Three O'Clock Dinner by Josephine Pinckney (2001)

Josephine Pinckney has expertly captured her native Charleston and the uneasy mood just before WWII in this novel, recently republished by the University of South Carolina Press. As important as the comedy of manners she portrays is her contemporary record of a time just beyond memory for most of us.

Charleston is one of those places that are always not quite as good as they used to be. Tourism, homogenization, the hectic pace of modern life, all have taken their toll on this beautiful city. But in the first 30 pages of THREE O'CLOCK DINNER we are reminded that death from pneumonia and crippling by polio were commonplace in a modern American city in the 1930s and 40s, even one as picturesque and proud as Charleston.

Pinckney rotates her point of view among various characters in an Old Charleston Family as they confront social change head on and "moral decline" literally lands in their laps. The Redcliffes take their turns, showing us Charleston as they see it, while Pinckney skillfully allows us to see just a little bit they may have missed. In addition to the Redcliffes, she gives us the immigrant Hessenwinkles, prosperous in financial terms, but miles apart in social standing. When the children of these two houses mix, Pinckney's story comes to a boil.

Having been "a lady novelist" of the first half of the 20th century, Pinckney does not quite go in for the Danielle Steele Bodice Ripper style. In her way, she is Frank and Unblinking, as her contemporaries used to say, but don't expect any steam, except from the Charleston summer. At just about 300 pages, this is a good weekend read and would be an excellent and still-informative prelude to a visit to The Holy City.