Home to Holly Springs

This book captured the role that previous painful experiences play on the present and future. If it had been approached from a different angle I doubt it would have had the same impact.
I despised one individual in particular, and later that changed as I saw what he went through and how that influenced how he related to and treated those around him. The author gradually brought the reader to an understanding of this man, and not with a "quick-fix" mentality, but with much pain and misunderstanding involved.
That said, I was not a fan of all the curse words, both referenced and written out, spread liberally throughout the book, including one that is part of an animal's name and repeated as part of that name perhaps a dozen times. Given show more this, and other content, including a rape scene that could have been less detailed, I was unable to give this book a higher rating, though the writing was very well done. show less

This book captured the role that previous painful experiences play on the present and future. If it had been approached from a different angle I doubt it would have had the same impact.
I despised one individual in particular, and later that changed as I saw what he went through and how that influenced how he related to and treated those around him. The author gradually brought the reader to an understanding of this man, and not with a "quick-fix" mentality, but with much pain and misunderstanding involved.
That said, I was not a fan of all the curse words, both referenced and written out, spread liberally throughout the book, including one that is part of an animal's name and repeated as part of that name perhaps a dozen times. Given show more this, and other content, including a rape scene that could have been less detailed, I was unable to give this book a higher rating, though the writing was very well done. show less

Seventy-year-old Timothy Kavanaugh, the now retired Episcopalian minister of Jan Karon’s beloved Mitford series, who lives in Mitford, NC, with his wife, the former Cynthia Coppersmith, and their adopted son Dooley, receives a mysterious, unsigned letter postmarked Holly Springs, MS, which simply tells him to “Come home.” Cynthia has broken her ankle and Dooley is in college, so Tim hops in the car with his huge dog Barnabas and drives alone to Holly Springs, where he was born and raised but hasn’t been back in forty years. There he looks for long-lost friends, confronts the ghosts of the past, and wrestles with the demons of his upbringing. But will he ever find who wrote the note and what it is all about? And if he does, what show more will he do about it?
I read and enjoyed At Home in Mitford, the first of Karon’s Mitford series, but have not read any of the others which follow. However, when my wife bought this book, the first in Karon’s new Father Tim series, I decided to read it. While set in time subsequent to the last Mitford novel, it covers the early days of Tim and his family in Holly Springs via numerous flashbacks and reminiscences. USA Today says, “This is Karon’s most emotionally complex novel.” One could take “emotionally complex” as a synonym for “morally ambiguous.” At Home in Mitford, and I am told the other Mitford novels, have a certain light-hearted charm. Most reader-reviewers of Home to Holly Springs liked it, but a significant number of people who loved Mitford did not like this book because of its psychological nature, uneven narrative, lack of charm, tedious detail, and especially the stories of teenage sex, unwed pregnancy, attempted rape, and adultery. My wife was among those who did not care for it as well as the Mitford books.
Jan Karon is a good writer, and I found that the book has an interesting plot line, although it does drag a little at times. There are many positive aspects to it. However, one’s final decision about the book might hinge on how one views Tim’s reaction to learning about his father’s adultery. Does he feel that it’s something in the past that can’t be changed and he simply goes on from there without necessarily condoning what happened? Or does he come to believe that maybe the fact that his father found someone with whom he could show the love that he never gave Tim’s mother is just one of those facets of life and he shouldn’t be judgmental? I would like to think that it’s the former, but my wife concluded that it might have been the latter. Aside from this, there are a few instances of drinking whiskey. As to language, in addition to some common euphemisms and childish slang terms for body parts and functions, several references to the “s” word that was written on the water tower are found, although the word itself is never used, the words God and Lord are uttered a couple of times as interjections, and the “d” word modifies “Yankees” once and is part of the name of a mule owned by Tim’s childhood friend mentioned a number of times. The worst for me is that someone is said to be “white a**,” or to “kick a**,” or to be “bad a**,” or to be “hard a**,” or to be a “pain in the a**,” or to be a “rat’s a**,” or to say “my a**.” Karon may have chosen such language because she thinks that it makes her characters sound “authentic.” I think that it just makes them sound annoying. I like the fact that Tim is always acknowledging God and His grace, and the story does have a happy ending, but I think that it could have been told in a much better way. show less

I really enjoyed the Mitford series, so I picked up this audiobook expecting more of the same. While this book revisits many loved characters and introduces many more equally memorable ones, the story of Father Tim's boyhood in Holly Springs is very different from quaint and comfortable Mitford. Father Tim goes to Holly Springs in response to a cryptic, unsigned note left at his home. The narrative moves between this present day story of what occurs when he revisits his boyhood home and his memories of growing up in Holly Springs. His memories are not always pleasant, yet themes of love and family are as present in this story as in the earlier series. And, as is extra-important in audiobooks, the narrator was excellent, with a clearly show more unique voice for each character (though I sometimes questioned his choices as I, for one, imagined Cynthia's voice quite different...).

Overall, I thought this a good, comfortable sort of book. I liked the story itself, but felt that some plot points were overly contrived. show less

The Mitford novels is one of my favorite series, so of course I needed to catch up with Fr. Tim in this. (Although I'm a bit confused as to why it's called a different series, what with the same characters and same story lines carried forward.) Here we get to find out a bit about Fr. Tim's childhood and his family of origin when he goes back home in response to a cryptic note. Many of the old places and people are still there, and we discover both light and dark in his past. I enjoyed reading it for (a) the insight into a favorite character and (b) it has its own interesting story that can carry a book itself. As always, the colorful characters surrounding Fr. Tim light up the novel. I will admit, though, that Cynthia is beginning to show more irritate me; even in the eyes of her beloved, no one can be that perfect. show less

Although it has been my experience that the Mitford books placed by the author in a setting other than Mitford have been less successful, Home to Holly Springs is a certain exception. For those of us who have loved the series, this book gives a very satisfying understanding of the background of Father Tim. It explains to us as well as to Father Tim the reasons behind so many of his quirks and fears which had only been hinted at in this nine book series. We meet new characters whose language, wit, and personalities match the best of the Mitford characters. Perhaps all the puzzle pieces come together too neatly during Father Tim's journey to his childhood home, but maybe that's the reason we leave our own broken worlds and return again show more and again to the warmth and happy endings found in these books. show less

Father Tim, beloved American Episcopalian priest of the nine-volume Mitford series, is now 70. In this book he returns to visit the small town where he grew up, after an absence of nearly 40 years. He goes because of a cryptic note he received in the mail, and hopes he might manage to catch up with some old friends and perhaps even exorcise a few demons of the past.

The story changes frequently from present to past and back again, filling in some of the details of Tim's childhood and teenage years, and helping us make sense of the people he meets or hears about. I found this worked well, on the whole, although it was hard to keep track of some of the characters. There are some shocking revelations, and repeated use of a very unpleasant show more racial epithet, but it was probably realistic for the era.

I suppose the plot has slightly too many coincidences.. but it was well enough written that none of them seemed unbelievable. People who haven't read the Mitford series probably wouldn't find this at all interesting, and those who like Mitford only for the small-town niceness might find this one a bit psychologically complex and murky. But for anyone who would like to know more about this delightful priest and his background, I'd definitely recommend it.

Longer review here: https://suesbookreviews.blogspot.com/2022/01/home-to-holly-springs-by-jan-karon.... show less