Review: Echos of 'You Can't Take it With You'
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 04 2, 2013
It is extremely rare for me to give anything in life a rating of five stars; films, plays or especially books.  But 'Chattanooga' is a book that so effortlessly took me back to 1944 and to the city of Chattanooga that I had no choice but to review it so highly.Being the ultimate character driven novel, the book changes point of view with every chapter, rotating among a handful of characters who seamlessly tell the story.  And what a wonderful story it is.  Nothing grandiose, majestic or even particularly exciting; simply day-to-day life amid a family with more than its share of 'characters'.I reference that great play, 'You Can't Take it With You' in my title for this review because almost from the opening page I was reminded of Kaufman and Hart's masterpiece.  That is not to say that 'Chattanooga' has the same degree of ridiculous humor; no the comparison is based more on the richness of characters who will all remind readers of idiosyncratic members of their own families.When I was finished reading, I couldn't help but wish that I had been there, living in the house with the Buffon family, during that summer of 1944; and that's the highest praise I can give to any entertainment.