True Believers
A novel
By Linda Dorrell
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Cotton heiress Peggy Nickles offers to give
Otha Lee Sturgis, a black country preacher, the deed to
an old church and cemetery if he will help restore them.
Aided by a carpenter named Joseph, who wanders into town,
they begin their work--and are quickly opposed by Peggy's
domineering sister and a racist community.
Peggy's sister accuses her of squandering
the family money and threatens to fight for the property
deed. The town is outraged about giving "white folks'" property
to a black congregation. Even Otha Lee and Joseph become
anxious as Peggy seems to break every social rule of the
1950s South.
While repairing the church and cemetery, the
trio uncovers long-held secrets that put Peggy's true motivation
in question. Is she trying to make up for her family's past
or discover it? Are there other reasons for her determination?
Whatever her intent, the small town of Bonham, South Carolina,
will never be the same.(c) Baker Books
This was a gentle story that had undercurrents
of strong emotion and sentiment of times gone by, hopefully
changed, but not forgotten. It dealed with racism in a quiet
but poignant manner. The author did not cry out in a full-fledged
yell against it, yet you felt the deep sadness and disrespect
of Otha Lee when the townsmen ignore his outstretched hand
and shake that of the "white man", Joseph instead.
The characters were developed well so that
you felt you gained more of an understanding of them as
they rediscovered their own pasts through out the novel.
Arguably the heat could be portrayed as a character in its
own right. Revelation comes to all once the heat is broken
and the storm breaks through, bringing physical destruction
of property and destruction of internal walls within people's
lives as the refreshing rain falls from the sky. It is a
poignant metaphor for renewal in Christ Jesus as well. The
more I think of this book after I've read it a few days
before, I think it is more artistically written than one
first assumes. Behind the simplicity is a great power. The
power of story telling.
Go ahead and pick up this book today!!
