A readable and well-told Southern story.
An old foe kidnaps a Georgia preacher’s long-lost son in this historical fiction sequel.
Harry Richardson and his wife, Sarah, are expecting a baby in their small community in northern Georgia. Though now a Baptist preacher, Harry is a former Confederate soldier and cavalry officer. The opening sequence of the novel relates his recurring nightmare from “the battle of Missionary Ridge, when the Confederate forces were defeated and Harry was captured.” He also has a son, Harrison, by way of an affair with Molly Baldwin, the daughter of a family friend from Harry’s adolescence. After their brief affair, Harry departed to serve in the Confederate Army, not knowing he had left her with a son. Now age 13, Harrison has come to live with Harry and Sarah, as Molly is presumed dead. Past secrets and old rivals threaten Harry’s newfound domestic happiness when Charlie—an old foe who married Molly and is Harrison’s stepdad—abducts the boy. Harry then goes in search of Harrison and Charlie in this quickly plotted tale. What ensues is a novel about pursuit and survival, as Harry’s past reveals further secrets and mysteries. Charlie—a man for whom “even the most innocent remark could send him into a rage”—is motivated by a long-held contempt for Harry. At various points, the vindictive Charlie questions Harrison about whom he believes his real father to be and tells him, “I’m going to take everything away from him, just like he took everything away from me.” Throughout, the tale touches on a number of historical tropes, including moonshiners (there is the friendly Michael Gibson) and gold prospectors (Charlie has dreams of going to California). Durbin (The Captain Takes a Wife, 2015) also offers studious descriptions of the Georgia landscape—including the animals that populate it—and of Harry’s day-to-day life “preparing sermons, tilling the land with a borrowed mule to make a garden, cutting stacks of firewood to be ready for next winter, caring for the horses.” Though some backstory may be lost on readers unfamiliar with the first installment, the author relates her tale swiftly and compellingly.
A readable and well-told Southern story.Pub Date: Aug. 25, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4908-8582-7
Page Count: 234
Publisher: Westbow Press
Review Posted Online: Oct. 24, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Deep schmaltz in the Bible Belt.
Christian-fiction writer Martin (The Dead Don’t Dance, not reviewed) chronicles the personal tragedy of a Georgia heart surgeon.
Five years ago in Atlanta, Reese could not save his beloved wife Emma from heart failure, even though the Harvard-trained surgeon became a physician so that he could find a way to fix his childhood sweetheart’s congenitally faulty ticker. He renounced practicing medicine after her death and now lives in quiet anonymity as a boat mechanic on Lake Burton. Across the lake is Emma’s brother Charlie, who was rendered blind on the same desperate night that Reese fought to revive his wife on their kitchen floor. When Reese helps save the life of a seven-year-old local girl named Annie, who turns out to have irreparable heart damage, he is compassionately drawn into her case. He also grows close to Annie’s attractive Aunt Cindy and gradually comes to recognize that the family needs his expertise as a transplant surgeon. Martin displays some impressive knowledge about medical practice and the workings of the heart, but his Christian message is not exactly subtle. “If anything in this universe reflects the fingerprint of God, it is the human heart,” Reese notes of his medical studies. Emma’s letters (kept in a bank vault) quote Bible verse; Charlie elucidates stories of Jesus’ miracles for young Annie; even the napkins at the local bar, The Well, carry passages from the Gospel of John for the benefit of the biker clientele. Moreover, Martin relentlessly hammers home his sentimentality with nature-specific metaphors involving mating cardinals and crying crickets. (Annie sells crickets as well as lemonade to raise money for her heart surgery.) Reese’s habitual muttering of worldly slogans from Milton and Shakespeare (“I am ashes where once I was fire”) doesn’t much cut the cloying piety, and an over-the-top surgical save leaves the reader feeling positively bruised.
Deep schmaltz in the Bible Belt.Pub Date: April 4, 2006
ISBN: 1-5955-4054-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: WestBow/Thomas Nelson
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2006
Hoffman (The Red Garden, 2011, etc.) births literature from tragedy: the destruction of Jerusalem's Temple, the siege of Masada and the loss of Zion.
This is a feminist tale, a story of strong, intelligent women wedded to destiny by love and sacrifice. Told in four parts, the first comes from Yael, daughter of Yosef bar Elhanan, a Sicarii Zealot assassin, rejected by her father because of her mother's death in childbirth. It is 70 CE, and the Temple is destroyed. Yael, her father, and another Sicarii assassin, Jachim ben Simon, and his family flee Jerusalem. Hoffman's research renders the ancient world real as the group treks into Judea's desert, where they encounter Essenes, search for sustenance and burn under the sun. There too Jachim and Yael begin a tragic love affair. At Masada, Yael is sent to work in the dovecote, gathering eggs and fertilizer. She meets Shirah, her daughters, and Revka, who narrates part two. Revka's husband was killed when Romans sacked their village. Later, her daughter was murdered. At Masada, caring for grandsons turned mute by tragedy, Revka worries over her scholarly son-in-law, Yoav, now consumed by vengeance. Aziza, daughter of Shirah, carries the story onward. Born out of wedlock, Aziza grew up in Moab, among the people of the blue tunic. Her passion and curse is that she was raised as a warrior by her foster father. In part four, Shirah tells of her Alexandrian youth, the cherished daughter of a consort of the high priests. Shirah is a keshaphim, a woman of amulets, spells and medicine, and a woman connected to Shechinah, the feminine aspect of God. The women are irretrievably bound to Eleazar ben Ya'ir, Masada's charismatic leader; Amram, Yael's brother; and Yoav, Aziza's companion and protector in battle. The plot is intriguingly complex, with only a single element unresolved. An enthralling tale rendered with consummate literary skill.
Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-4516-1747-4
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: April 5, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2011
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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