Meet the Pickles

The Pickles are members of a multi-generational group of farm wives who meet weekly to quilt, chat and ‘improve their minds’.

In her second novel, The Persian Pickle Club, Sandra Dallas has created female characters that most have met time and again.  First, there’s the timid older lady (Ella Crook) along with the overbearing and bossy woman (Septima Judd).  Next, comes the inexperienced, newly married, young girl (Queenie Bean and Rita Ritter) and lastly, the average woman who just tries to get along with everyone else (Ada June Zinn and Sabra Ritter).

(Since some bookclubbers found it difficult to differentiate between these characters and the rest of the Persian Pickle Club, too, a list appears below.)

• Sabra: the jolly matriarch of the Ritter family. She happily accepts her role as: farmer’s wife and mother of grown children, Tom and Agnes T.

• Agnes: knobby figure, no lips and little slit eyes, characterize the unmarried daughter of Sabra and Howard. Setting her career plans aside, this 25-year-old reluctantly works the family farm in her brother’s absence.

• Rita: recent addition to the Ritter clan by her marriage to Tom. This 23-year-old scrap of a girl comes straight from Denver.  Rita’s buttery curls, huge eyes, and ambition to be  journalist immediately set her apart from the other Pickles.

• Septima Judd: the unofficial leader and richest member of the club drives a yellow Packard. A formidable matron with thick glasses and a chin full of warts, Mrs. Judd is known for her loyalty and blustery manner.

• Queenie Bean: the narrator and youngest member of the Persian Pickle Club. As the talkative wife of Grover, she pictures herself as small framed (bigger than Rita’s 5 foot, 100 pounds) with a straight brown bob.

• Opaline Dux:  quiet except when blurting out odd remarks. Characterized by her sweaty hands and long white hair, Opaline has been known to talk to her chickens both inside the house and out.

• Ada June Zinn: almost  40. Her specialty dessert, bread pudding,  always receives compliments from the Pickles, her six children and husband, Buck.

• Ceres Root: The only living founding member of the group suffers from arthritic hands which makes quilting difficult.

• Ella Crook: accepting of the hardship of farming with no electricity. At 60 plus years of age, she is the best quilter of the group. Described as small and wispy, Ella’s sweet disposition and frequent blushes, make her a favorite with all of the Pickles.

• Nettie Burgett: looks older than her 50 years, with her gray hair and even grayer skin.  Her worries include a gambling husband, Tyrone; a promiscuous daughter, Velma; and a goiter always carefully covered with a scarf.

• Forest Ann Finding: a widow crowned by a halo of hair the color of maize.  Pretty and slender, she appears younger than Nettie, her sister-in-law. Could it be the man who stops by at 5 p.m. daily that keeps Forest Ann looking  so young?

Narrator Queenie Bean, holds the two-part story together.

Part 1 introduces the setting: 1930s, drought-ridden Harveyville, Kansas, and the characters (listed above) all struggling to make a living during the depression years. Funny thing though, none of the Pickles nor their immediate families seem to be going hungry or lack gasoline to power their cars.   In fact, the Beans (especially Grover) have been known to feed and house any drifters who might happen by their property.

Part 2 includes the murder mystery that some reviewers found “far-fetched and totally unnecessary”. When the bones of Ben Crook are found in the far-north field, Rita sees her chance to get off the farm and back to the big city. Eager to help her friend, Queenie happily chauffeurs the fledgling reporter around the countryside collecting information for her big ’scoop’.

Returning from an errand of mercy at the Burgett farm late one evening,  the two young women are terrorized by a roving tramp intent on ‘having a little fun’. From that point on, the youngest Pickle hooks the screen door and stays close to home leaving Rita to pursue the story of Ben Crook’s murder alone.

After having read through “some dirty old record books” and “asking questions of people who didn’t want to talk about Ben Crook”, Rita ends up with more confessions that she can handle – one from every member of the Persian Pickle Club.

Who really did kill Ben Crook?  Read the book and find out.

Information about other books by Sandra Dallas can be found at:  www.sandradallas.com.

For discussion questions go to:  www.search.barnesand noble.com/Persian-Pickle-Club/Sandra-Dallas/e/9780312147013/?itm=1 Be sure to click the tab for features.