looking for salvation at the dairy queen by susan gregg gilmore

Reverend Cline is a good-looking, charismatic preacher managing the only pulpit in town. What does salvation mean to you and what do you think it means for Catherine Grace? 9) She is convinced that there she will find the “salvation” she has been so desperately wanting. How does the geography shape Catherine Grace’s attitude about her home, her family and the people of Ringgold, Georgia?Ĭatherine Grace is convinced that her happiness is waiting for her somewhere else, most likely in Atlanta, “a world with enough lights turned on at night that it makes it hard to see the stars.” (p. She never liked the town or its name, saying that the best she “could figure was that it was these darn hills that I had stared at every morning from my bedroom window that formed the ring, the ring that had kept me hostage for the first eighteen years of my life.” (p. How does this theme of forgiveness affect Catherine Grace, her most important relationships, and ultimately her search for contentment?Ĭatherine Grace is born and raised in a small town called Ringgold, Georgia. less …Īlthough dubbed a coming-of-age novel, Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen is, possibly more than anything else, a story about forgiveness. As a series of extraordinary events alters her perspective–and sweeping changes come to Ringgold itself–Catherine Grace begins to wonder if her place in the world may actually be, against all odds, right where she began. But before things have even begun to get off the ground in Atlanta, tragedy brings her back home. And when, with the help of a family friend, the dream becomes a reality, Catherine Grace immediately packs her bags, leaving her family and the boy she loves to claim the life she’s always imagined. The daughter of Ringgold’s third-generation Baptist preacher, Catherine Grace is quick-witted, more than a little stubborn, and dying to escape her small-town life.Įvery Saturday afternoon, she sits at the Dairy Queen, eating Dilly Bars and plotting her getaway to the big city of Atlanta.

The town of Ringgold, Georgia, has a population of 1,923, one traffic light, one Dairy Queen, and one Catherine Grace Cline. Sometimes you have to return to the place where you began, to arrive at the place where you belong.

Looking for salvation at the dairy queen by susan gregg gilmore