Handling Sin begins by putting normal guy Raleigh Hayes, an upstanding insurance salesman, into a bizarre situation. His elderly father escapes from the hospital and is seen leaving town with a young black woman. He leaves Raleigh some very odd instructions, telling him to assemble some objects and people and meet him in New Orleans in two weeks. We follow Raleigh as he strives to follow his father's demands. He is accompanied by his old friend Mingo Sheffield, a sort of Falstaffian Sancho Panza.

We learn various things about the extended Hayes family and its history. Raleigh's wife, Aura, is a wonderful character who misses him but blossoms in his brief absence. Raleigh locates his long-lost half brother as well as a mysterious musician. By the time he reaches New Orleans, various stories have begun to intersect and explain one another.

Malone gives us a broad mix of misunderstandings, coincidences, and flat-out hilarity. It seems he included every funny idea that ever occurred to him. Parts of the book are truly laugh-out-loud funny, and some drag rather badly, particularly in the middle. Malone also breaks the narrative to give us some crucial back-story, rather than
letting us discover it along with Raleigh. The novel would have been much stronger at a mere 500 pages, rather than 650.

In spite of these flaws, this is a wonderful, funny story about the importance of friendship and love. ( )

This is a big book, with a lot packed into it, so it's sort of hard to know what to say about it. In a lot of ways, it reminded me of The Pickwick Papers, with misunderstandings and coincidences, and the main characters sort of bumbling around and managing to get themselves into and out of trouble with seeming to really understand what was actually going on around them.

Similarly, the book reminded me a lot of A Confederacy of Dunces, at least in the beginning. There's the sort of curmudgeonly and generally disapproving Southern man, who looks with disdain at almost everything around him, and is convinced that he could do everything better if only he were allowed to run things.

What makes this book different from either of those two is that Malone actually allows his main character to grow and learn during the story. This made "our hero" an actually sympathetic character (as opposed to Toole's Reilly) and I actually cared about the end result of his enforced quest, if not everything that happened to him and his companions on the way. ( )

One of my all time favorite books. It's got great humor and heart. The dialogue is terrific. I was able to relate to the main character and the book reminds me how easy it is to lose track of the things that matter most in life... and reminds me what those things are. A great read! ( )

I started this book on the recomendation of a family member and didn't enjoy it at first. It took me about 200 pages (which looks like just a dent on this behemoth) before I could fall into the neccesary suspension of belief and enjoy the riabald plot. Once I "got it", however, this book was really good. Clearly built on "The Hero's Journey" writing style (Malone even uses the names of the book parts to point this out), the plot is reminescent of Huck Finn and the characters come alive. And, importantly, the ending is funny, wise, and definitely worth getting through the book for. ( )

Goodness, I loved this book. All 650-some-odd pages of it. It was very much like Malone's Dingley Falls in that it's a big, sprawling novel that you just want to get lost in for a few days.

Raleigh Whittier Hayes is the hero of the story (and that's exactly how Malone refers to him in the chapter titles), though he's quite a reluctant hero in the beginning. His daddy, Reverend Earley Hayes, "escapes" from the hospital with a young black woman, and leaves Raleigh some instructions to follow. Raleigh's just a regular guy who sells insurance and has always tried to lead as normal a life as possible. But the quest his daddy sends him on lets him know just how crazy life can be. And how rewarding.

Malone was the head writer for "One Life to Live" for years and years (including the time that this novel was first published), and you can see some of the outlandish soapy plot elements in this book, but he writes so well and with such joie de vivre, you can forgive him almost anything. (Yes, I'm a snob, and I don't watch soaps. But this guy? I love him.) ( )