First, you’re entranced by the title: Leta Pearl’s Love Biscuits (Koehler Books 2025). Then, buckle up. You’re about to enter three-hundred mischievous pages of 1982 small-town Alabama in this wildly entertaining romp by Arlon Jay Staggs.
The protagonist, Trudy Abernathy, is a young woman with a past that continues to haunt her, largely because of Barbara Beaumont, who pens a gossip column in the local paper—a convenient vehicle for her vigilante zingers directed at Trudy and her fiancé.
The fiancé, Haskel Moody, is the School Superintendent. He aspires to become the next mayor of Bailey Springs. He’s taken by surprise when Trudy applies for and is awarded the high-school-chemistry teaching position when a last-minute vacancy opens.
The fracas begins as old grudges, allegiance to tradition, and aspirations for social status collide with Trudy’s efforts to build a new life for herself and her young son Pete. She mines her wealth of spunk and courage in a valiant effort to succeed at her job and restore a reputation damaged by tragic events and Barbara’s relentless public jabs.
Things happen. Trudy is soon accused of (nearly) costing the football team a victory and siding with gay-rights protestors in a riot that never occurred in the school cafeteria, not to mention putting the lives of cheerleaders at risk when she attempts to drive them to a game in a bus with a stick shift:
“Mr. Jones flashed an okay sign. She flashed one back and forced a smile. In fits and starts, she jostled the cheerleaders out of the parking lot as if they were all riding a big yellow rocking horse… The only real casualty was a Faculty Parking Only sign taken out by one of the oversized side-view mirrors.”
In the meantime, she has caught the attention of the high-school football coach, Shug Meechum. And her mother, Leta Pearl, keeps distributing the mysterious biscuits that turn men into lovestruck lunatics.
Pressure builds leading up to the homecoming game. Bear Bryant, coach of Alabama’s “Crimson Tide,” is expected to attend, putting the entire town into a frenzy of anticipation. That is, until a fight breaks out in Trudy’s chemistry classroom between two teammates, one of whom is June Bug Moody, Trudy’s fiancé’s nephew, who happens to be the star quarterback. The boys are banned from playing in the upcoming game, and Bear cancels his visit. Barbara goes ballistic and starts collecting signatures to get Trudy fired.
Before that issue is resolved, Trudy and Shug deal with June Bug’s flirtation with suicide as he goes through agonies concerning his sexual identity and dread of a football-dominated future. Not even this urgent distraction can prevent the inevitable, however. Trudy must come to terms with Leta Pearl’s shenanigans, face a showdown with Barbara, and confront her feelings for Shug. Two key revelations from unexpected sources guide her steps.
The gyrations of the plot are delightful, leaving a reader wondering if Southern stereotypes are being parodied or proven true. There’s no doubt of being immersed in a Southern novel when one encounters masculine names such as Shug, June Bug, Haskel, Dub, Gulley, and Jerry Don, and the feminine names Leta Pearl, Rejoice, Missy Jean, Verlaine, Marvalee, Vangie, and Louley. Then there’s the obsession with football and the endless jockeying for social status. There’s the allegiance to George Wallace; the Fried Pie Festival, the Peanuts and Politics event, and the Collard Greens and Cornbread fundraiser; the dismayingly un-Christian behavior of avid churchgoers; and this:
“Barbara Beaumont made a whole to-do of presenting the oversized check from the Beaumont Corporation. Mr. Hendon feigned shock, while all the Celestial Ladies gathered in one corner of the gym, nodding and clutching their pearls. They clapped wildly as Barbara pretended to dab her eyes and launched into an emotional tribute—something about homecoming queens, touchdowns, and the preservation of wraparound porches. It was so stirring the Glee Club stood up and sang the alma mater on the spot.”
Love Biscuits is told in this style of concise, witty prose infused with flashes of literary brilliance:
“It slipped out like a flicked match. But it didn’t burn out—it hung between them sparking, smoking, and splitting the space between them wide open.”
And,
“His eyes conveyed an artful mystery; they seemed to orchestrate the curious way he could float right up to an emotion and then saunter back from it unscathed, the way he could wade into a feeling without being overtaken. This capability enthralled her completely. It was as if Shug felt everything and nothing at all, in a single moment.”
Arlon Jay Staggs
Southern storyteller Arlon Jay Staggs is a native of Florence, Alabama. He holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of California, Riverside, and a JD from the Mississippi College School of Law. His works have appeared in The New York Times and december magazine. He and his husband divide their time between Florida, where Staggs serves as an adjunct professor at Northwest Florida State College, and California. Leta Pearl’s Love Biscuits is Arlon Jay Staggs’ debut novel.
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