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God's Kingdom

Howard Frank Mosher

3.95 · Rating details · 402 ratings · 91 reviews

Howard Frank Mosher is one of America's most acclaimed writers. His fiction set in the world of Vermont's Northeast Kingdom chronicles the intertwining family histories of the natives, wanderers, outcasts, and fugitives--white, Native American, escaped slaves fleeing north, French Canadians, and others--who settled in this remote and beautiful place.

Set in the 1950s, God's ...more

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Hardcover, 240 pages

Published October 6th 2015 by St. Martin's Press

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Oct 09, 2017 Cheri rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2017, canada, library-book, vermont, 1950s, coming-of-age

”Someone, perhaps Samuel Clemens, said that every story begins with a stranger coming to town or with a man or a woman going on a journey. Certainly this definition holds true for most of the best stories of God’s Kingdom, from the arrival of Charles Kinneson I onward.”
PLINY’S HISTORY

This is the story of a town, of its’ people, a coming-of-age story of a young aspiring writer, James Kinneson, III, a story set in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom, beginning in the 1950s. The area is rich in history ”Someone, perhaps Samuel Clemens, said that every story begins with a stranger coming to town or with a man or a woman going on a journey. Certainly this definition holds true for most of the best stories of God’s Kingdom, from the arrival of Charles Kinneson I onward.”
PLINY’S HISTORY

This is the story of a town, of its’ people, a coming-of-age story of a young aspiring writer, James Kinneson, III, a story set in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom, beginning in the 1950s. The area is rich in history and family lore, and in the many legends that abide in an area so remote, an area as beautiful as it is wild, where once-upon-a-time escaped slaves fled through this area to the hopeful safety of Canada. Stories you may or may not find in the history books, but you’ll hear them whispered all your life if you’re lucky enough to grow up there.

God’s Kingdom. A wild and beautiful place, a place that seems untouched by time and the history of man. And yet, the personal histories of these families are so imbedded in this place, and this time with these people whose ancestors began their lives there so long ago that the history of this place begins with the resident’s ancestors. A place where the same families have lived there so long that everyone knows more than just their names, they know everyone else’s past, and their present.

This story begins as young Jim is setting out on his first deer hunt, a ritual for fourteen year-old boys to be “blooded” with his first successful hunt. Much of this is more about the camaraderie of the generations of men gathered to join in, to pay witness to this rite of passage, the campground and the “remember when’s” the night before. It is also a rite-of-passage story of a young man who discovers a side of himself he wasn’t prepared to uncover.

The stories of the families and the history of God’s Kingdom unravel over time and are intertwined with the words of the Rev. Dr. Pliny Templeton, a former, escaped slave, a Civil War Chaplain and the founder of the Kingdom Common Academy. Templeton’s words are quotes selected from his “The Ecclesiastical, Natural, Social, and Political History of Kingdom County.” So much a part of this story and this place are part of Templeton, so that when he died, he bequeathed his skeleton to the Academy, where it hangs.

There’s so much about this story that speaks of the everyday way of life, the baseball games, the blessing of having grandparents close by, of life in a small town in the 1950s. There’s another side that speaks around the stories of the past, the unraveling of the history of his family, and of Templeton’s family and the town itself. The town itself has a presence that seems almost as though it is a character itself, a benevolent ancestor looking over his land, his people, sharing their joy, and their sorrow.

There are tales that will break your heart, and some that will bring a smile to your face, because that’s the way life is. Tears are shed. Smiles eventually return.

When I saw that Howard Frank Mosher has a book due to be released late this coming January, I decided I wanted to get a sense of some of his "older"stories, to get a sense of his prior work before I read his “Points North,” his last. I am so very glad I did, this was such a terrific introduction.

Many thanks, once again, to the Public Library system for the loan of this book! ...more

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Sep 05, 2015 Elyse Walters rated it it was amazing

Shelves: netgalley

"God's Kingdom", takes place in the little known mountains of northern Vermont near the
Canadian border. The regional imagery inspires the magnificent storytelling....and the
storytelling inspiring the beauty of the land.

"Just Ahead, Second-Largest covered Bridge in the World" ......
"Jim read the historical marker beside the entrance of the bridge:
"This covered bridge over the upper Connecticut River was built by James Kinneson
in 1789. In 1812, 'Abolition Jim' rallied a contingent of local logg ...more

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Sep 15, 2015 Angela M rated it really liked it

Shelves: netgalley-reviews

There are two main characters here , our protagonist James Kinneson III , Jim who matures before our eyes , of course it's his story and the Reverend Dr. Pliny Templeton , long dead is also at the center of it . Maybe there's three because this place Kingdom, Vermont and everything about it is a character in its own right .

We meet Jim at age 14 in this first poignant tale of "Blooded" , about the ritual of getting your first deer. The next four years are depicted in stories around Jim Kinneson a ...more

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Sep 15, 2015 Diane S ☔ rated it really liked it

God's Kingdom, Vermont just over the border from Canada. The story of the Kinnesons told not in a straightforward narrative but rather like snapshots. Stories told to a young Jim Kinneson who wants to be a reporter, a long family history that covers, whiskey still and prohibition, slavery, a horrible fire, the KKK, the fight to form a union, hunting and fishing trips with his grandfather, competitive baseball games, basketball, triumphs and sorrows are all part of a long history.

Told in vivid an ...more

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Nov 14, 2017 Marialyce rated it really liked it

Both my husband and I enjoyed this book.

This was a wonderful story of family and coming of age of a young man, Jim Kinneson. Jim learns the history of his family and though it takes many twists and turns, the warmth and love is so apparent. Using the background of life on the Maine/Canadian border, the author invokes the beauty of nature, family,and roots that trace back many years. As we learn of the family and its ancestors, we begin to understand relationships within the family and people li ...more

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Aug 26, 2015 Esil rated it really liked it

Shelves: netgalley

If you are not religious, no need to worry that God's Kingdom is a religious book. It's actually a book of interconnected stories set in a fictitious place called God's Kingdom, in Kingdom County, Vermont on the border with Canada. The stories take place in the 1950s, and are told from the perspective of teenage Jim Kinneson, an aspiring writer whose family has lived in the region for many years. Mosher's understated writing and deceptively simple storytelling grew on me, and made for a lovely r ...more

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Sep 25, 2015 Michael rated it it was amazing

Shelves: racism, netgalley, rural-life, coming-of-age, historical-fiction, fiction, fishing, vermont

A well-crafted tale of a budding writer growing up in the 50s in a remote rural community in northeastern Vermont known as the “Northeast Kingdom” or just “The Kingdom”. It continues the journals of young Jim Kinneson that started with Moser’s wonderful “A Stranger in the Kingdom”, which I read over a decade ago (published in 1989, or a 25 year gap). Jim at 15 has the benefits of a tight, loving family, including a warm, wise mother, a father who is a liberal newspaper editor, and an older broth A well-crafted tale of a budding writer growing up in the 50s in a remote rural community in northeastern Vermont known as the “Northeast Kingdom” or just “The Kingdom”. It continues the journals of young Jim Kinneson that started with Moser’s wonderful “A Stranger in the Kingdom”, which I read over a decade ago (published in 1989, or a 25 year gap). Jim at 15 has the benefits of a tight, loving family, including a warm, wise mother, a father who is a liberal newspaper editor, and an older brother who is a defense lawyer interested in social justice, each with their own sense of humor. However, the family has a dark history and secrets that present an alluring mystery for Jim. In the opening section, at a traditional family outing at their hunting and fishing camp, his grandfather anoints him with the mission to tell the stories of the Kingdom as a writer. The stories that he records are a mix of ones that he experiences himself and older ones that speak to corruption, crimes, and discrimination that involve his family as villains or heroes.

The founder of their clan in the region participated in a slaughter of Abenaki Indians in the 18th century, but returned to settle there and came to marry an Indian woman as part of an apparent personal penance. He initiated the family distillery business, which Jim comes to realize contributed to alcoholism of whites and Indians alike over the generations to his present day. Another if his ancestors in the 19th century became an abolitionist and declared secession from the U.S. over slavery, eventually leading to his death by federal troops. Closer to home, Jim’s great grandfather gave refuge to a former runaway slave, Pliny, and later, when he became an educated minister, helped him establish the very school Jim attends. But this forbear ended up killing Pliny in some dispute over school policy. That is the mystery Jim is most interested in solving, and one he reminded of every day by his skeleton kept by the school for education as a form of mascot.

Thus, you can see there are some quirky characters and skeletons in the closet. We are immersed in stories from Jim’s own life along the way that do much to reveal the special cohesiveness of this rural community, which Moser admits are drawn from his 50 years of residence in The Kingdom. The warmth of this rendering is irresistible. It has some of the same flavor as other authors who are masters in evoking a sense of place, such as Kent Haruf with his fictional Holt, Colorado, and Wendell Berry with Port Jefferson, Kentucky. The fishing adventures are reminiscent of those in Norman Maclean’s “A River Runs Through It.” You can tell Moser loves his characters, even the villains.
A rail-thin woman in her late seventies with a mannish jaw, a broad forehead, hands like hay hooks, and small black eyes that missed nothing. Miss Hark surveyed the class bleakly.
“Algebra Two …is not metal shop. Algebra Two is not Physical Education. In Algebra Two we will not be playing math games or any games.”

She is particularly brutal in shaming Jim’s friend, a French-Canadian sharecropper’s son that Jim’s family has hired. The outcome for this boy is pretty tragic, but Jim makes sure that justice is achieved for the old witch. Jim also succeeds in contributing to the solving of the mystery of his ancestor’s murder to his friend the black headmaster, and the outcome is quite a satisfying surprise. Like Moser himself, Jim is obviously on his way to becoming a successful writer through harnessing the stories of his town and that of his own adventures. I look forward to other books by Mosher I have collected, some of which have been made into films.

This book was provided by the publisher as an ebook through the Netgalley program.

...more

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Aug 13, 2015 Faith rated it really liked it

Shelves: reviewed, goodreads

This book is a partial history of Kingdom County, Vermont, told in a series of beautifully crafted short stories. Although it is called a novel, there is no overall plot. The stories are linked by time (1950s), characters, place and theme and are told by Jim Kinneson between the ages of 14 and 18. The history of the Kinneson family is inseparable from that of God's Kingdom. The members of the Kinneson family have been farmers, abolitionists, whiskey brewers and Pulitzer Prize winning newspaper e ...more

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Sep 11, 2015 Tina rated it really liked it

This was my second Howard Frank Mosher novel. After reading A Stranger in the Kingdom from 1989, I was impressed with Mosher's storytelling skills. I can't believe it took me so long to read another one of his novels.

Like A Stranger in the Kingdom, this Kinneson family story is brought to you from fictional Kingdom County, Vermont and based around Jim Kinneson as he grows through his teens in the 1950's. It is filled with stories of the Kinneson family, of humor, of small town life, of beauty, ...more

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Aug 12, 2015 Melissa I rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 0-thank-you-a-p-b-gr, favorites, 2015-read

Review to come and a million thanks to #StMartinsPress #ShelfAwareness and the author Howard Frank Mosher for the opportunity to read yet another fantastic book from this publisher and another great for the 2015 Book year. One of the best reading years of my life. I'm stunned at the amount of truly amazing books I've been blessed to read and thankful for every single one. ...more

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Oct 11, 2015 Steven Robinson rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Emotional read.

The ability to write a story that evokes so many feelings will keep me wanting more. Get back to work Howard Frank, I will be waiting.

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Apr 10, 2016 Carol Royce Owen rated it it was amazing

Many years ago I was at a conference where Howard Frank Mosher was the keynote speaker. I didn't know of his works, but came away in awe when he said that he would often revisemany of his manuscripts as often as 50 times by hand - no computer. As I read God's Kingdom, his newest novel, I was reminded of this as lines jumped out at me that were so beautifully written, flowing as effortlessly as the waters in the rivers that run through God's Kingdom.

Jim Kinneson III is the son of Editor Charlie K ...more

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Oct 12, 2015 Donald Crane rated it it was amazing

The first Mosher book I read, back in the mid-nineties, was A Stranger in the Kingdom, and have longed for another by him that rivals it. This (God's Kingdom) was pretty close, and it involves the same characters as Stranger.

I was a little disappointed early in the book... it seemed like just a collection of chapter-long short stories, with no overarching connection. Interesting short stories, and fun to read, but this book was billed as a novel. I wasn't seeing it. (Yes, the characters were the ...more

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Jul 19, 2015 Ronald Koltnow rated it it was amazing

To be published by St. Martin's Press 6 October 2015

Howard Frank Mosher makes it all look easy. This deceptively simple novel about a young man's coming of age, encumbered by the weight of his family history, seems at times to be a memoir. Young Jim Kinneson goes hunting, goes fishing, plays baseball, falls in love, meets with life and tragedy. That is the story. Yet few writers could imbue this with the wisdom. the wit, the passion that Mosher does, and has been doing since DISAPPEARANCES in 19 ...more

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Sep 02, 2015 Beverly rated it liked it

Shelves: newtome2016, united-states, small-town

This was a 3.5 read for me.

A skillfully paced novel about one young man’s reckoning with his family’s past and his duty for the truth as he stays true to himself. This story follows the Kinneson family since their arrival in the Northeastern part of Vermont in the 1600’s but is mostly the story of Jim Kinneson who turned fourteen in 1952 and begins to write down family stories that has been passed down to him. In this quest, he encounters situations and people that at times differ with the perce ...more

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Apr 02, 2015 Sestearns rated it really liked it

Shelves: vermont, fiction, advance-reader-copy, 2015, read-in-2015

A funny, poignant set of tales about a boy growing up in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont in the 1950s and learning about his family's and his close-knit community's history. Book comes out in October 2015. ...more

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Aug 08, 2015 Leslie rated it really liked it

Shelves: advance-copy

4.5 stars. I love Howard Frank Mosher's stories of Vermont's Northeast Kingdom. They are tragicomic--heart-wrenching at times but often very funny. This is a collection of interrelated stories about the coming-of-age of Jim Kinneson, future writer. ...more

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Sep 21, 2015 Nann rated it it was amazing

Mosher's interconnected stories about Jim Kinneson and his family are wonderful. They are told from Jim's adolescent point of view overlaid by his middle-aged omniscience. Mosher evokes "place" in the achingly poignant style of Wendell Berry, Jon Hassler, and Garrison Keillor. ...more

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Jul 10, 2017 Mary Huissen rated it it was amazing

Loved it. Now I want to read the two books that came before this one. Out of order, but no matter

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Mar 17, 2016 Stephen Payne rated it it was amazing

In God’s Kingdom, Howard Mosher has continued to develop the rich, nourishing landscape of Kingdom Common, Vermont, teasing a series of morality plays from the beautiful and sometimes savage world about which he writes with such deep passion and authority. There are scenes that elicit powerful and unexpected emotion and others – like the chapter about the local baseball ‘players’ “Moose,” and “Mike-the-moose,” a real moose who attempts to steal first base—that are truly laugh-out-loud funny. Tho In God’s Kingdom, Howard Mosher has continued to develop the rich, nourishing landscape of Kingdom Common, Vermont, teasing a series of morality plays from the beautiful and sometimes savage world about which he writes with such deep passion and authority. There are scenes that elicit powerful and unexpected emotion and others – like the chapter about the local baseball ‘players’ “Moose,” and “Mike-the-moose,” a real moose who attempts to steal first base—that are truly laugh-out-loud funny. Though I have read Mosher for thirty years, it was through reading God’s Kingdom that I realized he is not just preserving a people and a world that are fast-slipping away from us, but perhaps even more importantly he is speaking to a collective unconscious that we all share in the here and now. His archetypal elements of his stories are immediately relevant, and his greatest gift to us is that we will always be able to access, appreciate and fold them into our daily lives. His marvelous, monstrous, foibled characters are us, though we may not outwardly appear quite so eccentric as the inhabitants of God’s (wondrous) Kingdom.

Mosher’s celebrations of the north woods, meadows and waters, the fauna and flowers and their unique seasons are joys to behold. His love of unspoiled nature that continues to fall prey to greedy, callous development is a clarion call for all of us to urgently support efforts to conserve and preserve our land, lakes and heritage. Mosher’s ‘God’ only made one beautiful earth, whether it’s Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom, the spectacular Michigan lake region, the grand redwood forests of the Northwest, or the intoxicating and mysterious Mississippi bayous. It seems to me his challenge to us is not to just sit back in our easy chairs and read about these places, but to do something about protecting them.

I greatly admire Mosher’s precise and all-encompassing pen, his tremendous generosity of spirit, and his seemingly boundless creativity. He ‘sees’ and writes with uncanny wisdom, humor, and emotional clarity, and he never loses sight of what he oft says at his reading, that ‘the best stories are always love stories.’ Thank God for the literary treasure that is Howard Frank Mosher and for making just one special, limited edition of him, after which I’m sure He was exhausted beyond all measure.
...more

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Apr 05, 2016 Kend rated it really liked it

Shelves: first-reads, favorites

You will have seen many of the components of God's Kingdom before: a coming-of-age story involving a hunt (failed or otherwise), a wise grandfather figure, a busy family, a young and star-crossed romance, and a land outside of time--a land so atmospheric, so evocative, that it becomes a central character in and of itself. The book is structured as a series of interconnected vignettes, a la David Mitchell and others. To be perfectly honest, I spent the first couple of chapters thinking rather imp ...more

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Dec 30, 2015 Patricia rated it liked it

While there are some good concepts to build a story line in this book, the overall execution or delivery fell short for me. James (Jim) Kinneson III wants to be a writer and pursues the historical facts and truths about his family, community and geograph history. Set in God's Kingdom on the borders of Canada, Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire, the area is rich in history of the Underground Railroad of slaves. An escaped slave, Pliny Templeton, from a tobacco plantation in Kentucky chops off his h ...more

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Nov 10, 2015 J.R. rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction

Reading a novel by Howard Frank Mosher is like sitting down for a chat with an old and valued friend. I've been a fan since reading his first novel, Disappearances.
This latest in his output is no disappointment.
God's Kingdom (northeast Vermont) is told from the viewpoint of Jim Kinneson, a budding young writer in the 1950s, who absorbs the history of his family from their arrival in the territory in the 1750s down to his time through stories told by his beloved grandfather and others. Hovering a ...more

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Nov 19, 2015 Arlo rated it really liked it

Stumbled upon this at the library and decided to give it a go. After about fifty pages it really started to click. A wonderful book about how we record history and inter familial relationships. The back drop is rural Vermont mid 20th century as viewed from the teenage boy in the family.
There's a small scene in the book where one of his family members is rewriting the bible and omitting things she doesn't like and adding stuff she'd rather see. While it's a small scene it is somewhat of a metaph ...more

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Oct 21, 2015 Tucker rated it liked it

It is always a pleasure to submerse myself in Howard Frank Mosher’s Vermont and his lush and evocative descriptions of the “Kingdom”. His Northeast Kingdom novels are filled with well told stories and well drawn characters. There are moments of humor, tragedy, love, and sadness as we watch Jim Kinnison come of age. Another outstanding book in this series.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book.

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Nov 27, 2015 Linda Gaines rated it it was amazing

I love Mosher's books about Vermont's Northeast Kingdom. The closeness of the people remind me of Wendell Berry's Port William community. Jim Kinneson studies the family lore of the past and finds lots of prejudice and violence but also people standing up for justice and love.
He goes hunting and fishing with father and grandfather but he can't kill the mighty buck or catch the rainbow trout (to be mounted on a wall --its beautiful colors fading away). ...more

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Oct 04, 2015 Laura rated it it was amazing

Shelves: first-reads-review-books

This was a beautifully told coming-of-age story set in Vermont (God's Kindgom) in the 1950s. I loved so much about this book, from the history of the Kinneson family to the examples of "choosing to do the right thing" to the love stories and the haunting tragedies.

Won through Goodreads and highly recommended for lovers of historical fiction. ...more

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Nov 14, 2015 Melissa Acuna rated it it was amazing

God's Kingdom may be Howard Frank Mosher's best book since A Stranger in the Kingdom. Every sentence in this book is perfectly crafted and draw the reader back to rural Vermont during a time of change in the 1950's.

This is a book that will resonate for generations. ...more

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Jan 21, 2018 Mandy rated it liked it

I didn’t enjoy this as much as I expected to. Usually I love books set in the remoter parts of the US – in this case north-eastern Vermont – but I found this novel, which is really a series of linked vignettes rather than a sustained narrative, although interesting from an historical point of view, with its cast of white settlers, Native Americans, French-Canadians and escaped slaves from both the past and the present, somehow fell flat in its characterisation, and I failed to engage with any of ...more

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Nov 13, 2017 Ioana rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This was such an incredible book! How have I never come across Howard Frank Mosher's books before?! The story is set in God's Kingdom, Vermont, and is a coming-of-age tale mixed with a frank look at racism's ugly footprint in New England. Mosher's use of language of luxurious, rich, vivid - I had to sometimes re-read sentences several times just to fully experience (taste? feel?) the metaphors and adjectives. The stories are warm and heart-felt - some make you laugh, some make you angry and disa ...more

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About Howard Frank Mosher

Howard Frank Mosher

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Howard Frank Mosher was an American author. Over the course of his career, Mr. Mosher published 12 novels, two memoirs and countless essays and book reviews. In addition, his last work of fiction, points North will be published by St. Martin's press in the winter of 2018.

Mosher was a Guggenheim Fellow in 1979. A Stranger In the Kingdom won the New England Book Award for Fiction in 1991, and was l ...more