The Secrets of the Wisteria Vine

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Sonnie Harper is a young girl growing up in rural south Georgia in the 1920s and 30s.  Her family had been dysfunctional for generations.  Turmoil was significant in the generation before her.  This was a time of great poverty for the farmers of this area due to the Depression and the biggest drought in history.  As a toddler, Sonnie begins to hide from her mother under the wisteria.l  Later she invites her imaginary friend, and later her little black friend to share her hiding place to talk about the family secrets.  As she becomes older and undertands who God is, she prays and talks to God about her family secrets.  Sometimes she goes to the wisteria just to sit and hide from what is going on in the house.  Some of the customs of that time are preserved in the book.  There are stories of love, hate, loyalty, friendship, brutality, strength, racism, and religious beliefs.  All of this is sprinkled with a little humor.

This is not a memoir; however, most of the stories are true but clouded with a little fiction.  The emphasis  of this book apply today to many families....families with hidden dysfunction.