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Handling Sin
On the Ides of March, our hero, Raleigh Whittier Hayes (forgetful husband, baffled father, prosperous insurance agent and leading citizen of Thermopylae, North Carolina), learns that his father has discharged himself from the hospital, taken all his money out of the bank and, with a young black female mental patient, vanished in a yellow Cadillac convertible. Left behind is a mysterious list of seven outrageous tasks that Raleigh must perform in order to rescue his father and his inheritance.
And so Raleigh and fat Mingo Sheffield (his irrepressibly loyal friend) set off on an uproarious contemporary treasure hunt through a landscape of unforgettable characters, falling into adventures worthy of Tom Jones and Huck Finn. A moving parable of human love and redemption, Handling Sin is Michael Malone's comic masterpiece.
And so Raleigh and fat Mingo Sheffield (his irrepressibly loyal friend) set off on an uproarious contemporary treasure hunt through a landscape of unforgettable characters, falling into adventures worthy of Tom Jones and Huck Finn. A moving parable of human love and redemption, Handling Sin is Michael Malone's comic masterpiece.
622 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1986
179 people are currently reading
2313 people want to read
About the author
Michael Malone
81 books204 followersMichael Malone was the author of ten novels, a collection of short stories, and two works of nonfiction. Educated at Carolina and at Harvard, he was a professor in Theater Studies at Duke University. Among his prizes are the Edgar, the O. Henry, the Writers Guild Award, and the Emmy. He lived in Hillsborough, North Carolina, with his wife.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 355 reviews
May 19, 2014
This is an exuberant, raucous, Drunkard's Walk of a book. It's the kind of book words like exuberant and raucous were coined to describe. And I loved it.
Note: The rest of this review has been withdrawn due to the changes in Goodreads policy and enforcement. You can read why I came to this decision here.
In the meantime, you can read the entire review at Smorgasbook
Note: The rest of this review has been withdrawn due to the changes in Goodreads policy and enforcement. You can read why I came to this decision here.
In the meantime, you can read the entire review at Smorgasbook
April 7, 2013
A surprising and delightful read. It goes down like an old fashioned, satirical adventure novel such as “Don Quixote” crossed with an absurd cross-country road trip as in “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad World” or a comedy starring Peter Sellars.
The set-up is nicely done in the preface and first chapter:
There lived in the piedmont of North Carolina a decent citizen and responsible family man named Raleigh Whittier Hayes, who obeyed the law and tried to do the right thing. He had a wife and two daughters… Everyone who knew him called him reliable Raleigh, hardworking Raleigh, fair-and-square Raleigh, and, in general, respectable, smart, steady, honest, punctual, decent Raleigh Hayes.
He has become used to being a pretty average guy, a come-down from ambitions that started at an early age:
As a baby, like all his peers—for there are no agnostics in the cradle—Raleigh Whittier Hayes had been a believer, the world contagious with magic, he the center and circumference, his the mana to summon Titans to his bedside, set birds flying, move clouds with a stare, scare waves away. Maturation immunized him by slow infection. His powers weakened. By five he could no longer change a traffic light from red to green, had no idea what dogs and cats were talking about, and was considering the possibility he might be mortal.
At a meeting of civic leaders of the town Thermoplylae (nice mythic Greek touch, eh?), Raleigh’s after dinner fortune cookie foretells: “You will go completely to pieces by the end of the month.” What Fortune soon challenges him with is that his gravely ill father, Earley, runs off from the hospital with a black teenage girl with a brand new Cadillac. The cryptic message he gets from him is that to receive his inheritance before Earley spends it all is to “get your ass screwed on backwards” by mounting a quest (a “holy adventure”) that includes the bringing certain people and things to New Orleans in two week’s time. The people and things end up taking him a lot of work to track down through family members he has been successfully forgetting, such as his Aunt Victoria and his ex-con half-brother Gates. Just as he begins to formulate a plan, he gets another fortune: “This is your lucky day.”
I loved his trepidation at the beginning:
He could leap from the car and hide out for the rest of his life in the abandoned movie theater, peacefully staring at the blank screen. He could puncture his eardrums and never have to listen to another word anybody said. He could forfeit his inheritance, let Mingo and Victoria jabber their way to New Orleans by themselves, while he sold his house and beach property, and, investing his profits in canned goods, move to the Knoll Pond cabin to await the approaching nuclear holocaust with Aura and the twins; he’d fish and Aura would teach the girls to belly dance.
Along the way, a motley crew is slowly accumulated as participants in his madcap adventures. The first to join in is Mingo, his fat, buffoonish friend from grade school who effectively becomes his Sancho Panza. He garners his loyalty by saving him from suicide or homicide (and/or by going along with his plan to evade false murder charges by escaping to South America). Mingo is so insecure he thinks Raleigh is having an affair with his wife (Mingo: “I ought to know God wouldn’t let something like that happen.” “Right”, growled Hayes, “He’s too busy starting earthquakes and famines.”) When he finally tracks down his brother Gates, he agrees to go along if Raleigh will help him with a task, which turns out to be a drug deal in a small boat at sea. Other adventures in short order include run-ins with Mafia figures ripped off by Gates (Cupid Parisis Calhoun and Big Nose Solinsky), a kidnapping by “a van of ‘devil worshiping thugs’, getting saved by radical nuns, and a battle with the Ku Klux Klan.
In the process, Raleigh and his companions begin to fulfill aspects missing in their lives, somewhat like the characters in “The Wizard of Oz”. In helping people and going with the flow, Raleigh begins to feel like a hero. His surprising affinity for an elderly Jewish convict, “Weeper” Berg (whose speech is peppered with words he has learned from reading the dictionary through the letter “C” in prison—e.g. “benison”, “censorious”), leads him to some special insights:
Here he was, despite his fastidious moral balance, protecting an adultress, drinking to excess, abandoning his work, throwing away money, getting in fights, lying, stealing, not to mention aiding and abetting the duping of innocent people while sheltering (indeed worrying about) an escaped convict (and not even a falsely convicted one, but a confessed burgler of sheikhs and Newport magnates). And yet on the other hand Berg was trying to help Gates, and yet Gates was a crook himself, and yet Gates was his blood relation, and yet ..and so the circus rings flew spinning by.
Just when I thought I couldn’t laugh anymore, the adventures keep taking one more step over the top. After seemingly endless excess (540 pages!), it was great when Raleigh lightens up a bit over his outlook on what the dubious Creator might owe him:
It created for creation’s sake alone—for no cause except but infinitely that one, striping the zebra, spotting the leopard, making the eel glow and the deer leap—and it was not obliged to nourish or even preserve at all any of its creatures, species, planets, or galaxies. Given that this was so, thought Hayes, the truth was, it’s possible, one might say, assuming creation owed him no more debt than it owed the dinosaur, than an artist owed a doodle, then, all things considered, he, Raleigh Hayes, with his wife and children and health and house, had been an extremely lucky man.
All in all, this book fired on all cylinders for me except its excess in length.
The set-up is nicely done in the preface and first chapter:
There lived in the piedmont of North Carolina a decent citizen and responsible family man named Raleigh Whittier Hayes, who obeyed the law and tried to do the right thing. He had a wife and two daughters… Everyone who knew him called him reliable Raleigh, hardworking Raleigh, fair-and-square Raleigh, and, in general, respectable, smart, steady, honest, punctual, decent Raleigh Hayes.
He has become used to being a pretty average guy, a come-down from ambitions that started at an early age:
As a baby, like all his peers—for there are no agnostics in the cradle—Raleigh Whittier Hayes had been a believer, the world contagious with magic, he the center and circumference, his the mana to summon Titans to his bedside, set birds flying, move clouds with a stare, scare waves away. Maturation immunized him by slow infection. His powers weakened. By five he could no longer change a traffic light from red to green, had no idea what dogs and cats were talking about, and was considering the possibility he might be mortal.
At a meeting of civic leaders of the town Thermoplylae (nice mythic Greek touch, eh?), Raleigh’s after dinner fortune cookie foretells: “You will go completely to pieces by the end of the month.” What Fortune soon challenges him with is that his gravely ill father, Earley, runs off from the hospital with a black teenage girl with a brand new Cadillac. The cryptic message he gets from him is that to receive his inheritance before Earley spends it all is to “get your ass screwed on backwards” by mounting a quest (a “holy adventure”) that includes the bringing certain people and things to New Orleans in two week’s time. The people and things end up taking him a lot of work to track down through family members he has been successfully forgetting, such as his Aunt Victoria and his ex-con half-brother Gates. Just as he begins to formulate a plan, he gets another fortune: “This is your lucky day.”
I loved his trepidation at the beginning:
He could leap from the car and hide out for the rest of his life in the abandoned movie theater, peacefully staring at the blank screen. He could puncture his eardrums and never have to listen to another word anybody said. He could forfeit his inheritance, let Mingo and Victoria jabber their way to New Orleans by themselves, while he sold his house and beach property, and, investing his profits in canned goods, move to the Knoll Pond cabin to await the approaching nuclear holocaust with Aura and the twins; he’d fish and Aura would teach the girls to belly dance.
Along the way, a motley crew is slowly accumulated as participants in his madcap adventures. The first to join in is Mingo, his fat, buffoonish friend from grade school who effectively becomes his Sancho Panza. He garners his loyalty by saving him from suicide or homicide (and/or by going along with his plan to evade false murder charges by escaping to South America). Mingo is so insecure he thinks Raleigh is having an affair with his wife (Mingo: “I ought to know God wouldn’t let something like that happen.” “Right”, growled Hayes, “He’s too busy starting earthquakes and famines.”) When he finally tracks down his brother Gates, he agrees to go along if Raleigh will help him with a task, which turns out to be a drug deal in a small boat at sea. Other adventures in short order include run-ins with Mafia figures ripped off by Gates (Cupid Parisis Calhoun and Big Nose Solinsky), a kidnapping by “a van of ‘devil worshiping thugs’, getting saved by radical nuns, and a battle with the Ku Klux Klan.
In the process, Raleigh and his companions begin to fulfill aspects missing in their lives, somewhat like the characters in “The Wizard of Oz”. In helping people and going with the flow, Raleigh begins to feel like a hero. His surprising affinity for an elderly Jewish convict, “Weeper” Berg (whose speech is peppered with words he has learned from reading the dictionary through the letter “C” in prison—e.g. “benison”, “censorious”), leads him to some special insights:
Here he was, despite his fastidious moral balance, protecting an adultress, drinking to excess, abandoning his work, throwing away money, getting in fights, lying, stealing, not to mention aiding and abetting the duping of innocent people while sheltering (indeed worrying about) an escaped convict (and not even a falsely convicted one, but a confessed burgler of sheikhs and Newport magnates). And yet on the other hand Berg was trying to help Gates, and yet Gates was a crook himself, and yet Gates was his blood relation, and yet ..and so the circus rings flew spinning by.
Just when I thought I couldn’t laugh anymore, the adventures keep taking one more step over the top. After seemingly endless excess (540 pages!), it was great when Raleigh lightens up a bit over his outlook on what the dubious Creator might owe him:
It created for creation’s sake alone—for no cause except but infinitely that one, striping the zebra, spotting the leopard, making the eel glow and the deer leap—and it was not obliged to nourish or even preserve at all any of its creatures, species, planets, or galaxies. Given that this was so, thought Hayes, the truth was, it’s possible, one might say, assuming creation owed him no more debt than it owed the dinosaur, than an artist owed a doodle, then, all things considered, he, Raleigh Hayes, with his wife and children and health and house, had been an extremely lucky man.
All in all, this book fired on all cylinders for me except its excess in length.
January 28, 2008
I just finished this and laughed the whole way through... Malone's great for a comic read, and this is my favorite of his so far. Why isn't he more popular? And someone please make this movie, although I know the chances aren't great I'll like it. But I love the potential of a great movie based on "Handling Sin." Someone? Anyone?
September 11, 2008
This is a GREAT book! You know how so many well-written contemporary books are so angst-ridden? It's like you can't write a complex, literary kind of work unless your main character is from some other country reflecting on horrible events that ended up isolating him or her from all other people (except, perhaps, for cold, angsty love affairs)and now, in America, reflects on the failure of the American dream.
Yeah, this book is every bit as complex, literary, and well-written as those books, but in addition, it's funny and warm and exciting.
Yeah, this book is every bit as complex, literary, and well-written as those books, but in addition, it's funny and warm and exciting.
September 11, 2016
Because this book is so determined to be sweet, how could I not love it? But I didn't. It has a lot going for it: the dialogue is catchy, much of the humorous dialogue was actually funny (though note that I didn't laugh out loud once)* the settings are well rendered, and its regular forays into reflection were wistful and honest, though straying into heavy handed commentary from time to time.
Yet my overall experience of the book felt like a chore: the premise was over-determined, the plot overwritten, and the characters were so over the top in whichever attitude they represented that they felt like characters in a morality play that could have been called "UPTIGHT DUDE LEARNS TO LIGHTEN UP". This book was written before the onslaught of Manic Pixie Dream Girl movies but in this book the whole grotesque cast serves as a MPDG for the protagonist to live a little. IN particular the brother's con man brother Gates, who provides the bulk of the humor, could be said to fulfill this foil function.
Malone seems like a really good guy, but the author's omniscient and judgmental commentary on Raleigh (the main character) made the result predetermined; unlike Ray from Dog of the South, we know exactly what's going to happen to Raleigh: he's going to learn to live a little. We know this because the author keeps elbowing us incessantly in the ribs using every plot event of the structure to point+ this out.
Which gets to my main problem with the book: it goes on forever. Even though I thought some of the family-based flashbacks were good, and in one case (when the author points out that Raleigh doesn't really know his family, and do we every really know anyone (paging Heinrich Boll)) it's very good, it felt like a grind to follow this zany treasure hunt filled with completely unnecessary tangents. Despite the books light tone, the weight of events dragged it down... this was particularly annoying because it's so obvious how the book will end. *I compare this to Portis only because I was told this was one of the funniest american novels. I would say that beyond style and chops, there's a big good reason why Charles Portis's books were so short: to keep something zany up for so long, especially when the end is so predictable, is really exhausting for the reader.
Yet my overall experience of the book felt like a chore: the premise was over-determined, the plot overwritten, and the characters were so over the top in whichever attitude they represented that they felt like characters in a morality play that could have been called "UPTIGHT DUDE LEARNS TO LIGHTEN UP". This book was written before the onslaught of Manic Pixie Dream Girl movies but in this book the whole grotesque cast serves as a MPDG for the protagonist to live a little. IN particular the brother's con man brother Gates, who provides the bulk of the humor, could be said to fulfill this foil function.
Malone seems like a really good guy, but the author's omniscient and judgmental commentary on Raleigh (the main character) made the result predetermined; unlike Ray from Dog of the South, we know exactly what's going to happen to Raleigh: he's going to learn to live a little. We know this because the author keeps elbowing us incessantly in the ribs using every plot event of the structure to point+ this out.
Which gets to my main problem with the book: it goes on forever. Even though I thought some of the family-based flashbacks were good, and in one case (when the author points out that Raleigh doesn't really know his family, and do we every really know anyone (paging Heinrich Boll)) it's very good, it felt like a grind to follow this zany treasure hunt filled with completely unnecessary tangents. Despite the books light tone, the weight of events dragged it down... this was particularly annoying because it's so obvious how the book will end. *I compare this to Portis only because I was told this was one of the funniest american novels. I would say that beyond style and chops, there's a big good reason why Charles Portis's books were so short: to keep something zany up for so long, especially when the end is so predictable, is really exhausting for the reader.
April 2, 2020
Reading this book was one of the worst reading experiences of my life. The book was recommended by my dad, and gifted to me from my mom, so I felt obligated to read it although I thought it looked like it could be trash.
Sadly I have to give it two stars, because I was able to finish it. The book did a really good job of making me think it was worth reading and then slowly getting worse as it went on. By the end I hated it so much and it was so clear what was going to happen that I could skip sometimes a whole page and not miss a beat.
The start had some funny moments that I thought would continue, however by midway through all the characters felt like silly cartoon aliens who saw what people acted like and were doing there "best" job to emulate this. I left out that the aliens in this scenario are from a planet where the water is laced with some sort of hallucinogenic drug that makes them think everything is funny and see the world as paper cut out.
The end of the book plays out like a Disney movie and not the new ones where old people die or Toy's learn that they have a place in life, but the old movies where they have to end with the film with a happy song and dance so kids don't notice that there parents have left the room for the last 30 minutes and are binge drinking in the next room.
There are some underlying racism here as well, as all the black characters are very stereotypical (although this maybe is an accident because all characters are) and viewed only as criminal's deadbeat dad's or one note musicians (really didn't want to make a pun here but I don't want spend more time here).
I don't even want to write this review or think about this book anymore so I'm going to stop here.
Sadly I have to give it two stars, because I was able to finish it. The book did a really good job of making me think it was worth reading and then slowly getting worse as it went on. By the end I hated it so much and it was so clear what was going to happen that I could skip sometimes a whole page and not miss a beat.
The start had some funny moments that I thought would continue, however by midway through all the characters felt like silly cartoon aliens who saw what people acted like and were doing there "best" job to emulate this. I left out that the aliens in this scenario are from a planet where the water is laced with some sort of hallucinogenic drug that makes them think everything is funny and see the world as paper cut out.
The end of the book plays out like a Disney movie and not the new ones where old people die or Toy's learn that they have a place in life, but the old movies where they have to end with the film with a happy song and dance so kids don't notice that there parents have left the room for the last 30 minutes and are binge drinking in the next room.
There are some underlying racism here as well, as all the black characters are very stereotypical (although this maybe is an accident because all characters are) and viewed only as criminal's deadbeat dad's or one note musicians (really didn't want to make a pun here but I don't want spend more time here).
I don't even want to write this review or think about this book anymore so I'm going to stop here.
March 24, 2016
Absurd, but true. Irreverent but insightful. Hilarious and heart warming. An outstanding work and a perfect summer read.
September 15, 2009
I feel like I should have liked this more, but I wanted it to end after 400 pages. The background, hisory and irony are meticulous and I found a lot of the scenes quite funny. It reminded me of Peter DeVries. I read a bunch of his books in the 80s. Unfortunately, I couldn't help myself wondering why they didn't keep in touch with cell phones!
Are the stereotypes there to point out stereotyping? Gluttonous fat guy with heart of gold; wizened old black housemaid; uptight white insurance man; black jazz musician, etc. What is the line between stereotype and caricature? I 'll have to look that up.
I found the religious content overwhelming at times. Preachy. But at the end religion is used as a means for learning morality. If that's what you need...
I might try one of his shorter works.
Are the stereotypes there to point out stereotyping? Gluttonous fat guy with heart of gold; wizened old black housemaid; uptight white insurance man; black jazz musician, etc. What is the line between stereotype and caricature? I 'll have to look that up.
I found the religious content overwhelming at times. Preachy. But at the end religion is used as a means for learning morality. If that's what you need...
I might try one of his shorter works.
October 27, 2018
I wanted to like this book. There were moments that it actually made me laugh out loud. But over 300 pages in I felt like reading it had become my daily chore. It was tedious, and the over-the-top stereotyped characters were becoming insanely annoying. As the end was obvious from the first page, I walked away 2/3 of the way through. Life is too short to keep reading a book you just do not enjoy.
April 10, 2022
Holy Moly. I do not know how this book made it to my Want to Read list…none of my friends have read it. But man oh man, I am so thankful it did. Literally this is my all time favorite book! It was so funny, it was sad and sweet. It was a comedy adventure. Loved the story, loved all the characters. I’d say it’s like It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, World meets The Hangover. It was so well written and thought out. As soon as I read the last page, I wanted to start all over again. And for sure, I will read it again, because it’s my all time favorite book.
July 18, 2008
I give up. I almost always finish books, but life is too short and this bad book is keeping me from reading good books. I read about 1/3 of it (200 pages!) and do not like it. The main character is constantly annoyed (for good reasons) and that made me annoyed. I wanted to like it because the reviews are amazing and it was highly recommended by a friend, but I dislike it and am moving on!
July 10, 2015
I'm in the 200-pager club. I can't stand the main character- he doesn't seem to even know his wife & kids. I'm guessing he's like Scrooge & will end up being a person, but the route to get there is way too circuitous for me!!!
February 20, 2012
This is a tricky book for me to rate and review. I'd really like to give it about 3.4 stars but, clearly, that isn't an option. Following the rules of rounding, I should technically give it three stars, but that just seemed too low.
Here's the thing. This book is funny. It has great characters. Are some of them a bit stereotypical? Yes. But stereotypes are stereotypes for a reason, and these characters are still interesting.
But, this book has a lot of characters, all of them quirky and/or eccentric and/or involved in some way. And this book has a lot of pages. I'm not one to shy away from a lot of pages, but these pages are loaded with one "crazy shenanigan" after another. Honestly it felt a bit ridiculous to me in the first half of the book, and I considered putting it down. But, the smattering of humor pulled me through it.
The second half was better for me. I really liked the final group that ends up together to finish this road trip journey of discovery. The predicaments they find themselves in are more fun and creative and exciting. And the resolution is fulfilling.
So, do I recommend it? If you want a fun, easy read - probably not for you. If you want a fun read that you have to work for a bit, then you'll probably enjoy it. Like I said, it's a bit tricky.
Here's the thing. This book is funny. It has great characters. Are some of them a bit stereotypical? Yes. But stereotypes are stereotypes for a reason, and these characters are still interesting.
But, this book has a lot of characters, all of them quirky and/or eccentric and/or involved in some way. And this book has a lot of pages. I'm not one to shy away from a lot of pages, but these pages are loaded with one "crazy shenanigan" after another. Honestly it felt a bit ridiculous to me in the first half of the book, and I considered putting it down. But, the smattering of humor pulled me through it.
The second half was better for me. I really liked the final group that ends up together to finish this road trip journey of discovery. The predicaments they find themselves in are more fun and creative and exciting. And the resolution is fulfilling.
So, do I recommend it? If you want a fun, easy read - probably not for you. If you want a fun read that you have to work for a bit, then you'll probably enjoy it. Like I said, it's a bit tricky.
September 29, 2009
Defiantly not my usual fare, but sure glad I took a chance on it. This a wild and wacky two week journey from Theromoplyae, North Carolina to New Orleans taken by one Raleigh Whittier Hayes, his best friend Mingo Sheffield and an assorted group relatives and strangers. Raleigh, a insurance salesman an upright pillar of the community is tasked by his elderly father to perform a number of tasks and then meet him in New Orleans on a certain date. Now Early Hayes (dad) was last seen leaving the hospital where he was supposed to be having tests made and then at the local bank's drive up window in a Caddy Convertible accompanied by a young black girl. The next two weeks are combination of accidents, farce, captures, escapes and general hi-jinks leading to the final meeting in New Orleans. Its a big book, with lots going on (mostly crazy and funny) and may be a bit slow seeming in the beginning,but hang in, because it gets better as you go.
Well worth the time spent.
ISBN - 9780316544559, Fiction, Pages - 544, Print Size - R, Rating - 5
Well worth the time spent.
ISBN - 9780316544559, Fiction, Pages - 544, Print Size - R, Rating - 5
November 25, 2010
Reading this book was like a love affair that quietly grew and caught me by surprise. At first I laughed out loud and found the book very amusing, but wondered why it was going to take the author 540 pages to finish the story. I had categorized the book as a Good-Ol'-Boy Road Trip. The Odyssey fueled by grits and racism. The book is very well written and laugh-out-loud funny, but I was at least halfway through it before I realized that I really cared for the whole absurd collection of characters, especially Raleigh Hayes, the main character, and that everybody in the story had been infused with human depth and richness.
Recommended by my friend Sandy. Thanks Sandy.
Recommended by my friend Sandy. Thanks Sandy.
October 5, 2025
This book is almost 40 years old but has a fairly recently recorded audiobook. The narrator did a great job. The general premise of the book is that Raleigh Hayes' father checks himself out of the hospital, takes all his money out of the bank, and leaves town with a young woman that none of them know. He leaves a long list of instructions for Raleigh, which takes him on the wackiest, most chaotic road trip you could imagine. As the story wraps up, there is a sweet message about family-both blood relations and the family you choose. What I liked - it's often funny and the characters are intentionally exaggerated with good results most of the time. What I didn't like - it's too long and has a cast of characters that I found hard to keep up with. By the last half, I'd forgotten most of what happened in the first half. It also sometimes used the N-word, apparently in an attempt to be "true" to the time and place (North Carolina in the late 60s - I think). It felt very distasteful and inappropriate.
May 31, 2013
I started this book nearly thirty years ago and never finished. I am so glad that I returned to it now. If I was ever going to return to writing, this is the sort of book I would like to write. It's got a bit of everything except graphic sex or violence, not to say sex and violence are not there, they just aren't the raw version we see in other novels these days. In bygone years, the book would be described as picaresque, nowadays I think they call it a "road trip" novel. Throughout the tone changes from saccharine sentimentality, ala Nicholas Sparks, to comic, even to the point of being like the Keystone Cops, plus there are moments of beautifully wrought contemplative description. Some might think this uneven tone is a flaw; I believe it was intentional, even to the point of experimental, but not in shocking way. Anyway, if you're interested in a good story and a rollicking good time, this is one helluva good read.
July 11, 2012
Can somebody tell my why this book isn't really famous? It should be. Because it's wonderful in every respect. I'm re-reading it, finding it even funnier the second time, and marveling at how Malone kees all those balls in the air without dropping a single one. He's a master.
And here's the thing. The book isn't just a meandering Southern picaresque ramble through the South, with all the requisite Southern types---it's ultimately a serious book treating a serious subject.
It really doesn't get better, for me, than this. I'm proud to say that my daughter--who was NOT an English major!--brought me this book and said, "Dad, you HAVE to read this--you'll LOVE it!"
And she was right.
And here's the thing. The book isn't just a meandering Southern picaresque ramble through the South, with all the requisite Southern types---it's ultimately a serious book treating a serious subject.
It really doesn't get better, for me, than this. I'm proud to say that my daughter--who was NOT an English major!--brought me this book and said, "Dad, you HAVE to read this--you'll LOVE it!"
And she was right.
August 25, 2012
Out of the thousands of books I've read, so many I can't even remember half because I didn't keep a list then, this one stands blazingly out from amongst those long forgotten. I never forgot this one. Cliched as it might sound, Michael Malone had me laughing out loud, (all alone, by myself) with this one. It also has great heart, you'll laugh and cry. I have given this book away as a gift more than any other book, that's how much I enjoyed it. A wonderful tale from start to finish. Not for the prudish or those who can't laugh at themselves and life. I'm not going to ruin it for you, you can get the synopsis off the cover.
Just find it, and read it.
Just find it, and read it.
May 16, 2010
I really like "road" books (see my love for Travels with Charley) and I also love books with great characters (see Russo). This book had both! The situations were so funny, but the characters could be both so touching and brazen at the same time. It was a great seeing how the characters would react to the situations they either put or found themselves in. I think people would get a good kick out of this book.
July 6, 2020
I was almost part of the group of readers who throw in the towel after 200 pages, but I very rarely quit books, especially those recommended to me by people I trust. Still, it took me a good 300 pages to start getting into the story, and that is a big ask of readers. The second 300 pages was a relative breeze. Together, that makes me think this could have easily been 200 pages shorter. I am not sorry to have read it, but I am glad to be done.
March 27, 2007
At my last job, my co-workers saw the title and clerical collar on the cover of this book and assumed I was a religous zealot.
No.
This is one of my all-time favorite books. It takes a bit to get into it, but once the characters hit the road you won't be able to put it down. Oh, Mingo Schetfield!
No.
This is one of my all-time favorite books. It takes a bit to get into it, but once the characters hit the road you won't be able to put it down. Oh, Mingo Schetfield!
September 25, 2023
3.15 stars
This book, a rollicking road trip in which a reluctant main character gathers sketchy characters as one would tumbleweed, was one of the hardest I’ve ever rated. I finally gave it stars for all the different aspects that made an impression on me, and averaged them.
5 stars for the slow, steady, realistic character development
4 stars for several stark truths, well-stated (“Righteous indignation, properly nourished, had its own stern pleasures.”) and for skillful one-sentence character sketches (“Raleigh didn’t want to believe that he had time and money to spare; it rattled every plank of the foundation on which he’d built the stable scaffold of his Life’s Plan.”… “…his eyes so candidly certain that the world was going to make sense for him, because he was never going to make senseless demands on it.” and “What I didn’t manage to screw up with my vices, I put my virtues to work on. They did even worse.”)
2 stars for being so (insert language that Aunt Vicky would call “slothful”) long, including about seventeen too many irrelevant detours
1 star for what I--forgive me--call "guy-humor"; I discovered that I can peaceably abide but the smallest bit of bowels, beds, and bathos
2 stars for the person of Mingo Sheffield
4 stars for the person Mingo Sheffield wanted to be, and occasionally was
1 star for characters with two or three different monikers, used interchangeably
5 stars for the occasional, unexpectedly lyrical lavender extravagance of prose …Raleigh “performed a spiritual exercise. By quickly calling to mind any randomly chosen half-dozen cataclysmic disasters so far not inflicted on him, he was able to stiffen his will so as to bounce despair off it. At least his twins were not Siamese twins. At least they were not cocaine-snorting hookers in Times Square. They were not helpless pawns of Communist aggression. They had not been stolen by the Moonies. At least Nemours Kettell had five daughters. Raleigh rushed through these hypotheses like rosary beads…”
4 stars for coming recommended by someone I respect
3 stars for sentences so full of dashes and parentheticals and small belated asides that they begin to splinter under their own weight
1 star for the plethora of slothful language
5 stars for the way the author wrote of women “Well, Specs, His disciples sure didn’t believe [Jesus rose] either at first. They ran like crazy when the women told them. And then, you know, He joined them and had a fish fry on the beach, and those morons still didn’t know Him from Adam. It was the women who had the guts to go in the tomb. It was the women that kept the faith. The best luck in life, Specs, is to keep a woman’s love.”
4 stars for one of the most realistic and tender scenes of parturition depicted in 90s literature, and for at least two gorgeous marriages
I'm glad to be finished, but don't regret that I read it.
This book, a rollicking road trip in which a reluctant main character gathers sketchy characters as one would tumbleweed, was one of the hardest I’ve ever rated. I finally gave it stars for all the different aspects that made an impression on me, and averaged them.
5 stars for the slow, steady, realistic character development
4 stars for several stark truths, well-stated (“Righteous indignation, properly nourished, had its own stern pleasures.”) and for skillful one-sentence character sketches (“Raleigh didn’t want to believe that he had time and money to spare; it rattled every plank of the foundation on which he’d built the stable scaffold of his Life’s Plan.”… “…his eyes so candidly certain that the world was going to make sense for him, because he was never going to make senseless demands on it.” and “What I didn’t manage to screw up with my vices, I put my virtues to work on. They did even worse.”)
2 stars for being so (insert language that Aunt Vicky would call “slothful”) long, including about seventeen too many irrelevant detours
1 star for what I--forgive me--call "guy-humor"; I discovered that I can peaceably abide but the smallest bit of bowels, beds, and bathos
2 stars for the person of Mingo Sheffield
4 stars for the person Mingo Sheffield wanted to be, and occasionally was
1 star for characters with two or three different monikers, used interchangeably
5 stars for the occasional, unexpectedly lyrical lavender extravagance of prose …Raleigh “performed a spiritual exercise. By quickly calling to mind any randomly chosen half-dozen cataclysmic disasters so far not inflicted on him, he was able to stiffen his will so as to bounce despair off it. At least his twins were not Siamese twins. At least they were not cocaine-snorting hookers in Times Square. They were not helpless pawns of Communist aggression. They had not been stolen by the Moonies. At least Nemours Kettell had five daughters. Raleigh rushed through these hypotheses like rosary beads…”
4 stars for coming recommended by someone I respect
3 stars for sentences so full of dashes and parentheticals and small belated asides that they begin to splinter under their own weight
1 star for the plethora of slothful language
5 stars for the way the author wrote of women “Well, Specs, His disciples sure didn’t believe [Jesus rose] either at first. They ran like crazy when the women told them. And then, you know, He joined them and had a fish fry on the beach, and those morons still didn’t know Him from Adam. It was the women who had the guts to go in the tomb. It was the women that kept the faith. The best luck in life, Specs, is to keep a woman’s love.”
4 stars for one of the most realistic and tender scenes of parturition depicted in 90s literature, and for at least two gorgeous marriages
I'm glad to be finished, but don't regret that I read it.
December 14, 2024
A wild ride from start to finish! The author takes readers on a hilarious, over-the-top journey as the protagonist stumbles from one outrageous situation to the next. Packed with wacky twists and laugh-out-loud moments, Handling Sin keeps you entertained with its unpredictable and wildly imaginative plot. Fun read!
June 30, 2022
This was a fun journey and an interesting storyline. But it was regrettably drawn out. And the writing style made the readability cumbersome. I hoped for a better ending, a more interesting twist than simply a lost grandchild that was a decent singer.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 12, 2020
I'm giving this four stars with a note that during a pandemic it gets five. The perfect read during this difficult time. Nerdy, uptight, but handsome guy is pulled into a screwball adventure by his free-spirited dad. (Think Cary Grant in the movie "Bringing up Baby") Of course there are gangsters and whores and pants around the ankles. I loved it.
July 27, 2018
This is the third time I've read Handling Sin, and every time I've found it laugh-out-loud funny. It's got likable characters, wildly absurd situations, and writing that is warm and heartfelt. So if you like your fiction southern, your people quirky and writing that tugs at your heartstrings, this is the book for you!
September 13, 2024
An unexpected 5-star. Slow start, had no idea where this was going but had me laughing out loud along the way. A memorable cast of characters led me on a road of redemption, forgiveness, love and teary eyes on the last line.
Read
October 14, 2021I did not finish. I'm putting it back on the shelf ~ the timing's not right but I enjoyed what I read.
January 18, 2023
I went back and forth on my mental rating of this one. Ultimately I rounded down due to the number of times I found myself skimming.
The book has lots of action. An unbelievable amount of action.
Perhaps that was the issue. The sheer number of occurrences was overwhelming and took me out of the story as a reader. In less that two weeks, we have run-ins with motorcycle gangs, nuns, vengeful adulterers, drug lords, other drug lords, and the KKK. The characters meet a million people, have every conversation and eat every food. They alternately have no supplies and money and access to infinite credit cards. There are seven hundred pages of doings, and the reader starts to wonder whether they all needed to be done.
There is character growth, but the arc is mostly not shocking. The people who seem crazy aren't that crazy. The ones who are uptight loosen up. Perhaps the biggest shift was Mingo going from being wholly intolerable to being intermittently intolerable.
I realize that I am delivering a mostly negative review. I have to admit that despite too many things happening, many of the things were fun to read. There are plenty of interesting action scenes, even if they kind of make no sense. The book could be situationally funny, but more in the sense of forcing the reader to mentally picture the chaos than in the sense of making the reader laugh (at least this reader). There are some great lines and efficient conversations that do so much in so little space. It makes you wonder whether the book would be more memorable if the author had been forced to make it half as long.
While fun at points, it can also be a bit of a drag. I enjoyed enough elements that I don't regret it, but it's not the kind of text I'd have a lot of reason to revisit.
The book has lots of action. An unbelievable amount of action.
Perhaps that was the issue. The sheer number of occurrences was overwhelming and took me out of the story as a reader. In less that two weeks, we have run-ins with motorcycle gangs, nuns, vengeful adulterers, drug lords, other drug lords, and the KKK. The characters meet a million people, have every conversation and eat every food. They alternately have no supplies and money and access to infinite credit cards. There are seven hundred pages of doings, and the reader starts to wonder whether they all needed to be done.
There is character growth, but the arc is mostly not shocking. The people who seem crazy aren't that crazy. The ones who are uptight loosen up. Perhaps the biggest shift was Mingo going from being wholly intolerable to being intermittently intolerable.
I realize that I am delivering a mostly negative review. I have to admit that despite too many things happening, many of the things were fun to read. There are plenty of interesting action scenes, even if they kind of make no sense. The book could be situationally funny, but more in the sense of forcing the reader to mentally picture the chaos than in the sense of making the reader laugh (at least this reader). There are some great lines and efficient conversations that do so much in so little space. It makes you wonder whether the book would be more memorable if the author had been forced to make it half as long.
While fun at points, it can also be a bit of a drag. I enjoyed enough elements that I don't regret it, but it's not the kind of text I'd have a lot of reason to revisit.
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