CLAIRE CONSIDERS Ditch Weed by Rhett DeVane

CLAIRE CONSIDERS Ditch Weed by Rhett DeVane

Rhett DeVane is a truly fine writer, one who creates books where the many conflicts are warmly coated with insight, compassion, and the right dash of wry humor—and sprinkles of Southern wisdom in the form of pithy sayings. DeVane is a gem, really, and so it is no surprise that she displays her talents and wit once more in her most recent novel, “Ditch Weed” (Twisted Road Publication June 2024)( https://twistedroadpublications.com/). “Ditch Weed” is a heartfelt story, ultimately uplifting, about transcendence and friendships. It is all the more engaging because the friendships at its core are unusual. And while these friendships form the emotional core of the novel, don’t think that means things don’t happen because there’s action a plenty in the rich plot.

Danae, a runaway teenager who lands in the small Florida town of Chattahoochee, is befriended by a much older woman, Mevlyn, when they meet in a laundromat that Mevlyn owns. Mevlyn quickly judges that the 18-year-old is a “purty much ruined” and thinks this is “etched all over her, as clear as if it been printed in permanent marker.” But Mevlyn is a wise old soul who also notes the teen is polite, and so the older woman offers to help the younger one with her loads of dirty clothes. It’s a slow start to what builds first into a solid friendship and then a mother-daughter family relationship.

Danae is hiding a secret, or maybe more than one, that much Mevlyn sees early on, but she respects the young woman because Mevlyn has a few secrets of her own. Yet what is not secret is that Mevlyn is being overwhelmed with the demands of owning and running the laundromat while caring for her much beloved husband, Sam, who is dying of cancer. Danae soon becomes the helpmate Mevlyn and Sam both need. The scenes between the two women and Sam remain tender, honest, and touching, never once dipping into sentimentality or cliche.

Danae also befriends, or is befriended by, a Black youth named Malcolm, who steps lightly around some of the town’s more threatening sorts as he recognizes: “Some of the kind, upstanding citizens in this very crowd would gladly string me up” for being Black. Their relationship is not a romantic one, though some in the town appear to think so and to be angered by the possibility of a Black man with a White girlfriend. That Malcolm’s father is a well-respected police officer in the town will prove helpful to both Malcolm and Danae. Malcolm dreams of leaving the small town and making something of himself, and in the meantime, he tells Danae, “I don’t want to bring down that bucket of hate over my head.”

Gradually Danae’s unhappy back story is revealed. To DeVane’s credit as an experienced, talented author, this back story is eased into the seams of the novel naturally and also creates the “what happens next?” element most novels need. The story drops in lines such as this which propel the reader onward: “Next time, she’ll do more than leave the old man in a pool of blood, out cold.”

Danae’s sister, who disappeared as an apparent runaway when little more than a child, floats through the developing story as both memory and as someone Danae seeks. When Danae spots a young woman in the town who she believes could be her lost sister, she does not directly confront the other woman. Rather, she warily gathers information about this person, leading to yet another small mystery and building suspense as to why Danae is so cautious and reluctant to simply introduce herself and ask if the woman might be her sister.

It's not a plot spoiler to mention Danae has a child. The story opens with that fact. But the mystery of who the father is and other circumstances surrounding this child are only slowly revealed, once more creating a tension in the story that moves the plot onward with interest. DeVane knows well how to pace a story for maximum interest.

Though the story has far more lightness than darkness, the darkness is there. Physical abuse, violence, attempted rape, vandalism, and racism all find a sinister place in the plot. As Malcolm observes: “The South may be covered with a drape of civility, but the hate is there, waiting for a good enough reason to pop out. I am no crusader. I don’t plan on providing that reason.” Yet, with the optimism that dominates the story, the author writes: “Necessity makes for strange bedfellows, another old saying Mevlyn holds up as truth. A gay black man and a redneck white man cooped up in the same space. Their mutual love for the gal sets aside differences. Still, Mevlyn would pay good money to eavesdrop on the conversation in that truck.”

While the action and interplay among the characters drives the plot, DeVane excels in her world-building. Readers will feel like they are living in Chattahoochee and moving in the same environs as Danae, Mevlyn, Sam, and Malcolm. DeVane elicits the five senses as she pulls readers into the fabric of the novel with passages like: “The room feels warm and close, and reeks of fake mountain-spring air. Too much heat radiates from the [washing] machines…”

DeVane is well known for sprinkling Southernisms throughout her many books, and “Ditch Weed” is no different. These saying mesh with the plot and also stand on their own. For example, she writes: “What you put out—good and bad—has a way of doubling back at you,” and “No matter that Danae isn’t blood kin. Heart kin can be as good, better even.”

All in all, “Ditch Weed” is a wonderful book, entertaining and uplifting, warm yet suspenseful, well written and genuine.

Fans of DeVane’s books might recognize a few characters in “Ditch Weed” from her prior seven adult novels set in Chattahoochee, Florida. The author is originally from Chattahoochee, and now lives nearby in Tallahassee, Florida. In addition to her adult Southern fiction novels, she also writes Middle Grade and Young Adult fantasy series. Her works have won numerous awards from the Tallahassee Writers Association, Florida Authors and Publishers Association, and the Florida Writers Association. "Suicide Supper Club" won first place in 2014 for fiction from the Florida Authors and Publishers Association. Visit her at https://rhettdevane.com/