I picked up The Outskirts of Hope: A Memoir of the 1960s Deep South by Jo Ivester during a spontaneous weekend trip to Franklin, Indiana where we visited the Wild Geese Bookshop. The store is located in a gorgeous old home and the books were very well curated.
I finished this book today, March 25, 2022. The further I got into the book, the more I enjoyed it. Ivester interplayed her and her mother’s diaries very well and the story and plot worked well together. As I read, I kept thinking that Aura Kruger was such a lively character that this would make a great movie. In reading the epilogue, it turns out they did! In 1986, a made-for-TV movie titled The George McKenna Story, was released and the story didn’t focus on Aura Kruger, but she was included in this film and portrayed by Barbara Townsend. It appears that it’s on Netflix so I’ll have to go watch it.
David Leszcynski 