Just Shy of Harmony

Just Shy of Harmony. Philip Gulley. 2002. HarperCollins. 272 pages.

Sam Gardner sat on the porch the Monday after Easter. 

Home to Harmony delighted me. It was a story collection with heart. There were stories that made me laugh, smile, and almost cry. Just Shy of Harmony is not a collection of stories; it is a novel set in Harmony. Readers follow this small town from Easter to Easter--the course of one year. There are essentially three or four stories:

The pastor Sam Gardner is having a crisis of faith: he no longer believes in the God he's supposed to preach about. He's realized that he has at least eight of ten signs of depression, and he finds the church much too overwhelming. And those feelings keep him from being able to pray. When he confesses to the elders of the church, they decide to take turns preaching each week. Which is good--the first few weeks--but Sam learns that not everyone has more than one (or two) good sermons in them. Will stepping back from the chaos of the church--the endless meetings, etc.--help him believe in God's goodness again?

Asa and Jessie Peacock won the lottery in Home to Harmony, but they refused to accept the money. In this novel, they struggle with their decision when EVERYTHING goes wrong all at once. If they accept the money, can they use it wisely?

Wayne Fleming has started dating Deena Morrison. But that relationship is threatened by the return of Wayne's wife, Sally. Sally thought she had a very very good reason for leaving Wayne and their kids last year. She wanted to spare them the pain of watching her die. But now she's having second thoughts about that decision, now she wants her family back. The community thinks they know everything about Sally, but what they don't know about her health, well, it surprises almost everyone. Can this community come together to help this family in need?

Dale Hinshaw feels "led" to start a Scripture egg ministry. By feeding chickens small pieces of paper with Bible verses on them, he hopes that the eggs they lay will minister to people, to shock them perhaps, into the faith. But this ministry is just a little too weird for the town to get behind and support.

While I didn't love this book--at least not as much as Home to Harmony--it was a nice read.

© 2011 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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Posted in 2002 , adult fiction , HarperCollins , library book

Home to Harmony

Home to Harmony. Philip Gulley. 2002. HarperCollins. 225 pages.

When I was in the second grade, my teacher, Miss Maxwell, read from The Harmony Herald that one in every four children lived in China. I remember looking over the room, guessing which children they might be. I wasn't sure where China was, but suspected it was on bus route three. 

One of the best, best, best books I've read lately. One of those books that had me at hello. It may not appeal to every one. I suppose you might say it is a little sentimental now and then. But. It is truly one of those cozy books that make you feel oh-so-happy. Or, I should say it made me feel oh-so-happy. There were chapters that had me laughing--really laughing hard. There were chapters that had me close to tears. And almost every chapter had something worth quoting. I realized this right away and didn't even try to mark them all. (Some books are like that.)

So the premise of this one is simple. Sam Gardner lives in the small town of Harmony. He went away--to school, to seminary--but now he's back. And unlike some in the town, he's very happy to be back, very happy to be living in Harmony. He understands--better than some--why it may not be a town for everyone, but to him it's right where he wants to be.

The book is a collection of stories. Some set in the past, some set in the present. The stories are arranged by season--spring, summer, fall, winter. And the stories are about the community, the people who live there or who have lived there. We meet Bob Miles Sr. and Dale Hinshaw. The narrator is a Quaker minister.

My favorite stories were: Miss Rudy, Wilbur, and Friday Nights; Burma-Shave; The Birds and the Bees; This Callous Pride; Mutiny; The Twins; Miriam and Ellis; and The Spelling Bee. 

"He had been inoculated with a small dose of Christianity, which had kept him from catching the real thing." (51)

"When love takes you by the hand and leaves you better, that is home." (63)

"The Dale Hinshaw Effect is simply this: If there is a bad idea to be thought, Dale Hinshaw will think it." (67)

© 2011 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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Posted in 2002 , adult fiction , humor , library book , short stories