Victoria Benton Frank’s novel My Magnolia Summer is reminder that growing pains often go deeper than the bone. The book, which takes place on Sullivan’s Island, will be released June 6.
Frank is the daughter of the late New York Times bestselling novelist Dorothea Benton Frank, a Sullivan’s Island native who wrote several novels that take place in the Lowcountry.
My Magnolia Summer tells the story of Magnolia “Maggie” Adams, a Sullivan’s Island resident who relocates to New York City to achieve her dream of becoming a chef. Maggie is called back home when her beloved grandmother is involved in a near-fatal car accident caused by Maggie’s mother. Tasked with running the family restaurant, The Magic Lantern, and offering support to her family members as they navigate an uncertain time, Maggie finds herself in an emotional conflict that forces her to grow up.
“I’m very fascinated by women coming into their own at different points of their life,” Frank said. “The world tells us that coming-of-age novels happen when you’re 13, but they don’t. I grew up the day my mom died, and I was 34. Every woman has a moment in her life where she has to rise to the occasion.”
Frank, who is a chef, derived many aspects of Maggie’s story from personal experience and real-life circumstances. Like her protagonist, Frank also worked in a New York City restaurant. In My Magnolia Summer, Frank shows how the food and beverage lifestyle is not all glitz and glamor.
“I loved what I learned,” Frank said. “There’s a camaraderie in a kitchen that doesn’t exist anywhere else. I learned how to cook and a lot of amazing things, but I wouldn’t go back. I’m glad I did it, but it was brutal,” she said, laughing.
Frank found a bridge between cooking and writing: They’re both creative endeavors that celebrate the joy of others appreciating your creations.
“As a chef, having someone eat your food and say it’s fabulous, it’s kind of like writing a book,” Frank said. “It’s a similar compliment. When someone likes something you create on any level, it’s amazing.”
Frank explained that The Magic Lantern, the family restaurant in the book, is how she imagined her own family’s real-life restaurant would look with four strong Southern women running it.
“I’ve always been inspired by ensemble pieces,” Frank said, “There’s a sense of strength and resilience that happens [when] Southern women [come together], and a great sense of humor. I love those qualities. So to put them together in a book in this dream of a restaurant is what the real story is.”
Although Victoria Benton Frank began writing My Magnolia Summer several years ago, she said it was her mother’s death that pushed her to finish the novel.
“I started writing before my mom passed, but it made me commit to it. I felt inspired by her readers. I want to honor my mom and carry on her legacy,” Frank said. She added that since her mother’s passing, there has been an outpouring of support from her mother’s friends, many of whom are also bestselling authors, who encouraged her to finish her novel.
“It was like inheriting an army of grandmas,” she said.
Family is an essential theme in the book and another parallel to Frank’s life: She’s a wife and mother of two children. Balancing writing and raising a family is challenging, she said, but she feels it’s vital that her children see her work hard to achieve her goals.
“It’s important that your kids see your work really hard; I think it’s important that they see it because that’s how they learn to build,” Frank said. “I don’t pretend to be anything I’m not.”
My Magnolia Summer will go on sale June 6. Frank will be at The Village Bookseller in Mount Pleasant for a meet-the-author event at 6:30 p.m. June 7. She’ll visit Mount Pleasant Barnes & Noble June 10 and Halls Signature Events, at 5 Faber Street, for a luncheon with Blue Bicycle Books June 12. Tickets can be purchased online at citypapertickets.com.
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