Ruby in Paradise

Ruby Lee Gissing is on the run, determined to find a better time than her past closed world in the mountains of East Tennessee. She drives straight south to Panama City Neach, Florida, where she once spent an idyllic childhood holiday. Arriving in the off-season, Ruby gets work clerking in a gift and souvenir shop owned by Mildred Chambers, « the best salesman on the beach”. Always on an emotional and economic edge, Ruby begins to keep a journal, trying to figure out “the whys of running off, of coming here”. The struggle of reflection, for comprehension of her own impulses and actions, provides a safety line for Ruby through winter and into the beginning of the frantic madness of Spring Break, and beyond. Panama City Beach has the kind of unreality associated with all coastal resorts, of fantasy made commerce. Ruby explores this world alone and with friends. They include: Rochelle Bridges, a co-worker at the store with her own dreams; Ricky Chambers, Mildred’s son, and self-styled play-boy; and Mike McCaslin, the scion of one of the city’s founding families, stymied by the destructiveness of the change taking place around him. Ruby’s desire to find her own way, to make her own choices in her own good time, gets her in trouble…