Set in Newport, Kentucky from 1926 to 1947, "Dumbin' Down" is a gritty look at the lives of 3 generations of Southern Women.
Newport, Kentucky was the "sin city of the South" in 1926, the year our book opens. "Dumbin' Down" tells its story, as seen through the eyes of three generations of Southern women. This is no tale of sisterhood. These women survive mob violence, incest, domestic abuse, alcoholism and teen pregnancy with both humor and an unflinching realism. An epic novel that spans 1926 to 1947, Bertha, Lucy and Dolly live through Prohibition, the Great Depression, the Great Flood of 1937 and World War II. Grandmother, mother and daughter, each vie for the attentions of the men around them. Sometimes they're aligned, sometimes they're in competition with each ot'her. The one unwavering truth for these women is that the only way to survive is to find a man and bring him to the altar. "Dumbin' Down is their manual for how to do this. Each woman learns from the generation that precedes them. Follow these terribly flawed but courageous women as they stumble, fall and triumph over an era and place that gives little quarter to the weak or foolish.