Calling Me Home by Julie Kibler

     Isabelle and Dorrie take a physical, emotional, and psychological road trip from Texas to Ohio, and what a journey it is for both of them.  Isabelle, a spirited older woman,  must get to Ohio for a funeral as soon as possible, and she has asks her hair stylist, Dorrie, to be the driver. 

     The reader is also in the driver's seat as both learn about Isabelle's life story, and the significant and tragic events that mark her life.  Isabelle was raised in a family of privilege and hired help, and during segregation; however, she learned to think for herself and to make her own decisions, many of which were detrimental to herself and others. 

     With the opposing chapters, the reader sits in the passenger seat with Isabelle to learn more about Dorrie, her mother, and the significant decisions Dorrie has to make about her own children and her life.

     Isabelle recounts her story chronologically starting in 1939 and finishing in 1943; Dorrie is always present day. The alternating chapters provide for a conversation between Isabelle and Dorrie, which makes the pages turn easily.  These women are courageous, strong, and indefatigable (a word that that Isabelle would probably know and just might be an answer on her crossword puzzles!)

Feeling Close To Home in A Land More Kind Than Home by Wiley Cash

     From what Cash says about himself, he, indeed, has come a long way since his workshop with Ernest Gaines.  He has an excellent debut novel in A Land More Kind Than Home.

     Jess Hall is a young boy whose curiosity gets the best of him and exposes him to situations that he doesn’t quite know how to understand, but he knows there is something wrong happening with his mother and Stump, his younger brother who is mute.  He knows he needs to do or say something, but all he can do is try to protect his brother and to see, for himself, just what exactly pastor Chambliss is doing in that church.

          The story of Adelaide Lyle and the “fear factor” instilled by pastor Chambliss gave me the shivers AND was the compelling hook to keep me reading, while also hanging in the corner of my “peripheral” memory for the remainder of the novel, just waiting to be understood.  Cash then introduces and begins Jess’s story, which is not connected to the pastor, and only reinforces the mystery of Adelaide and her suspenseful experience. 

     Jess and the sheriff tell their story on such a personal level, that I found myself almost listening to them – listening as each shares his story, rather than simply reading their stories.  For the sheriff, his storytelling seems almost therapeutic to let go of past regrets, while developing a perspective for future ethical dilemmas.  The stories of Jess’s parents are told in the third person, and from multiple characters, which develops a sense of sympathy for them both - his mother has fallen under some influence of pastor Chambliss and his father is naïve to the circumstances surrounding his family - and thus, blame cannot be placed on either one for the tragedies that befall the family.  

     He has come to a conclusion about writing, and I would even say, creativity..."As a six-year-old, you're called a liar when you tell a story that you know isn't true.  But if you can keep telling stories and wait just a few more years, people will eventually call you a writer.  Even when they know you're stories aren't true."