While family vacationing in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Georgia, Ginny East recognizes that she and her husband are not truly on vacation since they’ve brought along their work. Ginny has a strange encounter with a donkey—of all things. The seemingly prophetic event only confirms that she and Mark have no idea how to relax and enjoy a simpler life. Selling their well-established Florida dance studio for a million dollars, Ginny and her family venture a dream life on fifty acres of Georgian land. Ginny delves into the world of organic gardening and husbandry while Mark determines to build the all-time perfect cabin. Neither are equipped with proper skills nor primed for the flurry of mishaps that unfold. A dream deferred, Ginny’s simpler lifestyle turns complex especially when her husband’s expenses goes awry.
East tells it as it is in her unique memoir. Focusing on a small but very significant aspect of her life, East’s portrayal of her shift from a city slicker to not quite a country bumpkin is nothing less than fascinating. East’s daring attempts to blend in with her bucolic surroundings is a fitting mix of hilarity and poignancy peppered with plenty of consternation. Certainly there is more behind the drastic move into the unknown, but to divulge plot details will produce spoilers. Needless to say, East’s narrative in many respects is a coming-of-age story. A constant flow of humbling situations, East’s experiences test her strengths and weaknesses to the max. One great example of this—indeed an outstanding and life-altering moment—is when East tutors reading to Kathy, a forty-year-old woman. Pertinent to East’s journey are the sagacious messages of Henry Thoreau. East introduces chapters with apt quotes that segue nicely with her chronicled plot, capturing “the lessons gained” that eventually fuel her happiness today.
An atypical yet inspiring story of new beginnings, MY MILLION-DOLLAR DONKEY will keep readers amused till the very end.
~Anita Lock for IndieReader