during a tough time in LaVerne's life:

"You can lose many years of life in bitter and sad, LaVerne. I did. And I was very alone. It is lonely when we make our hearts like stones."

Or what about this thought from LaVerne to A.B.

". . . love can only exist of its own free will. If God manipulates all our choices and decisions; if we're nothing more than his playthings, then we have no real relationship with him. . .It's only when we're free to commit monstrous acts of murder, that we're also free to love God and each other."

"Thin Blue Smoke" does jump between characters and times in the character's lives, which I know some people struggle with, however I did not find it disruptive to the story line. I feel kind of sad to have to say good-bye to the everyone I met in "Thin Blue Smoke". I'm going to miss connecting with them of an evening!


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