The Pleasure Was Mine: A Novel

Prate Marshbanks proposed to his future wife on a muggy July night at Petes Drive-in back in 52. She said yes to me between bites of a slaw burger all-the-way. A college graduate and daughter of a prominent lawyer Irene was an unlikely match for Prate a high school dropout. He lived his married life aware of the question on peoples minds: How in the world did a tall thin fair-skinned beauty and one of the most respected high school English teachers in all of Greenville County in all of South Carolina for that matter wind up married to a short dark fat-faced jug-eared house painter? That their marriage not only survived for fifty years but flourished is a source of constant wonder to Prate. Now he faces a new challenge with Irene.. From the author of In The Family Way a novel the Atlanta Constitution called an instant classic and the Charlotte Observer praised as a lovely moving book comes a powerful story of hard-earned hope. The Pleasure Was Mine takes place during a critical summer in the life of Prate Marshbanks when he retires to care for his wife who is gradually slipping away. To complicate things Prates son Newell a recently widowed single father asks Prate to keep nine-year-old Jackson for the summer. Though Prate is irritated by the presence of his moody grandson during the summer Jackson helps tend his grandmother and grandfather and grandson form a bond. As Irenes memory fades Prate a hardworking man who has kept to himself most of his life has little choice but to get to know his family. . With elegance and skillful economy of language Tommy Hays renders an unforgettable character in Prate Marshbanks. The Pleasure Was Mine is at once a quietly wrenching portrayal of grief a magical and romantic story about the power of love and an unexpectedly moving take on the resilience of family.