he couple must make, the impediments they encounter to such adjustment and the lessons they learn from a marriage counselor about how they need to listen to one another. What brings the two together in the first place is music, and while it may seem little to hang a marriage on, the two do manage to overcome their real differences in the course of the novel:
Charles is very intelligent, and good looking in his own way--his head is slightly large, but I think it just seems that way because his shoulders are narrow--and, oh, we had one or two little fusses getting ready for the wedding, but not more than you'd shake a stick at. And we've been playing music at different gatherings right along through all this--getting better and better and having lots of fun. Charles learns real fast and we like the same music mostly (Edgerton, Raney 17).
A review in Publisher's Weekly compliments the author for the manner in which he presents his plot without pretension and says that he
makes you smile at the artful innocence of the bride and the smart-aleck liberalism of the groom ("Raney" 60).
The differences between the two become more apparent once they are married:
Charles' feathers are quickly ruffled when he realizes that Raney's family's attitudes are as fixed as the menu down at Penny's Grill. And for Raney's part, she can't understand how Charles can prefer reading books to visiting with her folks (Urbanska 3).
Raney's bigotry horrifies her husband, though in truth it is a bigotry with an innocent underpinning--she is not mean-spirited but is simply repeating the words she hears and reflecting the attitudes with which she grew up. Her family roots are very important to her, far more than Charles's are to him. Indeed, he also decries the actions of her relatives, especially the way her mother makes herself at home. He criticizes the family when Raney's uncle commits suicide, and this is what causes Raney to leave ...