Book Lovers

Sunshine Falls is a fictional North Carolina small town near the real city of Asheville. It is a consistent motif of the story from the prologue to the epilogue, beginning with Charlie’s disparagement of Dusty’s latest book, Once in a Lifetime, because it gives a “completely unrealistic,” sentimental picture of Sunshine Falls (10). He also argues that Dusty has never been to the town, and the residents seem like caricatures rather than real people. Given that one of Dusty’s characters is called Old Man Whittaker, Charlie seems to have a point. Charlie, who has never fit in in Sunshine Falls, is annoyed that an outsider stereotypes what she has never experienced firsthand. While Dusty is fleetingly attracted to the place due to its potential for a story, Charlie feels resentful toward it because he has unhappy memories of its conservativism and prejudice. Moreover, he is bound there against his will by his sense of familial duty. His objection to spending 400 pages in Sunshine Falls causes his conflict and misunderstanding with Nora.

When Nora approaches Sunshine Falls, she sees that while Dusty described the outside of buildings well, her perception of their insides was overly sentimentalized, and rather than “barrels of old-fashioned candy,” there are grimy window displays, “flickering TVs and neon beer signs” (38). The place is not a city person’s vision of an old-timey rural idyll but a neglected spot diminished by inadequate investments and failing businesses. However, this is not entirely an accurate perception either, as there are pockets of potential within the town, such as the good looks and intelligence of Shepherd and Amaya, Sally’s artistic talent, and the way people pitch in to help their neighbors revive the Italian restaurant Giacomo’s. Moreover, the town has a sense of humor, evidenced in the on-the-nose or vulgar names such as The Goode Bookshop and Mug and Shot or Poppa Squat’s. While these seem provincial to New Yorkers, they imbue the town with a cozy sense of familiarity and unpretentiousness.

Nora’s ability to see multiple sides of Sunshine Falls meshes with her character development, as she rejects simplistic views of life for more complex ones. By getting to know Sunshine Falls, she gains an appreciation of Charlie’s character, both in terms of what shaped him and the sacrifices he is willing to make. She further appreciates that others, such as Sally and Libby, have different priorities than hers when it comes to where they live. However, ultimately, Henry shows Nora’s unsuitability to staying in Sunshine Falls, given her reliance on city noise as a soundtrack for sleep and her devotion to memories of her mother in New York. The heroine’s ability to choose where she lives opposes the self-sacrificing nature of romantic heroines typical to the genre.