Home to Holly Springs

by Jan Karon

book data

1,686 ratings, 3.98 average rating, 425 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		32%
4		38%
3		23%
2		4%
1		0%

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published

October 30th 2007 by Viking

details

Kindle Edition, 400 pages

literary awards

Christy Award (2008)

asin

B000UZQJAU

description

Readers of the nine bestselling Mitford novels have been captivated by Jan Karon's "gift for illuminating the struggles that creep into everyday …more

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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 2,259)

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Nov 30, 2007

Deborah rated it:

(review of isbn 0670018252)

bookshelves: fiction

Read in January, 2008

recommends it for: everyone

It is so hard to explain what happens to me when I read the Father Tim books. I laugh, I cry, I can't wait to finish the book and yet I don't want it to end. Is it because Father Tim is a minister who is so humanly fallible? Or is it because he is surrounded by intriguing people and circumstances that make such a good story?
One thing that appeals to me is that even though Karon's characters struggle and face hard decisions and physical difficulties (in other words, all of life!) she ...more

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Oct 24, 2008

Barbara rated it:

(review of isbn 0670018252)

bookshelves: general-fiction

Read in November, 2008

With the shift away from Mitford, I wondered how things would work for the Father Tim stories. Well...just fine!

This was my second time reading it and it was worth multiple readings. Probably the most emotionally charged in a way, potent with Father Tim's memories of growing up, as he fills in the gaps between what he remembers and the realities he didn't understand (or wasn't even aware of). After the years of "dropped hints" in the other Mitford novels, it was cool to g...more

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Apr 28, 2008

Julie Gentino rated it:

(review of isbn 0670018252)

bookshelves: fiction

Read in April, 2008

Jan Karon's Mitford series are my comfort books - the first books that come to mind when I am sick or depressed or just need a light, heart-warming read. It is hard for me to describe just how much I love these books and the characters in them, but let's just say my husband thinks it's very weird! Home to Holly Springs is the first of Karon's new Father Tim series (sequel to the Mitford series). The reviews I had read said it is not as good and I would agree with them. Karon is a terrific story-...more

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Jan 14, 2008

The Library Lady rated it:

(review of isbn 0670018252)

bookshelves: adult-fiction

The believability factor of the Mitford books has always been dicey, but this goes beyond that and into fairy tale land. Without giving much away,Father Tim goes home and finds ALL of his various long lost friends and relations--often by pure serendipity. And hasn't Karon used the "relative you didn't know you had" bit once too often? Or does everyone born south of the Mason Dixon line fornicate that freely?
(If so, I am worrying for my daughters--I live in Virginia :) )

...more

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Feb 15, 2010

Sherry rated it:

(review of isbn 0670018252)

Read in February, 2010

Summoned by a cryptic note to his hometown after 38 years, Father Tim heads home to Holly Springs to find the answers to questions he has ignored for years, gets answers to questions he never knew he had, and learns what he already knew-- God has a plan for each of us.

Apparently there is a whole series of Father Tim books. However, they take place in Mitford, NC where Father Tim has settled. It wasn't difficult to catch on to who the characters were (his wife, his son), and I don't th...more Summoned by a cryptic note to his hometown after 38 years, Father Tim heads home to Holly Springs to find the answers to questions he has ignored for years, gets answers to questions he never knew he had, and learns what he already knew-- God has a plan for each of us.

Apparently there is a whole series of Father Tim books. However, they take place in Mitford, NC where Father Tim has settled. It wasn't difficult to catch on to who the characters were (his wife, his son), and I don't think it was a real disadvantage to come into the series at this point. I'm sure the book would be even more interesting if you had read the other books, but I don't think it is a problem. If anything it made me want to read the other books to find out the bigger picture about Father Tim.

Like the character of Father Tim, Karon's writing is deceptively simple and plain, yet somehow mysterious and deep. I was particularly drawn to Father Tim's struggle with events of his childhood, his struggle to love his unloveable, unknowable father, and his regret and remorse over events that happened in Holly Springs.

The best thing, for me, about Father Tim is that his religion and his faith in God is just a part of him, who he is at his very core. The book is filled with Tim's musings about God, his deep struggle even into his adult life to really come to know God, to partake of His love, to understand the true relationship he could and should have with His Savior. I especially liked that he didn't have all the answers, but kept at it anyway.

Father Tim spends a great deal of time in the book working on forgiveness; forgiving his father, his mother, childhood friends, and most of all himself. I liked how he was able to view his childhood questions and problems with adult eyes, yet, like us all, still could not let go of that childhood feeling about them.

"Can you fill us in on the concept of prayer? What is that all about anyway?" Tim is asked as a young man.

"Prayer is about getting into a relationship with God.
Isn't about asking for things we want, and letting God know what's what?
No, sir. He already knows what we want and what we need. Prayer is about getting to know him, and worshipping him and trusting him, and thanking him."

"At home, he was the priest everybody loved, the fine fellow who made everyone feel good about themselves, when so often he felt only the misery of his own damage and derangement." I loved that! That inescapable feeling of fraud, of not feeling like the person people think you are, of still feeling like a 10 year-old kid who gets into trouble and can't do anything right! Nailed it!

I would recommend this book as a pleasant read, something substantial but not too heavy. Good for something to ponder and think about.(less)

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Feb 21, 2010

Hannah rated it:

(review of isbn 0670018252)

bookshelves: whip-sillabub--pretty--but-nothing-

This is one of those books that you can easily glide through, feeling like you've just picked it up for a few minutes and then suddenly finding that you're on page 30. One of my students from my old job gave me this book, so I hadn't read any of the Mitford books, which are the precursors to this series. I'd heard about them some from my mom, but don't worry, you won't need to phone her (if you don't want to) - prior knowledge was not so important that it made the story difficult to follow in an...more This is one of those books that you can easily glide through, feeling like you've just picked it up for a few minutes and then suddenly finding that you're on page 30. One of my students from my old job gave me this book, so I hadn't read any of the Mitford books, which are the precursors to this series. I'd heard about them some from my mom, but don't worry, you won't need to phone her (if you don't want to) - prior knowledge was not so important that it made the story difficult to follow in any way.

The story centers on Father Tim, a retired Episcopal priest who returns to his hometown for the first time in 30 years after receiving a brief and cryptic note beckoning him to do so. Although there are many reasons for why he has stayed away all this time, none are presented in the earth-shattering way that the hardback cover's bold, ominously red letters or the author's piercing stare on the back would suggest. Rather, Father Tim reminisces on a number of charmingly childish occurrences as he tours through town, interspersing tame encounters with townspeople with flashbacks of an earlier era, which gradually give way to more painful and darker remembrances that the younger Tim could not fully understand. It is at this point that the narrative pace picks up, and while the story never reaches the level of "gripping," it does develop into an interesting look at "going back" with some compelling characters and moments.

A brief scan at the comments confirms my hunch that the book was tied up a little too neatly (what picky creatures we readers are - we complain when there's a loose end, and yet hate it when everything conveniently come to a close). Still, someone sprinkled a bit too much serendipity into this pot for my taste. Having someone go back home and encounter everyone they had wanted to see is unlikely; having someone who is seventy return home and find all of their old acquaintances is pushing impossible, but that's where God enters the equation, I suppose, and Father Tim is a priest, so maybe he has a bit more entitlement to "coincidences" than your run-of-the-mill character. I have to admit that this is what seemed to me even more improbable than Father Tim's miraculous reunions: the mere idea that he could be both Southern and an Episcopal priest. Having been intermittently raised in the South, all male religious leaders were either preachers or pastors and almost undoubtedly Baptist,and so--having never seen a priest of any sort while below the Mason-Dixon line--I'm loath to believe they exist.

Speaking of the South brings to mind my other "complaint," if you could call it that. Writing a novel set in the South before the era of political-correctness (and even after, if one is to be technically correct about it) will inevitably lead to a problem with language and racism. Does one include certain words on the basis of realism/accuracy to the time period, or omit them because of their offensiveness today? With racism being such a difficult issue for almost anyone to talk about, and one that is especially good at getting us to put our feet in our mouths, Home to Holly Springs strikes an uneasy balance between these alternatives, sprinkling the 'n-word' and references to black inferiority throughout the beginning of the book and then reprimanding them with a somewhat awkward memory of Tim almost having his mouth washed out for saying a term that, his mother explains, would have been better substituted for by the word 'Negro.' I don't expect perfection in dealing with a whole history of racism and injustice, but Home to Holly Springs perhaps circumvents--or conveniently ignores--the depth of the issue (especially considering the situations that later develop - no spoilers this time!). I think that's an understandable choice considering that it might have derailed the otherwise almost impeccably-finished end, and added one more issue to the mountain of emotional conflicts that Father Tim already faces, but it's something that left me feeling slightly... off. Perhaps a better (or, more humbly, different) choice would have been to end the novel after the book's most surprising revelation, and then to deal with all the ensuing issues more fully in the following book.

To round this out, what I did find admirable about the book was its relative fluidity from past to present. At times I did find myself a bit annoyed by the returns to the more "mundane" matters of Father Tim's present, but for the most part, these occurrences helped drive his reminiscing in a way that seemed natural rather than contrived, and kept the book more balanced in terms of emotion and mood. I was also pretty impressed by Karon's treatment of her protagonist being a priest. I hadn't previously heard Karon's name being assigned (condemned? I hesitate to say that, but feel it may be more accurate) to the genre of Christian fiction, so I came to the book expecting that Father Tim would be more of a priest in name, having that as a 'character trait' for the purposes of driving amusing anecdotes centered around his collar. I was surprised--I think pleasantly--to find that Father Tim was, perhaps more realistically, a priest who occasionally prays and talks about God with others, but who also has human faults despite his best attempts to live up to his calling (although no grave, newsworthy ones; this isn't Faulkner). I don't think I was as shocked to see the kind of character he was as I was to: a) not find any extraordinarily awkward and false-seeming scenes where he converts someone, and b) feel that he was a character with whom I could more or less identify with rather than someone who, again falsely, seemed too perfect in his actions and emotional reactions. I think those are two major pitfalls in the genre of Christian fiction, and that living as an authentic human rather than artificially as one who somehow has attained religious perfection is one that faces people who follow religions in general, but perhaps particularly modern Christians. Karon deals with them rather admirably.

Overall, a nice, easy, and interesting read, one that would make me at least give good thought to reading the rest of the series. If you don't come to the book expecting a literary masterpiece ("willing suspension of disbelief" needed, as others have mentioned), but rather an enjoyable and maybe even cathartic experience, I think you'll be in the right place to appreciate this book.

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Jan 10, 2008

Robyn Whitlock rated it:

(review of isbn 0670018252)

bookshelves: finished

Read in January, 2008

I'll admit it--I'm a Mitford fan. I was thrilled when I saw this book. And, to it's credit, I couldn't put it down once I started reading.

While I love the characters in this series, and this book added a great deal to my insight into Father Tim, the whole thing was a little too contrived. It all bundled up too neatly for my liking. There wasn't a single loose end at the end of this story, which normally wouldn't bother me, but these were some big issues!

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Apr 25, 2009

Elaine rated it:

bookshelves: audio

Read in April, 2009

AUDIO
The story moves back and forth between present and past. Of course when he's "talking" to his mother or father, we can tell he's "in the past." It might take a moment to catch on to the change and also to figure out who is speaking at a particular time, whether it be Tim or the person he's talking with.

After receiving a very short missive saying simply "Come home," Father Tim returns to Holly Springs -- his place of birth -- bringing along h...more

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Dec 04, 2007

Mom rated it:

(review of isbn 0670018252)

Read in December, 2007

recommends it for: Jan Karon fans

This book fills out Father Tim's background as it goes into his past and gives a fuller understanding of what has shaped his personality. My mother called it a darkish book but I liked the way it hit head-on tough issues that caused F. Tim to walk closer to the Lord, to put God's power into practice and to see His hand working for good in spite of human frailty/failures. Characteristically Karon in humor,quotes and joy...

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Apr 11, 2009

Elizabeth rated it:

(review of isbn 0670018252)

Read in April, 2009

Millions of readers have followed the life of Father Timothy Kavanagh through the nine Mitford novels written by Jan Karon. In those books, we grew to love Father Tim as a compassionate, caring individual who, like many of us, struggles with the demons of his youth.

In her newest book, Home to Holly Springs, the first of the Father Tim novels, Father Tim returns to the town of his youth after receiving a cryptic note, "Come home." Through a series of flashbacks we look into...more

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Dec 27, 2007

Red rated it:

(review of isbn 0670018252)

bookshelves: books-i-will-always-keep

Read in February, 2008

Totally LOVED this book. Travel with Father Tim back to his home town. Find out what happened to his family and boyhood friends. Laugh and cry with him as he remembers, revisits and renews.

There has to be, at the very least, two more books. We must have the upcoming trip to Ireland with cousin Walter and his wife, and then the story where Dooley and Lace finally get married.

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Apr 27, 2009

Sue rated it:

(review of isbn 0143114395)

bookshelves: christian, fiction

Read in May, 2009

Father Tim, beloved American Episcopalian priest of the nine-volume Mitford series, is now 70. In this book he returns to visit the small town where he grew up, after an absence of 40 years. He goes because of a cryptic note he received in the mail, and hopes he might manage to catch up with some old friends and perhaps even exorcise a few demons of the past.

I found it a bit slow-going at first, made all the more difficult by a lot of dialogue in an accent that isn't familiar to m...more

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Jan 31, 2008

Diane rated it:

(review of isbn 0670018252)

Read in January, 2008

I really enjoyed the Mitford series. I picked this book up and wondered if it would be as enjoyable. I thought it was very good, and maybe even better.

There are a few carry over characters, but mostly we are introduced to new characters. I did feel like it wrapped up pretty quickly at the end, but it was still good.

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Aug 26, 2009

Jan rated it:

(review of isbn 0670018252)

bookshelves: family-drama, own-copy

Read in August, 2009

This is the first book I've read by Karon and I'm quite pleased I started with the first in the Father Time series (I'm usually not that lucky). What would you do if you received a cryptic note that said "come home" in a handwriting you didn't recognize. Acting on faith and with the support of his wife, Father Tim travels to Holly Springs and discovers how much God listens to prayers.

I loved the characters Karon has created. Finding myself remembering more than I ever ...more

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Jun 22, 2009

Stephanie rated it:

(review of isbn 0670018252)

I was drawn to this by the title and by the frequency of Jan Karon checkouts here at the library. I remember Holly Springs as the place where blues man Junior Kimbrough had his amazing juke joint, where Graceland II is open 24 hours a day, operated by a father and son team with an astonishing collection of Elvis memorabilia. So that was my motivation for a book with Holly Springs in the title.

Alas, it turns out that Karon specializes in books about Grace, not Graceland, and God turns...more

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Jul 04, 2008

SB rated it:

(review of isbn 0670018252)

Ok, so it got a little sappy and definitely should be read last after the rest of the series. This series develops the characters so you feel you know them and want to read about them again. It is a sweet, poignant set of stories that uplift.

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Dec 10, 2008

Jackie rated it:

(review of isbn 0670018252)

Read in November, 2008

In the first of the her new series, 60-something Father Tim, beloved priest of Jan Karon's mythical Mitford, S.C. town, has received a curt note, "Come home." Signed by no one. No indication of a problem. His wife encourages him to go "home" to Holly Springs, Mississippi where he spent his boyhood. His wife is injured just before the trip is to begin so he takes his trusty dog, Barnabas ("as big as a Buick")and sets out for "home".
Every bit ...more

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Oct 21, 2009

Judy rated it:

(review of isbn 0143114395)

Read in January, 2009

This was the first Jan Karon book I picked up, and I liked it, though didn't fall madly in love with it. Karon introduces us to Father Tim Kavanagh, who gets a cryptic note bidding him to "come home" to the small town he left decades earlier. There, he meets up with most of the townspeople who, unlike him, never left Holly Springs.
It was a little too implausible how certain characters kept popping up in unlikely places to see Father Tim, such as the local cemetary, yet Karon's d...more

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Sep 30, 2009

Susan rated it:

(review of isbn 0670018252)

Read in October, 2009

I loved the Mitford series, so I was very interested in The Father Tim stories. We see a different side of Father Tim as he travels home to Holly Springs, Mississippi, the place of his birth, after a 38 year absence. He goes to finally face his deomons real and imagined. It's strange how childhood memories play tricks on us. It points out the difference between a child's world and the adult world. Father Tim realizes there was so much he didn't know or understand about what went on when he wa...more

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Oct 27, 2009

Acarrawa rated it:

(review of isbn 0670018252)

I wish there was a 3 1/2-star rating! At first, I did not like this book as well as some of the Mitford series. It is a more fast-paced novel, and few of the Mitford characters are even mentioned. However, as I read more, I became attached to the story. It is very refreshing to see an account of a pastor who faces life's challenges in a very realistic way yet in a godly way. It is a moving testimony to God's provision, the way He redeems our pasts and works all things for good to those who ...more

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