Velva Jean Learns to Drive: A Novel

by: Jennifer Niven

Published by: Plume — member of the Penguin Group (USA)

Reviewed by Beth Cummings

Although her two non-fiction works have won several awards and accolades, Velva Jean Learns to Drive is author Jennifer Niven’s first novel. It is a coming-of-age story about a young girl in the Appalachian mountains of North Carolina during the 1930s.

Velva Jean is blessed with a strong musical talent – both a lovely singing voice and the ability to write songs. Her earliest ambition is to join the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. Her mother encourages this dream, as does her older brother, Johnny Clay. But when Velva Jean’s mother dies and her father takes off to look for work, the dream gets set to the side. Soon she begins to fall in love with the local moonshiner’s son, Harley. When Harley begins to make money as a revival preacher, he comes to ask Velva Jean to be his wife. At sixteen, she marries and sets about becoming the right kind of wife for a preacher – while still creating songs and singing the when no one is around.

Jennifer Niven has created a wonderful character in Velva Jean. She is warm-hearted and loving, yet filled with questions and anger about her mother’s death and her father’s long absences from the family. She loves her exciting husband, but then begins to chafe as he tries to fit her into his mold of what a preacher’s wife should be. One way she has of rebelling is to learn to drive an old pickup truck that her brother has given her. It was painted vivid yellow–and just looking at it makes her days seem brighter. Learning to drive it gives her a new feeling of possible independence.

The book is not based on Jennifer Niven’s own background, but her grandfather did come from a family that lived in the mountains of Appalachia. She states in her Afterword that at least some of the details come from family letters, pictures and stories. She has done a wonderful job of putting them together to make a young woman, a family and a community that epitomize that rural area and the struggles that helped people survive during the Depression years.

The variety of characters and philosophies in the book would make it and excellent choice for book group discussions. I would strongly recommend it.

Armchair Interviews agrees. This is a 5-star job of character-driven storytelling.

Author’s Web site: http://www.JeniferNiven.com