Review: Home to Harmony by Philip Gulley
Welcome to the quirky world of minister Sam Gardner, here in his first year back in his hometown.
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Contemporary Fiction | Small-Town Fiction | Humor
Home to Harmony by Philip Gulley
Description
In this inaugural volume in the Harmony series, Quaker minister Sam Gardner is in for some, um, adventures during his first year back among the quirky townsfolk in good ol’ Harmony.
My Thoughts
I ran backwards to read this first Harmony book after I stumbled upon one of the Christmas novellas further along in the series and laughed my head off reading it.
Unlike that holiday tale, this novel doesn’t have a central plot with a problem and a resolution. Rather, this is more a collection of small-town vignettes, most of them ending with “moral of the story” reflections from Sam with a sense of regret here, nostalgia there, and hope overall. The book with its hodgepodge of flawed folks has got plenty of funny moments with some poignant ones mixed in, one which almost made me cry.
The delightfulness of the read can make you forgive the fact that the method of storytelling doesn’t always make sense. Sam narrates in first person, but while he’s telling stories about his fellow townsfolk, he’s more of an omniscient narrator in their lives. Somehow, he knows their thoughts and feelings and can convey major and minor details about the characters’ personal/private moments to the reader, as if Sam is sitting right there in other people’s heads and seeing what they see in every scene, during years past and present.
Maybe you’re supposed to assume the townsfolk gave Sam all of these details at some point after they happened? He doesn’t say so.
Nevertheless, the humor and the evident, relatable understanding of human nature here makes this easy reading worthwhile. Worth continuing the series.
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