Holy Ghost Corner follows the lives of several community/church members in Durham, North Carolina. The main character, Theresa, is a successful, single, business woman frustrated in the romance department, struggling with trusting God to send her a worthy husband. In the meantime, many other in community are in a heated battle over abandon public housing, determining whether it should be renovated and continue to serve lower income Blacks or be developed into housing for upper class Whites.
Although the storyline in itself is interesting and attention grabbing, the actually story, unfortunately, is not. As a reader of past novels by this author, I was very disappointed by the execution of the story. The book was filled with stereotypes about African Americans, Christians, and men. In comedy, some stereotypes serve as humorous, but the overuse of these common idiosyncrasies by the author was found to be annoying and off-putting. There were way too many characters, some who were unnecessary, making the story overwhelming and confusing. Everyone loves a little drama, but the drama was over-the-top and unrealistic, as were the dialogues between characters. The men in the book talked liked old school players and pimps, all of them, despite the fact that the book was published in 2006 and appears to be written from a present day perspective. And finally when the main character meets, falls for, and marries her “godly man,” the story was so unbelievable that I wasn’t happy for her, instead I was happy that the book was over.
I hate to sound cold and critical, but this is a book coming from a well-loved author and I expected more. The author has a track record of writing wonderful, Christian stories that are remember well beyond the close of the book. I hope to see future titles from this author focus less on “trying to be funny” and more on presenting a soul-stirring tale about faith and Christian living.