At Home in Mitford (Mitford Years, #1) in Easley Library Bookworms

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Sep 19, 2008 Werner rated it really liked it

Shelves: general-fiction

When I first began reading this series-opener, it took me awhile to warm up to it. That's because the human drama of the various plot lines is slow to develop, and because I didn't immediately get close enough to any of the characters to actually get inside their heads and understand or relate strongly to them. (The third-person narration isn't the cause of this. Arguably, that's much the way things are in real life; most of the time, it takes awhile to get to know a new community and new people When I first began reading this series-opener, it took me awhile to warm up to it. That's because the human drama of the various plot lines is slow to develop, and because I didn't immediately get close enough to any of the characters to actually get inside their heads and understand or relate strongly to them. (The third-person narration isn't the cause of this. Arguably, that's much the way things are in real life; most of the time, it takes awhile to get to know a new community and new people and to feel fully a part of things.) As my rating shows, it was worth sticking with it and giving it a chance; the number of stars I was prepared to give rose steadily as I read --which is always a nice experience, compared to the all-too-common reverse!

Karon's central character here is a sixty-ish Episcopal priest, Father Tim (his last name is never given, as far as I can recall), rector of a small congregation in a little North Carolina mountain town, clearly modeled on the author's home community. The various plot strands revolve around his own concerns and the life of his parish; this makes it easy and natural for Karon to weave in references to the Christian faith of her characters (which mirrors her own) and its role in both individual and community life. Her Christianity is of a simple, gentle sort; she shows God working through the changed hearts of those who respond to Him, more so than through spectacular miracles, and Father Tim's witness and spiritual counsel is more in the nature of winsomely declaring truth that most people can instinctively relate to, rather than of arguing theology and Christian evidences. For general fiction dealing with the everyday lives of ordinary people, this approach strikes me as pitch-perfect. This book was published by a secular press (perhaps partly because Karon's Episcopal characters aren't averse to an occasional glass of wine, which no doubt violates ECPA/CBA rules), and I think could appeal to secular readers who aren't reflexively repelled by portrayals of religious believers. It also has no sex or bad language, and would certainly appeal to most Christian readers. (Though Karon is an Episcopalian herself, she doesn't beat a denominational drum here; indeed, the warm fellowship between Father Tim and Baptist preacher Absalom Greer makes a good ecumenical point.)

While I expected to encounter regionalist Realism here, I would say that Karon actually doesn't make as strong a use of the specifically Appalachian setting as Sharon McCrumb does in the Ballad series; much of the atmosphere here might be that of any small town anywhere in the U.S. She also does not deal much in grappling directly with modern social and economic problems (though she doesn't ignore them totally; one short passage, for instance, makes it clear that Mitford's mayor and others are well aware of the threat of so-called "development" and --in a community whose home-owned businesses are still viable-- resolved to resist it). At times, the novel can also have a somewhat "sanitized" feel (and that's apart from the freedom from profanity and sex, which to me is positive). But the characters do face serious and realistic painful or challenging situations: Father Tim's diabetes, the loss of a beloved spouse, a terminal illness, thwarted romance, dark family secrets, schizophrenia, and the starkly awful family situation of 11-year-old Dooley (he and his siblings given away by an alcoholic mother like a litter of unwanted puppies or kittens), to name a few. There's rural poverty in the back country hollows, and drugs and crime are realities. The mood, though, is upbeat; we see characters able to confront and get a handle on problems. While Karon can sometimes, IMO, use "quirkiness" as a crutch, she's basically good at characterization; she has a healthy sense of humor that leavens the story, and she's able to blend the mundane and the lyrical in some beautiful passages (the ending here lifted the book into four-star territory). She also imparts a lot of solid wisdom for life in these pages, and delivers an appealing romance (of a man and woman in the autumn, rather than the spring, of their lives), though this isn't a "romance" novel and doesn't follow commercial "romance" conventions.

More by accident than deliberate choice, my reading over the years has tended to neglect contemporary general fiction. But that tradition has a lot of rewards to offer, as novels like this show; and I do want to read more in it. I definitely plan to continue with this series (eventually); and I'd expect to be able to get into the second one much more quickly now, for knowing the characters and community! ...more

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May 23, 2009 Crystal rated it really liked it

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