She Treads Softly: Home to Holly Springs

Sunday, June 1, 2008

Home to Holly Springs

Home to Holly Springs by Jan Karon was originally published in 2007. My hardcover copy has 356 pages. Technically this doesn't matter since I read to about page 150, skimmed ahead to see what exactly happened, and then set the book aside with great relief. I enjoyed Karon's Mitford series as light summer reading, but found this book almost painfully boring and tedious. Sorry Mitford fans but this books gets a rating of 0. I was unable to finish it (in a conventional way.)

From Publishers Weekly At Amazon:

Karon.... introduces a new series featuring Father Tim. The beloved Episcopal priest returns to his childhood town of Holly Springs, Miss., where he reconnects with old friends and battles some old demons. The novel is thick with Father Tim's past, as Karon uses flashbacks to shed light on his early adulthood, especially his transition to seminary.....Yet the book is far from perfect. Development of the quirky locals in Holly Springs is thin, and the end is a tad abrupt. Most frustratingly, the central drama of the novel falls flat: Father Tim discovers a long-buried family secret, but he doesn't grapple deeply enough with the emotional consequences of his discovery, nor does Karon fully explore the ways in which the secret plunges us into the Southern quagmire of race. Still, Mitford fans will enjoy this newest visit with wise, winsome, lovable Father Tim. (Oct. 30) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

1 comment:

Jane said...: I have never read the Midford series, but I keep meaning to check the first one out at the library...one of these days...; June 6, 2008 at 10:06 PM

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John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.