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A review by jdintr
Southernmost by Silas House
3.0
The plot is irresistible (especially for a reader like me, living a Sunday's drive from Cumberland Valley, Tennessee, the fictitious locale where Asher Sharp pastors his Pentecostal church.
I remember well the flood described in the book, houses picked up and moved by the river, families devastated. The opening chapters are written vividly, and they brought very clear memories to mind of the 2010 flood.
This calamity is a catalyst for change in Asher Sharp. As neighbors work together to rescue families and pets, Asher meets a gay couple, inviting them in after he learns that their home has been lost, but inciting the ire of his prejudiced 'preacher's wife.' The following Sunday the couple visits Asher's church. Right then and there he changes his sermon (something that would be expected in a Pentecostal congregation, led by "The Spirit), only he backs away from preaching judgment to preaching acceptance--the gospel of John the Baptist becoming the gospel of Jesus.
I think this is the point where the book got away from Silas House. There is still a great work to be written on changes of faith and tolerance in a rural Tennessee community. But the book bogs down in Asher's divorce and custody dispute over his son, Justin. The gay couple whom we meet in the opening scene is never heard from again! (There are more gay characters, and the theme of reconciliation between fundamentalist Christians and gay loved ones carries on throughout the book, but it gets overshadowed by the custody battle.)
This was a 2.5 stars for me. I'm glad it was written--and that I read it--but Southernmost falls short of what it could have been.
I remember well the flood described in the book, houses picked up and moved by the river, families devastated. The opening chapters are written vividly, and they brought very clear memories to mind of the 2010 flood.
This calamity is a catalyst for change in Asher Sharp. As neighbors work together to rescue families and pets, Asher meets a gay couple, inviting them in after he learns that their home has been lost, but inciting the ire of his prejudiced 'preacher's wife.' The following Sunday the couple visits Asher's church. Right then and there he changes his sermon (something that would be expected in a Pentecostal congregation, led by "The Spirit), only he backs away from preaching judgment to preaching acceptance--the gospel of John the Baptist becoming the gospel of Jesus.
I think this is the point where the book got away from Silas House. There is still a great work to be written on changes of faith and tolerance in a rural Tennessee community. But the book bogs down in Asher's divorce and custody dispute over his son, Justin. The gay couple whom we meet in the opening scene is never heard from again! (There are more gay characters, and the theme of reconciliation between fundamentalist Christians and gay loved ones carries on throughout the book, but it gets overshadowed by the custody battle.)
This was a 2.5 stars for me. I'm glad it was written--and that I read it--but Southernmost falls short of what it could have been.