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debi_g's review against another edition
4.0
Even though this novel is not vacation fare, I found it fun to read this while a passenger in a car driving across North Carolina.
The story resembles the here-and-gone heat of a campfire, from kindling to roaring logs to smoldering embers and the curious vacancy left by its absence. These are good and admirable traits.
The children are not caricatures and the villain isn't over-the-top, which relieved my fears of ruination. Devout, fearful, long suffering, and remorseful characters populate this book, and flashbacks are frequent.
The comparisons to Tom Franklin are justified, but I do not understand why Tawni O'Dell's name never comes up. Maybe it's because she's a woman. Maybe it's because she portrays a similar region and its polarizing wealth and poverty in an even more compelling, sympathetic, and deft manner.
The story resembles the here-and-gone heat of a campfire, from kindling to roaring logs to smoldering embers and the curious vacancy left by its absence. These are good and admirable traits.
The children are not caricatures and the villain isn't over-the-top, which relieved my fears of ruination. Devout, fearful, long suffering, and remorseful characters populate this book, and flashbacks are frequent.
The comparisons to Tom Franklin are justified, but I do not understand why Tawni O'Dell's name never comes up. Maybe it's because she's a woman. Maybe it's because she portrays a similar region and its polarizing wealth and poverty in an even more compelling, sympathetic, and deft manner.
kimberly_b's review against another edition
5.0
I was initially drawn to this book, because I'm fascinated by the fine line between being religious or just plain crazy. A Land More Kind Than Home focuses on the goings on in a snake charming church, which a lot of people would deem as crazy, in backwoods Appalachia. Carson Chambliss, the pastor of the church, could aptly be described as a false prophet. The tragedies that take place in the novel are all directly or indirectly related to the fact that parishioners follow Chambliss as though he is speaking the word of God and not serving his own self-interest. But, does Chambliss see himself as divine, or does he know that he isn't entirely holy? That's where lines start to become less clear.
Cash gives you A LOT to consider in this book. The discussion questions at the back of my edition are thought-provoking and deep. This is a book that will stick with me for a long time. Here is my favorite passage, the prologue, from Thomas Wolfe's You Can't Go Home Again:
Something has spoken to me in the night...
and told me I shall die, I know not where.
Saying:
"[Death is] to lose the earth you know, for greater knowing;
to lose the life you have, for greater life;
to leave the friends you loved, for greater loving;
to find a land more kind than home, more large than earth."
It's a beautiful passage to start a rich, atmospheric story with a lot of depth. I'll definitely be reading more of Cash's work. This is the sort of story that becomes a modern day classic.
Cash gives you A LOT to consider in this book. The discussion questions at the back of my edition are thought-provoking and deep. This is a book that will stick with me for a long time. Here is my favorite passage, the prologue, from Thomas Wolfe's You Can't Go Home Again:
Something has spoken to me in the night...
and told me I shall die, I know not where.
Saying:
"[Death is] to lose the earth you know, for greater knowing;
to lose the life you have, for greater life;
to leave the friends you loved, for greater loving;
to find a land more kind than home, more large than earth."
It's a beautiful passage to start a rich, atmospheric story with a lot of depth. I'll definitely be reading more of Cash's work. This is the sort of story that becomes a modern day classic.
ablotial's review against another edition
4.0
This book has been on my TBR basically since it came out, due to rave reviews posted all over the place. I'm finally getting to it now because a group I am in on GoodReads is reading four different books by this author throughout the year.
After only reading the first chapter, I knew this was going to be a powerful novel in terms of messing with my emotions. In my childhood, I only had a very brief run-in with a Pentecostal church, but it made a big impression on me for just how different it was from anything I'd ever experienced before. I traumatized my little brother at one point bringing him in and people were speaking in tongues and laying their hands on him because I told them he hadn't been "saved" ... I thought it was a funny joke; him, not so much.
And the church in this story takes it to a whole 'nother level.
While religion plays a large role in this book (and not always in a good way), I wouldn't call it religious. The people are flawed, and much more than normal "they're only human" type ways for most of them.
I found it tragic but sadly not too surprising that the idea from this story came from a real-life news article the author read at one point.
The writing style took me a bit to get used to. The author writes as if he's inside each of the character's heads, and none of them are particularly well educated so the grammar and word usage is difficult to get through at first. But once I got into it, the story sort of rolled along. It had an interesting effect, because I tend to think of that style of speaking as being slow and laid back, and yet this story was anything but.
My only real complaint is that the ending seemed very abrupt and not particularly satisfying. Especially since reading the kindle version, it turns out the book ends at something like 75% done, and then there are interviews with the author, book club questions, excerpts from another book, etc. So I was expecting more, and it just ... ended. Boom.
(Just like this review)
After only reading the first chapter, I knew this was going to be a powerful novel in terms of messing with my emotions. In my childhood, I only had a very brief run-in with a Pentecostal church, but it made a big impression on me for just how different it was from anything I'd ever experienced before. I traumatized my little brother at one point bringing him in and people were speaking in tongues and laying their hands on him because I told them he hadn't been "saved" ... I thought it was a funny joke; him, not so much.
And the church in this story takes it to a whole 'nother level.
While religion plays a large role in this book (and not always in a good way), I wouldn't call it religious. The people are flawed, and much more than normal "they're only human" type ways for most of them.
I found it tragic but sadly not too surprising that the idea from this story came from a real-life news article the author read at one point.
The writing style took me a bit to get used to. The author writes as if he's inside each of the character's heads, and none of them are particularly well educated so the grammar and word usage is difficult to get through at first. But once I got into it, the story sort of rolled along. It had an interesting effect, because I tend to think of that style of speaking as being slow and laid back, and yet this story was anything but.
My only real complaint is that the ending seemed very abrupt and not particularly satisfying. Especially since reading the kindle version, it turns out the book ends at something like 75% done, and then there are interviews with the author, book club questions, excerpts from another book, etc. So I was expecting more, and it just ... ended. Boom.
(Just like this review)
deaclayton's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
3.5
This story hurt my heart.
bunnieslikediamonds's review against another edition
3.0
The story is nicely written and told with compassion and understanding, but it felt thin. The characters could have been more fleshed out and complex. There's a lot of potential here and I wouldn't mind reading something by Wiley Cash again, but this one didn't do it for me.
rlk7m's review against another edition
4.0
This book hooked me from the first page and I simply could not put it down. I lost sleep while reading this book. (And to me, the mark of something good is how heavy the bags under your eyes are...) I liked the premise of the three narrators and their voices were different enough, but I did find them all blending together near the end. I love books that tend to focus on losing one's individuality/ability to think for oneself, and that theme continued to surprise me throughout the novel. Great dialect, too.
ctomasula's review against another edition
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
tylergberens7's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25