Silas House

The author Silas House has been on my radar screen for a long time, he's been writing consistently for almost twenty years, often mentioning Lee Smith as one of his mentors. So I wonder why I'm only just now getting around to reading one of his novels? Perhaps it was my constant quest for books to review for the Florida Book Page (http://news.wgcu.org/programs/florida-book-page) that finally brought me to him and his new book "Southernmost," the title a reference to that concrete buoy at the tip of Key West that signals the farthest southern latitude in the continental United States - a ubiquitous lure for selfie aficionados.

Mr. House is billed as a "southern writer," a term that seems limiting, and yet one that we readers get immediately. His writing style is relaxed, conversations feel folksy. But this simplicity doesn't hide his penchant for vividly painted details and gorgeous descriptions of the natural world, the likely result of his work as an environmental activist, when he isn't teaching writing at Berea College that is, or advocating for gender rights issues. https://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/23/opinion/the-battle-for-gay-rights-in-rural-america.html?_r=0

As the book opens, a devastating flood is ravishing the small Tennessee town where Asher Sharp is the local preacher, the man everyone turns to for support in all things great and small. Farms, animals, and whole homes are swept away in a tragedy of biblical proportions just as Pastor Asher has begun to question his belief in a just, loving, but sometimes vengeful God. His crisis of faith drives a wedge between him and his more rigidly pious wife Lydia, a wedge that becomes a chasm when she refuses to shelter a gay couple that have just lost everything to the tumultuous storm.

Though Jimmy and Stephen risked their lives to rescue neighbors and were the ones who found Lydia and Asher's boy Justin before the waters swallowed him up, the  couple was shunned by everyone except Asher and his sensitive boy when they appeared together for Sunday services. In a moment of righteous anger Asher lashes out at his congregation for their paucity of generosity, their meanness of spirit. A woman with a cell phone captures Asher crying tears of frustration as he exhorts his people to open their hearts and a viral post on the internet becomes the catalyst for all the sorrow and miscommunication that follows.

Just spending time with Justin, so bright, articulate, and hyper-sensitive to emotional imbalance, is worth the time you spend in this book. Silas House writes with generosity and a keen understanding of the human condition, delicately exploring the loss of a belief system, the ways in which our past informs our present, the damage parents can do in the name of love, and the ways in which we form new, non-traditional families to replace our broken ones.