Ginnie's review
Salvation on Sand Mountain: Snake-Handling and Redemption in Southern Appalachia
by Dennis Covington
Ginnie's review
Salvation on Sand Mountain: Snake-Handling and Redemption in Southern Appalachia by Dennis Covington
Ginnie's review
rating:
bookshelves:
culture,
religion
On assignment in Alabama to cover a murder trial, New York Times journalist Dennis Covington discovered the bizarre, mysterious, ultimately irresistible world of holiness snake handling. As he explored the lives and beliefs of the poor, white Southerners who practice this strange form of religion, he gradually began to explore his own soul.
The people of Southern Appalachia are hill people of Scottish-Irish descent--religious mystics who cast out demons, drink strychnine, and handle rattlesnakes. When the author, himself Scottish-Irish, uncovers records of snake-handling Covingtons, he decides to take up serpents himself. The result is Flannery O'Connor, Carson McCullers and Garrison Keillor all rolled into one quirky, unforgettable read.
The people of Southern Appalachia are hill people of Scottish-Irish descent--religious mystics who cast out demons, drink strychnine, and handle rattlesnakes. When the author, himself Scottish-Irish, uncovers records of snake-handling Covingtons, he decides to take up serpents himself. The result is Flannery O'Connor, Carson McCullers and Garrison Keillor all rolled into one quirky, unforgettable read.
