Elizabeth Appell Reviews

Added September 6, 2004

Lessons from the Gypsy Camp

Author: Elizabeth Appell
Publisher: Scribes Valley Publishing
Available At: Bookstores Everywhere
Publishing Date: February 2004
Genre: Fiction
Format: Hardback
Price: $20.95
ISBN: 0-9742652-1-7
Author Email/Website: www.readelizabeth.com
Reviewer: Melissa Levine

Elizabeth Appell has done something wonderful in her novel Lessons From The Gypsy Camp. I sat down with this book during my own family crisis and came away from it with clarity and the gift of forgiveness.

Ten-year-old Lolly Candolin is stubborn and determined to have the loving, stable family life she has seen among her friends. To accomplish her desire she confronts her father, Regan, the town prosecutor about his nightly habit of guzzling vodka while her mother suffers almost daily bouts of migraine headaches and episodes of depression. When he refuses to succumb to her demands, Lolly cuts her long hair, which she knows her father loves.

Lolly begins a spree of defiance that leads to the suffering of severe consequences including abuse by her father. But Lolly also learns valuable life lessons from the small group of strange people who live on the other side of the levee in Courgarville. The girl is exposed to the power of friendship, the effects of judging others, and the conflict often associated with doing what one believes is right: "Sometimes we do the right thing because it's good for somebody else."

Appell writes in a direct, open voice inviting the reader inside the mind and heart of a young girl struggling with loyalty to family and upholding her convictions. When one of the residents of the gypsy camp is accused of murder, Lolly discovers the identity of the actual perpetrator and defies her father who is troubled by demons of his childhood and job pressures to reveal the truth that sets her friend free.

Lessons From The Gypsy Camp is multi-layered and conflict filled. Appell presents strong images and themes. Her writing is fluid moving the story easily forward even over the violent, raging rough patches in the plot. As I completed this book and compared the difficult decisions made by the strong-willed Lolly with the agonizing choice I was in the process of making in my own life, I was thankful for the powerful insight into life and humankind revealed in the story. Appell is a talented writer. Lessons From The Gypsy Camp is an excellent read.

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