4 Stars
Out of the easy is rather a simple story if you dig under the layers of the plot. I don’t mean that in either a good or bad way. The story should have been slightly more complex for a historical fiction. I’m not particular sure if it intended to inform us about the life in New Orleans back in the 50’s, because nothing was added to my knowledge that I didn't already expect of 50’s New Orleans. Out of the easy taught me the importance of social class and your background in 50’s New Orleans and...basically that’s all.
“My mother’s a prostitute. Not the filthy, street walking kind. She’s actually quite pretty, fairly well spoken, and has lovely clothes. But she sleeps with men for money or gifts, and according to the dictionary, that makes her a prostitute.”
So from the opening paragraph you can already guess there was going to be major mummy issues. This book was based on mummy issues. I thought there might be some fights between the heroine and her mother about her being a prostitute. But the would have been too ‘simple’. The mother instead had to be the most cold-hearted parent that every existed – or that’s how she’s portrayed. Well, she’s not far from being the worst, however the constant mention of all the bad things the heroine’s mother had done got extremely tiring.
Josie on other hand is the opposite of her mother. She’s intelligent, demanding and caring. I’m not particularly sure how many times the secondary characters had to mention that Josie is intellectual, but they did it enough times that I finally remembered. You know because I can’t understand the first time. So you have to do it again and again and again.
