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Salvation on Sand Mountain: Snake-Handling and Redemption in Southern Appalachia by Dennis Covington
ajsterkel's review against another edition
3.0
Likes: I don't know much about Christianity, but I think if God wanted us to touch rattlesnakes, he wouldn’t have put rattles on them. That sound means not to touch them.
Anyway, the author is a journalist who spent two years as a member of a snake-handling church in southern Appalachia. His interest in snake handling starts with a work assignment and curiosity about his family heritage. It quickly develops into an obsession that kind of freaks him out. He isn’t afraid to examine his own life. Holding rattlesnakes and drinking poison are odd activities to want to do. In this book, the author delves into the history of snake handling and looks at his own thrill-seeking behavior to discover why people take up serpents.
I appreciate the author’s honesty. He shows how difficult it can be for a journalist to write about personal subjects in an objective way. He goes to the church as a journalist in search of a good story, but the service speaks to him as a danger-loving Christian. For me, the most fascinating part of the book is watching the author struggle between being an observer and wanting to participate. I like that he admits to being a bad journalist. Good journalists don’t become personally involved with their subjects. Once he starts snake handling, it takes over his life. It becomes way more than just a story for a newspaper.
Dislikes: This is a short book, but it feels long. There are quite a few scenes of men preaching while holding snakes. I appreciate knowing the religious reasons behind the snake obsession, but it gets repetitive quickly. I don’t think the author had enough material to fill a whole book. I was often tempted to skim the snake-handling scenes. I feel like I got the point after the first one.
Originally, the author attended this particular snake-handling church because one of the members had been arrested for attempted murder. He forced a snake to bite his wife (twice). The author planned to write about the attempted murder trial. That plan mostly gets derailed when the author joins the church. I wish more of the book had been about the crime and the people involved. That would have been more interesting than the repetitive snake/preaching scenes.
The bottom line: An informative look at Appalachian history and how journalists struggle to stay objective. I occasionally got bored.
Do you like opinions, giveaways, and bookish nonsense? I have a blog for that.
Anyway, the author is a journalist who spent two years as a member of a snake-handling church in southern Appalachia. His interest in snake handling starts with a work assignment and curiosity about his family heritage. It quickly develops into an obsession that kind of freaks him out. He isn’t afraid to examine his own life. Holding rattlesnakes and drinking poison are odd activities to want to do. In this book, the author delves into the history of snake handling and looks at his own thrill-seeking behavior to discover why people take up serpents.
I appreciate the author’s honesty. He shows how difficult it can be for a journalist to write about personal subjects in an objective way. He goes to the church as a journalist in search of a good story, but the service speaks to him as a danger-loving Christian. For me, the most fascinating part of the book is watching the author struggle between being an observer and wanting to participate. I like that he admits to being a bad journalist. Good journalists don’t become personally involved with their subjects. Once he starts snake handling, it takes over his life. It becomes way more than just a story for a newspaper.
“There are moments when you stand on the brink of a new experience and understand that you have no choice about it. Either you walk into the experience or you turn away from it, but you know that no matter what you choose, you will have altered your life in a permanent way. Either way, there will be consequences.” – Salvation on Sand Mountain
Dislikes: This is a short book, but it feels long. There are quite a few scenes of men preaching while holding snakes. I appreciate knowing the religious reasons behind the snake obsession, but it gets repetitive quickly. I don’t think the author had enough material to fill a whole book. I was often tempted to skim the snake-handling scenes. I feel like I got the point after the first one.
Originally, the author attended this particular snake-handling church because one of the members had been arrested for attempted murder. He forced a snake to bite his wife (twice). The author planned to write about the attempted murder trial. That plan mostly gets derailed when the author joins the church. I wish more of the book had been about the crime and the people involved. That would have been more interesting than the repetitive snake/preaching scenes.
The bottom line: An informative look at Appalachian history and how journalists struggle to stay objective. I occasionally got bored.
Do you like opinions, giveaways, and bookish nonsense? I have a blog for that.
belanna_l's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
reflective
medium-paced
2.75
Would not have read if not an assigned reading for a class.
aazak127's review
4.0
Had to put this book down for a few months because it gave me a major panic attack haha. A personal accomplishment to finally finish it today. The ending was great. Overall, an interesting and well-written book!
"'If we can't love one another here on earth, there ain't no way we can make it to heaven.'"
"Knowing where you come from is one thing, but it's suicide to stay there."
"'If we can't love one another here on earth, there ain't no way we can make it to heaven.'"
"Knowing where you come from is one thing, but it's suicide to stay there."
skepticalri's review
3.0
As a child in a fundamentalist, independent Baptist church in West Virginia, snake handling churches were given as a cautionary tale about misinterpreting the Word of God and worship being too theatrical. (At the other end of the Continuum of Batshit was the Catholic church, for their pomp and circumstance, idols, Mary worship, and infant baptism.) So, I was very curious about this inside look at the snake handling culture. And what an inside look it was -- Covington became almost a de facto member of the community, and indeed handled snakes himself during worship services. Nonetheless, he remained seemingly objective about the foibles of his subjects, although that may have been a result of writing retrospectively after those ties were broken. Worth the read if you're interested in the Protestant sects of the U.S.
ramhog's review
informative
medium-paced
3.0
So! Um! I really think the worst part of this book is the forward. I almost put it down completely after reading it, and I ended up twitter stalking him to see if he had turned into a Forever Trumper in the years since publishing this (he hadn't). I think he definitely should've had literally any conversations with Black Appalachian folks for this book, but it ends up being mostly about his personal relationship with the snake handlers, so whatever I guess!!
There is obviously tons of conversations to have about poor white Appalachian folks, but I'm not sure this is exactly it. I think Dennis' journey is fascinating, and I was genuinely moved by how his time involved ended, but I wish I had gotten less memoir and more history. But that's my general preference with discussion of cults.
My only other comment is just how thin the sermons are in churches like this. Maybe I care too much about Facts and Logic but good grief how many times can you repeat fire and brimstone broadly without getting bored. Give us some MEAT, pastor!
I think I ultimately am glad I read this but it's hard to recommend. Weird that it was a best seller! Hm!!
There is obviously tons of conversations to have about poor white Appalachian folks, but I'm not sure this is exactly it. I think Dennis' journey is fascinating, and I was genuinely moved by how his time involved ended, but I wish I had gotten less memoir and more history. But that's my general preference with discussion of cults.
My only other comment is just how thin the sermons are in churches like this. Maybe I care too much about Facts and Logic but good grief how many times can you repeat fire and brimstone broadly without getting bored. Give us some MEAT, pastor!
I think I ultimately am glad I read this but it's hard to recommend. Weird that it was a best seller! Hm!!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexism, Religious bigotry, and Domestic abuse
lines__lines's review
3.0
A fascinating look into a sliver of Appalachia about which I had known next to nothing when I started. Dennis Covington tells his own story as a journalist and as a journeyer into the snake-handling religious community of southern Appalachia. He gets involved to cover the story of Rev. Glenn Summerford, accused and convicted of trying to kill his wife, Darlene, with poisonous snakes. But as he attends church services, he gets drawn into the community and regains some spirituality he felt that he hadn't had since childhood. He finds that his own family tree is not far removed from these isolated rural communities of snake handlers. He imagines that he himself will take up handling and preaching. But by the end of his personal journey, Dennis leaves the snake handlers, though not because of debates about the role of women, the dangerous nature of snakes, or other tensions brought to light following Glenn Summerford's conviction, but rather because of a fundamental difference in the way he and they viewed the nature of God. At any rate, that's what he says. Though he does admit that he leaves, too, because he "refuse[s] to be a witness to suicide particularly [his] own. [He has] two daughters to raise, and a vocation in the world." Re-reading the last chapter and his own preaching about the right of women to also be preachers of the gospel, it sure seems that his leaving is for the more obvious reasons rather than the "nature of God" one, but I can see what he means by it. That the snake-handlers see the spreading of the gospel as a man's place (not that women can't handle or prophesy, for they do) stems from their view that only certain folks can access correctly God's intentions; one must be lead to righteousness and come to it from being led properly. Whereas Dennis in the end is seeing God as accessible to all, no matter what; that He is forgiving and sees all equally, so that even the poorest sinners are forgiven and can come easily into redemption simply by accepting it from God Himself. That's my reading of it, anyway. There's also some good story-telling about the people of the community and of what happened between Glenn and Darlene.