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Stranger Here Below

3.21 of 5 stars 3.21 · rating details · 43 ratings · 22 reviews

In 1961, when Amazing Grace Jansen, a firecracker from Appalachia, meets Mary Elizabeth Cox, the daughter of a Black southern preacher, at Kentucky’s Berea College, they already carry the scars and traces of their mothers’ troubles. Poor and single, Maze’s mother has had to raise her daughter alone and fight to keep a roof over their heads. Mary Elizabeth’s mother has carr...more

Hardcover, 288 pages

Published November 5th 2010 by Unbridled Books (first published September 28th 2010)

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Apr 29, 2011 Regina rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: first-reads, historical-fiction, literature, favorites

What I can say about this book – is READ IT. Read this book. Read this book. If you enjoy reading and books, this is a story for you.

Stranger Here Below is a beautifully written story the centers on several generations of women, who live in the south. Their story is told from the point of view of each woman; the shift is done chapter by chapter, but the transition is smooth and it is never choppy. The story of these women crosses both economic and racial lines, as do their relationships. Additi...more What I can say about this book – is READ IT. Read this book. Read this book. If you enjoy reading and books, this is a story for you.

Stranger Here Below is a beautifully written story the centers on several generations of women, who live in the south. Their story is told from the point of view of each woman; the shift is done chapter by chapter, but the transition is smooth and it is never choppy. The story of these women crosses both economic and racial lines, as do their relationships. Additionally, the shift from character to character moves back and forth in time. Gradually the characters and stories are woven together, so that the reader learns the relationships between the different characters and their influences on each other. This book is literary fiction at its best. Each word has weight and adds context to the story. As I was reading, I literally felt like I had climbed into the characters lives. I knew these women and they became my friends.

However that summary of this book does not do Stranger Here Below justice. Yes, it is a book told about 5 women who are connected and it is told across different time periods, flashing back to when each woman was younger and then her as a woman. Yes, the book takes place in Kentucky (and also Chicago for a short period of time). Yes, the book addresses issues of race beginning from the time period in the late 1800s through the late 1960s. Yes, the book addresses women’s relationships with each other and issues of economics and poverty. Those are all overarching themes, but amazingly the book is more than these themes.

The true focus of Stranger Here Below is about loss, love – both in romantic relationships and female friendships. Really, the men are side stories and the story focuses on the women, how they relate to each other, how they support each other, how they hurt each other and how they grow apart. Loss is almost another character in Stranger Here Below -- the loss and devastation caused by the death of family members, the death of close friends, the abandonment by a husband, the casting out by a community, and being left by behind by a parent. Despite the fact that Loss is central to the story, it is not a depressing story and Ms Hinnefeld does not detail the losses in a gory or heartbreaking way. In fact, reading this book made me want to reach out to the women in my life – family members and old friends. I strongly recommend this book.(less)

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Nov 29, 2010 Erin rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

When I first started reading Stranger Here Below, I didn’t think I’d like it all that much. I found the time jumps jarring, the multiple characters and storylines confusing. I felt that not enough time was spent on Mary Elizabeth and Maze for me to get to know them.

My opinion changed, however, as I read on. As the women whose stories were told began to show up in the main storyline, I began to understand where they fit in. I realized each woman’s story was told more or less chronologically, so t...more

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Sep 29, 2010 Jennifer rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

My review from my book review blog Rundpinne...[return][return]....Stranger Here Below by Joyce Hinnefeld is a book that will have the reader pondering the greater implications of family long after the last word is read. Hinnefeld creates a stunningly beautiful, sad and yet hopeful, story of the lives of three generations of women spanning the years 1862-1968, all interconnected in a non-linear manner throughout the novel. The story opens up with Amazing Grace “Maze” Jansen meeting her roommate...more

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Mar 13, 2011 Wisteria Leigh rated it 4 of 5 stars

Stranger Here Below, is an intensely rich novel that left me temporarily paralyzed. Hinnefeld is an author with a story to tell that reaches beyond the last page. The three main women in this book Maze, Mary Elizabeth and Georginea are interconnected to each other with a family history that has far reaching influence. Even though the book ends in 1968, themes and events that shape the characters lives still still hold value today. I can� t say I identified with any specific woman, but more an am...more Stranger Here Below, is an intensely rich novel that left me temporarily paralyzed. Hinnefeld is an author with a story to tell that reaches beyond the last page. The three main women in this book Maze, Mary Elizabeth and Georginea are interconnected to each other with a family history that has far reaching influence. Even though the book ends in 1968, themes and events that shape the characters lives still still hold value today. I can� t say I identified with any specific woman, but more an amalgamation of all many personalities. Women who read this will no doubt experience a similar connection, perhaps more of one than another, but with heartfelt empathy for all. [return][return]It is hard to fathom the influence the men in the story held over the women� s lives through the generations with 21st century eyes. Yet, given the time period of the setting, it is not surprising. I was unable to abandon the lives of these characters. I kept flipping back to reread passages with many thoughts to ponder and meaning to interpret. The lives of those who live in Stranger Here Below are compelling, not easily forgotten, nor is the reasoning presented in Sister Georgia� s life reflection: [return][return]� She had spent fifty years hiding, she knew now, from the black-coated men who drove the engines of the world. Youth--she and Tobias, Maze and her young man and their friends--so powerless in the face of their laws and their wars. yet children were born, Marthie among them, faces without masks and hearts still pure, their futures unknown.� [return][return][return]Hinnefeld presents her novel in chapters that fluctuate among the varied characters and from a time period that spanned from the 1870� s through 1968. In my opinion, this technique kept the reader on edge from the onset. Absorbing throughout, this attracted the reader with multiple perspectives and the multi-layered depth given by hearing from all three women. [return]This is a deeply reflective and noteworthy historical fiction novel I highly recommend.[return][return][return]Wisteria Leigh[return]December 2010[return][return]Disclosure: The copy of this book was sent to me for review as a participant in Library Thing� s Early Reviewer program and represents my unbiased opinion.(less)

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Aug 01, 2011 Sharon rated it 3 of 5 stars

If I had not met the author, I would not have purchased this book (only because the title and book cover didn't really entice me; although I might have borrowed it at the library!). I had the pleasure of hearing the author read selections and talk about her process at a recent seminar on the Shakers. One of the characters in her book ends up caring for the last Shaker at a community in Kentucky and supposedly learning a few life lessons therein.

It was an uneven book, with great potential from my...more

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Sep 27, 2010 Brenda Casto rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is an amazing story of how ties that bind families together can't be broken, but also how sometimes our family is more than just people we are related to.
The main characters all have one thing in common, the common bond they have is Berea College.
Its 1961 and Amazing Grace Jensen, meets her new roommate Mary Elizabeth Cox at Berea College. Maze was raised by a single mom from Appalachia, and M.E. as Maze liked to call her was the only child of a southern black minister and his wife Sarah. M...more This is an amazing story of how ties that bind families together can't be broken, but also how sometimes our family is more than just people we are related to.
The main characters all have one thing in common, the common bond they have is Berea College.
Its 1961 and Amazing Grace Jensen, meets her new roommate Mary Elizabeth Cox at Berea College. Maze was raised by a single mom from Appalachia, and M.E. as Maze liked to call her was the only child of a southern black minister and his wife Sarah. M.E has been sheltered from the truths kept hidden about her mother, truths that isolate her from her talented daughter and husband as well as the women of the community.
Sarah had once been a carefree young girl but tragedy changed all of that for her, and she now barely hangs on, but all her daughter knows is that her mom has "fits"and has been trained what to do when her mother has said fits, but as we know the truth always has a way of coming out, and when Sarah winds up in the county home for coloreds because her dad can no longer take care of her , it takes someone from her mothers past to make M.E. understand the heartaches and tragedy her mother has experienced.

Maze has issues in her family as well, being raised by a single mother that always had to work hard to keep a roof over their heads, when she winds up taking a job at the Shaker Inn, she could have had no idea how it would impact their lives, this is were their lives start to become intertwined with Sister Georgia, the only remaining shaker in the Pleasant Hill shaker community. Sister Georgia came to the Shaker community after becoming tired of living.
Georginea Ward's story takes us back 60 yrs to when she was a teacher at Berea college, she fell in love with a black man which was not accepted by her wealthy father. Georgia ends the relationship but is never really happy and soon wants to stop living, she winds up going back to a place she had visited 30 years earlier, the Shaker community.There she finally finds peace, and acceptance.
I was immediately drawn into this story, the author does an excellent job of transitioning between past and present in the telling of this story, adding so much more depth to the characters. I could really feel sympathy for M.E.'s character, often feeling shame for the way her mother was.
I really enjoyed reading about the Shaker Religion, something I knew very little about. Sister Georgia was such a gem, with such wisdom and knowledge, if one just takes the time to know her.
A story of intertwining lives and the choices they made, makes this a compelling story that is hard to put down.

Even though I was provided a review copy of this book from the publisher, Unbridled Books, it in no way alters my opinion of this book. (less)

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Jun 22, 2010 Fiona added it

Shelves: fiction

The book opens in 1968, with a letter written by Maze to her best friend Mary Elizabeth. She speaks of her sadness, loneliness and regret, and of her fears for the future.

We then go back to the beginning, to the birth of Georginea Ward in 1872, and from there the story weaves back and forth between Maze and Mary Elizabeth, their mothers Vista and Sarah, and Georginea, who Vista and Maze live with for much of their lives.

Stranger Here Below leaves much unsaid. Fears and passions alike are buried...more The book opens in 1968, with a letter written by Maze to her best friend Mary Elizabeth. She speaks of her sadness, loneliness and regret, and of her fears for the future.

We then go back to the beginning, to the birth of Georginea Ward in 1872, and from there the story weaves back and forth between Maze and Mary Elizabeth, their mothers Vista and Sarah, and Georginea, who Vista and Maze live with for much of their lives.

Stranger Here Below leaves much unsaid. Fears and passions alike are buried or denied by women who face hardships and must show strength and stoicism to live day by day. Many questions are left unanswered, and much is implied rather than made explicit. For this reason, the book is an engrossing, though not easy, read.

An indication of how finely drawn Hinnefeld's character are, is the anger, frustration and tears provoked in the reader by the events that unfold. The fact that the reader feels so strongly for the characters, and empathizes with them in this way, shows just how successful the author has been.

The historical context of the novel is extremely interesting, covering as it does the Shakers (the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing, known as the Shakers, is a Protestant religious sect), the Day Law (Berea College is a coeducational and desegregated school founded in 1855, admitting both blacks and whites students and treating them without discrimination. In 1904, the "Day Law" was passed by the Kentucky legislature, prohibiting any person, group of people, or corporation from the teaching of black and white students in the same school, or from running separate branches of a school for the teaching of black and white students within twenty-five miles of each other. Since at the time Berea was the only such integrated school in Kentucky, it was clearly the target of this law.), and the Vietnam War (In 1965 America officially entered the Vietnam War to fight against the will of the Vietnamese people and to support minority Vietnamese interests which were tied to American interests. 58 169 Americans were killed. Vietnam was a display of American fallibility, lack of judgment, lack of understanding of root issues, and lack of support for people to determine their own destiny and govern themselves.).

Recommended reading.(less)

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Nov 21, 2010 Jennyreadsexcessively rated it 4 of 5 stars

Like the craft of weaving that plays an important role in the life of one of the novel's central characters and in the culture of Berea College where this novel is based, so the author weaves a lovely, complex narrative of the lives of 3 generations of women. Religion and racism are the driving themes for the alternating storylines. Central to the story are Mary Elizabeth, an African-American pianist, and Maze, the daughter of a single mother from Eastern Kentucky. Despite the setting--1965 rura...more

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Oct 29, 2011 Francis rated it 3 of 5 stars

Mary Elizabeth wants to be somebody, Maze wants to be happy. Mary Elizabeth is careful, she has goals and she has plans. Maze is a immediate, she is unpredictable, she is a swashbuckler. Mary Elizabeth is black, Maze is white, it matters little, they are friends, Maze is passionate, Mary Elizabeth is careful. Neither comes from wealthy families, they have seen some troubles.

The story wanders slowly like a steady stream, gradually descending, gradually building power, but then it dissipates, endi...more

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Apr 17, 2011 Michelle added it · review of another edition

I enjoy literary fiction for the depth of its stories, the necessity of savoring each word and its ability to allow the reader to enter a new world without sacrificing the human foibles that connect the reader with the characters. Yet, I truly struggle to review literary fiction because my reaction to it is so subtle and so internal, it really is all but impossible to put that reaction into words. This is especially true of Stranger Here Below.

A beautifully told story about the friendship betwee...more I enjoy literary fiction for the depth of its stories, the necessity of savoring each word and its ability to allow the reader to enter a new world without sacrificing the human foibles that connect the reader with the characters. Yet, I truly struggle to review literary fiction because my reaction to it is so subtle and so internal, it really is all but impossible to put that reaction into words. This is especially true of Stranger Here Below.

A beautifully told story about the friendship between two unlikely characters, Stranger Here Below is not just about friendship but rather delves into such weighty topics as racial tension, gender relations, politics, and religion. Maze and Mary Elizabeth explore their positions in the wider world, wanting to move forward while still tied to their family histories. It is a story of their journey towards independence as much as anything.

Ms. Hinnefeld chose to tell the story through the points-of-view of every female character mentioned - Sister Georgia with her refusal to follow the rules, Maze's mother with her loneliness, Mary Elizabeth's mother with her childhood trauma, Maze with her unique perspective on life, and Mary Elizabeth with her talent and limitations in a white world. As the characters intersect, their individual stories make sense and paint a picture of strong but damaged women who each manage to survive in her own way. The scars run deep but love helps them all overcome those scars, as does their individual strength.

Ms. Hinnefeld's prose is simply stunning. Clear, concise but effective, the reader has no confusion about what is occurring, no matter how horrific it may be. Stranger Here Below is not one of those stories that leaves a reader satisfied or even at peace with the resolution. Life is messy, and Ms. Hinnefeld does not shy away from that truth. Mary Elizabeth gains her independence but the cost is severe. Maze blazes her own path but at a price. While the reader fervently wishes that each of the characters would find peace, the reader knows that if this were to have happened, the ending would have been less authentic. Stranger Here Below tests the adage that love and friendship are forever and does so with an honest look at the outside forces that impact all relationships. While it isn't for everyone, this is one novel that challenges and rewards the right reader.(less)

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Jan 08, 2011 Julie Smith (Knitting and Sundries) rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: reviewed

This review first appeared on my blog:

http://jewelknits.blogspot.com/2011/0...

This is a multi-layered tale of women all born before their time, their quietly amazing lives, and the interwoven friendships and relationships that they have, both individually and together.

There's Georginea, born in 1872, the granddaughter of Ephraim Ward, the abolitionist, whose fellow students were Lyman Beecher and Theodore Ward. When her mother Rose dies at her birth, her father Davis Ward, leaves her in the car...more

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Apr 18, 2011 Dina rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011, historical-fiction, relationships

I found this book hard to follow with its frequent change in time period and character focus. And the end really brought me up short. I've enjoyed a number of books with ambiguous endings, but in this book it just felt like the author just decided it was time to quit and did. Very unsatisfying.

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Nov 04, 2010 Nicole Bonia rated it 5 of 5 stars

Lovely portrayal or the relationships in a woman's life. Mothers. Daughters. Lovers. Friends. The book stats off with a question but I was so absorbed in all the characters' stories that I had to go back and remind myself of what I was reading to find out.

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Nov 05, 2010 Lisa rated it 3 of 5 stars

3.5 stars. I really wanted to love this one. The writing was lovely and the characters had so much promise. It just felt to me like it should have been longer, given the main characters more of a chance to grow.

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Jun 16, 2011 Terri Ball rated it 4 of 5 stars

What an interesting read. The author is a fabulous PYT Mom - it's awesome to read a book when you know the author; you get an entirely different perspective on the word construction. a-MA'Z-ing.

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Jul 12, 2012 Paula rated it 4 of 5 stars

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The stories of the characters were woven together in a masterful way. I also enjoyed the Shakertown setting in parts of the novel.

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Mar 20, 2011 Barbara Bryan rated it 2 of 5 stars

Well written a bit confusing, moved in time between 2 mothers and 2 daughters, the Daughters room together at college, one black one white. Their moms are pretty messed up with sad back stories. A bit of a struggle to read, some characters more interesting than others.

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Aug 29, 2011 Lori rated it 2 of 5 stars

had great promise but ultimately i just didn't like any of the characters. style was convoluted and not easily readable

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Dec 08, 2010 Anne rated it 2 of 5 stars

i should have known that a book with a character named Amazing Grace would be sort of dumb

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Jan 03, 2011 Natalie marked it as wish-list

Sounds good!

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Oct 09, 2010 Autumn rated it 4 of 5 stars

Pretty good, but I liked In Hovering Flight better.

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Oct 21, 2012 Sahara *Wants to be thrown against wall and ravage Dawn added it

Shelves: wish-list

Sounds good!

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May 13, 2013 Jasmin rated it 3 of 5 stars

May 07, 2013 Sharon McCarthy marked it as to-read

Mar 24, 2013 Deb rated it 4 of 5 stars

Mar 14, 2013 Kirby Capul marked it as to-read

Mar 12, 2013 Jennifer rated it 1 of 5 stars

Feb 22, 2013 Christine rated it 4 of 5 stars

Jan 24, 2013 Angy rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012-reads

Jan 17, 2013 Mary marked it as to-read

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About Joyce Hinnefeld

Joyce Hinnefeld is an Associate Professor of Writing at Moravian College in Bethlehem, Pa. She is the author of a short story collection, Tell Me Everything and Other Stories (University Press of New England, 1998), which was awarded the 1997 Breadloaf Writer's Conference Bakeless Prize in fiction in 1997. Her first novel, In Hovering Flight, will be published by Unbridled Books in September 2008....more

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