Cold Sassy Tree

Cold Sassy Tree is a slice-of-life novel that follows a boy named Will Tweedy in early 20th Century Georgia. A lot of the focus is on his grandfather, Mr. E Rucker Blakeslee, as he continuously defies societal expectations. It doesn't cling to themes (individualism is the strongest, I think) or pander, it's just sort of a sequence of events that happens.