The Land of Mango Sunsets

By: Dorothea Benton Frank

Narrated by: Nicole Poole

Length: 12 hrs and 13 mins

Publisher's Summary

Dorothea Benton Frank is one of America's most insightful writers, weaving highly addictive tales of the conundrums of life with hilarity and heat. Now, in The Land of Mango Sunsets, Frank gives us one woman's journey toward a hard-won truth: Life isn't always what it appears to be, and the sooner you realize that pride won't keep you warm at night, the happier you will be. Oh, and one other thing - a truly joyous life comes with a generous heart.

Meet Miriam Elizabeth Swanson, in a full-blown snit, buoyed by a fabulous cast who run the gamut from insufferable to wonderful. First is the arrival of Liz Harper, Miriam's tenant from Birmingham, who sets a new cycle in motion. Then her other tenant, Kevin, a stalwart companion with more style than Cary Grant, shakes Miriam out of her fog to see which battles are worth the fight. Next, her estranged son announces he's marrying a Jamaican woman. And what about her ex-husband, Charles, and that sordid lingerie model of his? Well, Harry, her African gray parrot, has plenty of opinions. Finally, you'll laugh and cry when she meets a man named Harrison who changes her into a gal named Mellie.

Miriam spins out from the revolving door of her postured life as a Manhattan quasi-socialite while she thirsts - no, starves for recognition. How did she become what she hates the most, and what does she endure to realize it? And where are the answers? It takes a few spins and dips and one spectacular fall for Miriam to get her head on straight. Then, in a whoosh, she's off to the enchanted and mysterious land of Sullivans Island, deep in the Lowcountry of South Carolina.

Told straight from the heart in Frank's vivid, highly entertaining style, The Land of Mango Sunsets just might be her finest work to date. If you decide to listen to this book, don't make plans to do anything else for a while.

©2009 Dorothea Benton Frank (P)2016 HarperCollins Publishers

Great Escape

I loved this book! Elin Hilderbrand and This author, Dorothea Bentonville Frank, routinely hit it out of the ballpark with their writing. When I need a good road trip book, one that will make me glad I have to be in a car, driving hundreds of miles, I turn to them. This book took me through hundreds of miles of west Texas dry land and I loved it. The best part was watching and experiencing Miriam grow as a human being. I had a huge distaste for her at the start, as we are meant to. But I grew to like her and then to love her..... savoring her life's victories with her. I think some authors, like Hilderbrand and Frank, have the ability to not just tell a story but make your life better after reading it. Miriam...Mellie's story is no exception.
Only now, safe at home again, I just out down all the ingredients to make tomato pie. Grin!!
Congratulations Dorothea Benton Frank on another wonderful book! Thank you!

Lovely

Lovely experience reading/listening to this book. Like all of Dorothea Benton Franks books, this one was an exceptional story that I enjoyed from start to finish.

Cute Book about changing attitudes after divorce

Loved the story which takes place in SC and NYC,
about a jilted mother who blames her mother for her miserable life. She finally realizes she needs to change her attitude. It is funny in some areas and sad in others but a very good easy read.

Loved it!

My favorite by Frank by far! Beautiful transformation and the power of a mother’s love!

such a good listen

loved all the quirky characters! Perfect summer read, did not want to stop listening! Narrator was amazing!

a nice read

This was light reading which I expected it to be. I just wish the story was a little more complex.

Loved it!

As always, I grow to love the characters in her books and then miss them terribly when I’m done....

Change your mind to change your life

Pretty good for describing how one sticks oneself with a label and then dedicates her life to living how she perceives she "should" when infidelity ending in divorce shakes up her life. Try as Miriam might to continue life as she knows it, she's failing. But as is often the truth of the matter, those who leave you actually do you a favor. She begins anew and makes life better for her family whom she's previously alienated. It gives food for thought. The last chapter describing her mother dying - I really wish author's would skip this part of the life cycle because there's nothing new here to write about. The epilogue is the saving grace if a bit on the side of fantasy: died-in-the-wool New Yorker leaves New York and finds the love-of-her-life, a former commitment phobe, in her late fifties or sixties? Come on, now.

Not good for me

I live in the deep south and reall found this book to really overdo the Southern colloquialism. It was so annoying to hear the "lawd a mercy..." "sakes alive..." gratuitously put in everywhere. I guess I need more challenging literature. I could not finish it.

Almost like being there

Once again the author invites you into her world and instantly makes you feel a part of her story. Nichole does an excellent job of telling Dorothea’s story with a mix an humor and real life. I highly recommend this and any book by this author.