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""It had been a Second Coming sky all day, which meant they might be in heaven by this evening.""--BOOK JACKET. "So begins the uproarious and tender tale of Roxanne Fish, daughter of Sister Zelda Fish and Pastor Winston Fish of the First Assembly of God Church of Ames, Iowa, who believe fervently in the imminent return of Jesus to take the Christians up to heaven. The Fishes' older daughter, Colleen, wants no part of their exuberant faith ("Where are you going, young lady?" "To find my real family!"), but Roxy longs to be saved even as she fears her sinful desires, such as marrying Elvis Presley when she grows up. If she grows up."--BOOK JACKET. "Roxy lives in a world populated by angels with blue noses and demons who follow her around whispering "God doesn't like you." And sinners, sinners everywhere, easily identifiable by their makeup and capri pants and knowledge of television programs. Her soul's journey through this wicked world to her own particular salvation - with an assist from the Queen of Soul herself, Aretha Franklin - is unforgettable."--BOOK JACKET.
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A funny, heartwarming novel about a strictly devout evangelical family may sound like an oxymoron, but in Huffey's beguiling debut, it proves the case. Narrator Roxanne Fish is nine years old when we meet her and her staunchly religiousÄbut also affectionate and encouragingÄparents. Roxy's father is pastor of a church in Ames, Iowa, whose members fervently believe that the Second Coming is imminent. Roxy is desperately afraid that she will fail to ascend to heaven with her parents because she has not yet been saved. Her older sister, Colleen, may not make heaven, either, because she's determined to become a Catholic. To their mother, cheerful, bubbly Sister Zelda, the Rapture will mean she'll have the davenport she craves. Kindly Pastor Fish is happy to punctuate his temporal existence playing baseball with Roxy. A beguiling mixture of typical preteen and fundamentalist believer, Roxy invents a demon named Fred, who taunts her about her doctrinal shortcomings, and a talking hedge that gives her advice. Guiltily, she allows her doll to indulge in all the sins a good Christian rejects. One temptation proves irresistible, however. The Fishes' beer-swilling neighbor lures Roxy into an Unpardonable Sin: singing rock and roll. Having thus discovered that she has a remarkable voice, Roxy now sees Satan everywhere. Her poignantly humorous thoughts and adventures, juxtaposed against the daily round of church services and domestic crises, make for a diverting narrative. Sometimes, however, the action leans toward sitcom: the sexual peccadilloes of three church leaders produce comic surprise, but the third incident of moral hypocrisy becomes overkill. The novel culminates in Roxy's first real religious experience; as an adolescent, she is discovered by Aretha Franklin, and as she sings "Rock My Soul" with Aretha's group, she experiences her own kind of transcendence. Huffey's light touch with her material, and her sensitive rendering of a religious youngster's matter-of-fact belief that the world may end any minute, move her story from the paradoxical to the plausible. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
《书目》(Booklist)书评
Alexander, the pen name of a husband-and-wife team, one of whom is an emergency-room physician, delivers Sacred Trust, a first novel about a young emergency-room physician, Lukas Bower, practicing in a small town in southern Missouri. Bower, a Christian, tolerates no compromise in the ethical practice of medicine: not from an older, respected doctor who makes a minor mistake; not from the drug-seeking son of a board member; and not from a child abuser, also a powerful man in the community. Although Alexander's doctor is heroic, he's human. He's shy around women, untactful, and naive. This is a tough-minded and convincing novel, free of soap opera. Among other things, Beld's quaintly titled A Gentle Breeze is about the inadequately appreciated role of churches in resettling Cambodian refugees in the late 1970s, when the Khmer Rouge spread its reign of terror. Beld alternates the story of a liberal Christian couple who gradually become involved with refugees with the composite stories of a number of them. Notably, there's Ang Lee, a young woman brutalized in a Khmer Rouge camp who finally escapes to Thailand and then to the U.S. by agreeing to marry a family friend. Beld's book is strangely organized--it's fiction but contains news summaries, an interview with the author, and chapter notes--but it's upbeat, moving, and even rather poetic. Foster's Passing by Samaria is a rarity in Christian fiction: it features an African American heroine in a kind of female Black Boy. As blacks die in France in World War I, a Mississippi high-school girl, Alena, discovers a schoolmate's lynched body, suspects that the white sheriff is involved, and cannot silence her outrage. For her own protection, her parents send her to live with an aunt in Chicago. This "promised land" is perilous, but Alena dabbles in journalism and finds a good man to marry. The impending marriage brings her home to Mississippi, and simultaneously the white sheriff is himself killed in a "hunting accident." In a beautiful, deeply religious series of scenes featuring aggrieved blacks, the sheriff's family, and a young white minister, atonement and forgiveness are achieved, and there is hope for racial harmony. This is a fine first novel and most welcome. Huffey's The Hallelujah Side is a subtle literary novel featuring Assembly of God Pastor Winston Fish's family of Ames, Iowa, from the point of view of his younger daughter, Roxanne. Roxanne's older sister, Colleen, shows signs of leaving the faith; the family moves to Pasadena; and Roxanne achieves salvation with some help from Aretha Franklin. That's the entire story, but Huffey is extremely funny, much like Marilynne Robinson in Housekeeping in her mad, circular dialogues and deft characterizations. The Reverend Fish, for instance, attempts to refute Das Kapital line by line with Scripture. All the Fishes feel pursued by demons and suspect that the Second Coming will occur by noon. A quirky, slight, and, by turns, hilarious and poignant first novel. Jenkins' Though None Go with Me, first in the Three Rivers Legacy series, will draw interest because Jenkins, with Tim Lahaye, is author of the Left Behind series, a cult hit about the Antichrist and Judgment Day. This is the much more sedate story of Elizabeth LeRoy, a woman who dedicates her life to the service of God and allows nothing, not even romance, to sway her. In Jenkins' hands, her tale is lively enough, though it will prove too preachy for some, and, at the least, it's a far cry from the apocalypse of the Left Behind series. There's plenty of apocalypse in Marzulli's Nephilim, featuring his ingenious explanation of the infamous UFO sighting--and alleged suppression of the story by the air force--in Roswell, New Mexico. Art Mackenzie, a newspaper reporter who's been boozing ever since the death of his son, and whose father disappeared at Roswell, stumbles onto a secret ward of a Southern California hospital where mental patients speak of aliens, giants, UFOs, etc. Mackenzie is off to Israel and Peru to solve the mystery, and, yes, it turns out that aliens are among us. They are the Nephilim, an ancient, mysterious race described in Genesis, on Earth again prefiguring the Second Coming. Clever and compulsively readable. Spangler's She Who Laughs, Lasts! brings together 73 short shorts and vignettes by women on subjects such as married life, mothers, Christmas, raising kids, and growing old. It's a collection looking for an Irma Bombeck; unfortunately, none of the writers is really very funny, but all offer wholesome, upbeat wisdom, much like that of Kay Allenbaugh's Chocolate for a Woman's Soul (1997). For ministers, there are some anecdotes and clean jokes here that could round out a sermon. Turner's By the Light of a Thousand Stars is the sturdy, small-town tale of catty Catherine Biddle, the middle-aged matron of a proper-seeming middle-class family riven with purposelessness and emotional fatigue. When a new family moves in across the street who are disorderly and unconventional but full of love for one another and God, Catherine learns again the lesson of her youth: love and a generous spirit are the only means to happiness. Series updates: From Zondervan, Vanished (paper, $12.99, 0-310-22003-3), second in the J. D. Stanton series of supernatural mysteries by Alton Gansky; Fields of Gold (paper, $9.99, 0-310-22369-5), the second in Lisa Samson's historical romance series, Shades of Eternity; and Words of Honor (paper, $10.99, 0-310-21759-8), third in the popular Terri Blackstock's Deep South mystery series, Newpointe 911. From WaterBrook: Angela Elwell Hunt finishes her Heirs of Cahira O'Connor series with The Emerald Isle (paper, $11.95, 0-310-21759-8). From Bethany: Kathy Tyers' science-fiction novel Fusion Fire (paper, $10.99, 0-7642-2215-5), sequel to Firebird (paper, $8.99, 0-7642-2214-7); and Michael Phillips' Heathersleigh Homecoming ($17.99, 0-7642-2237-6, or paper, $12.99, 0-7642-2045-4), third in his Secrets of Heathersleigh Hall series.