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Book Reviewed by:In this stunning novel about judgment, courage, heartbreak, and change, author Silas House wrestles with the limits of belief and the infinite ways to love.
In the aftermath of a flood that washes away much of a small Tennessee town, evangelical preacher Asher Sharp offers shelter to two gay men. In doing so, he starts to see his life anew - and risks losing everything: his wife, locked into her religious prejudices; his congregation, which shuns Asher after he delivers a passionate sermon in defense of tolerance; and his young son, Justin, caught in the middle of what turns into a bitter custody battle.
With no way out but ahead, Asher takes Justin and flees to Key West, where he hopes to find his brother, Luke, whom he'd turned against years ago after Luke came out. And it is there, at the southernmost point of the country, that Asher and Justin discover a new way of thinking about the world, and a new way of understanding love.
Southernmost is a tender and affecting book, a meditation on love and its consequences.
We go on a long journey in Southernmost: not just a literal road trip from Tennessee to Florida, but also a spiritual passage from judgment to grace. Reconciliation is a major theme, but so is facing up to the consequences of poor decisions. I loved House's characters and setups, as well as his gentle evocation of the South. His striking metaphors draw on the natural world: "She had the coloring of a whip-poor-will," "The sky is the pink of grapefruit meat" and "The horizon has changed to the red of a geranium." It's a beautiful, quietly moving novel of redemption and openness to what life might teach us...continued
Full Review
(785 words)
(Reviewed by Rebecca Foster).
In Silas House's Southernmost, Asher's estranged brother Luke sends him postcards with quotations from books, poems, and songs that serve as secret messages passing between them. Here's a closer look.
"Sandpiper": Asher's most recent communication from Luke is a postcard of a sandpiper with a line of poetry appended: "the roaring alongside he takes for granted." This is the first line of the Elizabeth Bishop poem "Sandpiper," which appeared in her 1965 collection Questions of Travel. The "roaring" is the literal crash of ocean waves, but the bird's equanimity is also a picture of keeping calm in times of turmoil, knowing that "every so often the world is bound to shake." The watery imagery is a reminder of life&#...
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