Hyssop

by Kevin McIlvoy

Kevin McIlvoy's Hyssop is a remarkable novel filled with kindness, truth, and magic--a story that celebrates friendship and love while exploring the complexities of a simple faith that enriches materially impoverished lives. It is a gorgeous patchwork of memory lovingly sewn together by Red Greetaltruistic petty thief and guileless grifter-who has spent many days of his eighty-seven years behind bars in Las Almas, New Mexico. Twice married-the second time, while in jail, to his lifelong love Recita Holguin-Red has sampled pleasures available only to those capable of embracing life and its temptations without shame or fear. But his sins have been as memorable as his adventures-transgressions he shares freely with Bishop Francisco Velasco, Red's lifelong best friend and confessor, and his one-time rival for the affections of his first wife, Cecilia. In telling how he has loved and been loved, in confessing how he has sinned and inspired others to sin, Red Greet seeks hyssop, the substance that might wash his soul clean.  

Genres: Literature, Fiction

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Kevin McIlvoy teaches in the Department of English at New Mexico State University, and in the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College. Recently, he has taught at the Bread Loaf, RopeWalk, and Arizona State University writers’ conferences. He has been the editor in chief of Puerto del Sol, the NMSU national literary magazine, for twenty-three years, and has published his own work in literary magazines, including TriQuarterly, the Southern Review, River City, Ploughshares, and the Missouri Review. The Complete History of New Mexico is his first story collection; he has published four novels, A Waltz, The Fifth Station, Little Peg, and Hyssop. He and his family live in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Reviews

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Old man talking about himself and his friends. Mildly interesting but not that great. I hoped it would get better but it never did.

[Cyndie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This gentle flowing story is at home in it's Land of Enchantment setting.

[Maryjoamani · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hyssop is a beautiful story, so simple it is deceptive, a love story between friends, between lovers, between married couples, between the Catholic Church and her adherents, between everything and nothing. It fits in with magical realism of Allende and Marquez, grounded not in South America but it in the southwestern U.S. in the borderlands, and that Kevin McIlvoy manages to doubt and extol religion and culture in almost one seamless breath, is another kind of magic. I haven’t read such an imaginative and poetic novel in years and highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys novels that play and meander and make you laugh out loud with sheer joy.

[Melody · Rating 4 out of 5]

My book club read this and the author was our guest for this discussion.

Our question to Kevin was along the lines of what were you trying to do with this book?

Kevin's goal was to try to capture the voice of his characters. He wrote about the town we all live in, about places we know, and about events typical of southern New Mexico.

With that as his goal, he did an admirable job. I could hear his characters voices because I knew where they lived. His painting of them was right on. Although I read this book several years ago, I vividly recall those characters.

[Quincey Burkhalter · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books you have never read. This author is a former Professor of creative writing at NMSU. I like the person who wrote this book so much that it may be coloring my view of the Novel, but I still say this is one of the finest pieces of American Literature to be written in the last 20 years.

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

A remarkable book about love, friendship, loyalty, and place. The love story between the two main characters is written with such love and tenderness, you'll weep. Really.

[Tina Hvitfeldt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hyssop is beautifully written -- the characters will stay with you long after you've finished this imaginative novel.