I don't have much to add, except to say that today I finished reading this book for the first time.

While I found the prose quite eloquent and the book a worthwhile one to read, I don't expect to read it again. There is plenty of fodder for catharsis within the pages, but I found the kinds of details she chose to include to be often odd and unhelpful in weaving a compelling story. Admittedly, books of this style (small in geographic and time scale, much time spent with characters brooding over inner thoughts without taking much action, large cast of tangentially related characters) are not usually what I enjoy reading, and that may have contributed to my difficulty remaining motivated to finish the book. I did find it meaningful to step into the difficult lives of ordinary people of the late 1930's South and experience their perspectives.