The Incredible Winston Browne

The Incredible Winston Browne by Sean Dietrich

Read December 2023 - Zoom Reading Circle

The Incredible Winston Browne 

I had mixed feelings on this book.  Part of me truly loved the down home story and I definitely felt I knew the people.  It depicted small town southerners pretty spot on.  :D  Good and bad!  It takes place in the 1950’s in Moab, Florida where the local sheriff, Winston Browne, finds out he is dying of cancer.  He doesn’t share this news with his friends or community, but just keeps on doing what he does... which is apparently helping everyone out and doing good works.  The author does a good job of making you feel like you know the characters and you do find yourself rooting for them.  

One part I didn’t like is that while this is clearly set in the 1950’s, with all the misogyny and etc of the era, there isn’t even the slightest bit of enlightenment that maybe these weren’t the best of times.  It is all just depicted ‘as is’... with no slight nod even to the future where some of this should never again go down that way.  In that way, this book seemed a bit backwards to me.  However, the overall ‘feel good’ aspect was there and by the end I was even finding myself a bit teary eyed - so I fell right into it.  :)  

There was a strange religious cult side story that was a bit odd, and definitely disconcerting, but ultimately, it was an easy ‘feel good’ read.  I rated it 4 stars.  Zoom Reading Circle rated it 4.2 stars.

Side note - I mentioned on our zoom that there was another book that kept coming to mind as I was reading the Winston Browne book… I highly recommend Doris Kearns Goodwin’s memoir about growing up in New York in the 1950’s - as a big Brooklyn Dodgers fan. You don’t have to even like baseball to love this book.  Wait Till Next Year: A Memoir by Doris Kearns Goodwin.  Truly one of my all time favorite books. 

Some of my favorite passages - 

Here, nobody ever died.  At least not in print. They went 'on to Glory'. It was ridiculous. 

Even non-dancing Baptists, who were incognito tonight lest they be seen making repetitive dance movements. 

‘This was just dancing. Dancing ain’t the same as drinking.’ Spoken like a true Methodist. 

The whole world seems trivial when someone is dying, as though the world’s problems have always been trivial, but people have been too preoccupied to notice how silly they are. 

But he could see now that life wasn’t a journey; it never had been.  It was art.  Like a flower.  All a daisy has to do is bloom and be pretty.  There was nothing to accomplish, there was no path to follow, there were no mile markers.  Life was a blossoming thing, vivid and lovely in the sunlight. 

(Below is my favorite quote from the book - and really one of my favorite quotes EVER from a book!)

Winston Browne had known the greatest thing that ever was, and he felt so incredibly grateful.  Whatever you called it - life, existence, being the human experience - he had known it.  He had touched it.  He had held it.  He had loved it.  It was wild.  It was pretty, sad, remorseful, exciting, dangerous, terrifying, lonely, full of angst, peaceful, rewarding, cruel, sorrowful, interesting, gentle, surprising, and full of people.  Oh, the people.  They were the best part of it all.  Hands down.