LEONARD GRAY / L’Observateur / May 24, 2000

BATON ROUGE – “The Favorite Son” by Earleen T. LaPlace, writing under thename “Olympe LaReine,” brings alive once more small-town Louisiana in the early years of the 20th Century.

Chronicling the trials and tribulations of up-and-coming small-town politician Simon Martin, readers from St. James Parish especially may recognizeparallels from their own history and familiar-sounding family and place- names.

Entirely fictional, “The Favorite Son” brings in historical figures such as Huey Long as it relates the Martin family story, with such age-old problems as school segregation, small-town sex scandals, bare-knuckled political battles and family squabbles.

Generations of the Martin family provide a realistic, compelling view of the mythical village of Ste. Marie (parish unspecified), its characters andpersonalities.

Simon Martin, general store owner in the 1920s, is enticed into local school board politics and lured into the Huey Long political camp, while battling for fair education for all races and trying to conceal his scandalous affair, which leads to his unhappy marriage and subsequent fate.

From the children to the elders of the village, it’s good times and bad, the life and times of Ste. Marie make a family saga which will send you scurryingto the Louisiana history books while making you aware that there’s nothing new under the sun – especially when it comes to Louisiana scandal.

LaPlace, a native of Destrehan, former resident of Mt. Airy and currentresident of Baton Rouge, is also the author of “Cajuns of the German Coast.”Currently unavailable in bookstores, “The Favorite Son” is available on the internet at amazon.com.Priced at $14.95, this little gem is a prize for any student of Louisiana small-town life and well worth the effort to track down a copy.

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