Pie Town

April 25, 2011
The residents of insular Pie Town, N.M., learn to expand their horizons in Hinton's slight latest (after Wedding Cake) when they are brought together in support of the sheriff's young grandson, Alex, stricken with spina bifida. Like many small towns, Pie Townâfamous for its baked treatsâdoes not welcome change, so when the new priest, Fr. George Morris, arrives in town with Trina, a hitchhiker he has picked up along the way, the locals are leery. However, Alex embraces them immediately, which is good enough for the townspeople, but their hospitality is soon put to the test when Trina is blamed for a tragedy. Hinton has an excellent sense of Southwestern rhythms and cadence, but not much else: her characters are flat and the indecisive plot takes forever to get to the developments readers see coming miles away. All crust, no tasty filling.

July 1, 2011

Hinton's ninth novel is a feel-good tale in which an inexperienced priest, a wayward young woman and a terminally ill boy save the soul of a small town.

All you need to know about Pie Town, N.M., is that you can't find any pie there. It's that kind of place, insular, wary and a little ornery, and nobody's going to tell the only restaurant in town they have to serve pie. The only thing that brings the place together is Alex Begay, the sheriff's grandson, born with spina bifida, abandoned by his mother Angel and wise beyond his years. Into town come Father George, fresh from the seminary to his first parish, and Trina (she hitched a ride into Pie Town with Father George), a young woman with a hard past and a heart of gold. Alex takes a shine to her, Sheriff Begay rents her a room above his garage and she finds some waitressing work at the diner. As Alex's condition worsens, he seems more concerned with the town than with his own survival (the spirit of his great-grandmother is always near him, guiding him). When the church burns to the ground, all fingers point toward an obviously pregnant Trina, and even though Father George knows the truth, his own crisis of faith and inability to counsel prevents him from helping her. More than anything, Alex wants Father George and Trina to stay in Pie Town, but in inspirational fashion, it is only through his death that he can save everyone. Most strikingly, Sheriff Begay and his ex-wife are reunited at Alex's death (it was only their heartache over their daughter Angel that drove them apart), love is kindled between a waitress and an old rancher, Father George and Trina return and a church is rebuilt.

Heartfelt, Christian goodwill triumphs in this utterly predictable story.

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

May 15, 2011
The setting for Hintons latest small-town chronicle is Pie Town, New Mexico, where a mix of Anglos, Native Americans, and Hispanics work together to keep the slowly dying town alive. Despite their racial and economic disparities, Pie Towns inhabitants all agree on at least one thingtheir love for Alex. The disabled 10-year-old grandson of Roger and Malene Begay, he was abandoned by his mother a month after he was born and is now parented and grandparented and loved and watched over by everybody in the little town. Pie Towns somewhat predictable routine is upset by the arrival of two newcomers: the inexperienced new priest coming to Holy Family Church with hidden baggage from his past, and the brash young woman he finds hitchhiking into town. She says she has walked all the way from Tucson, and soon becomes fast friends with Alex. Hinton, an interim pastor herself, weaves some old-time religion, including several interventions by angels, into her feel-good storyone that will be enjoyed by readers of Jan Karon and Nicholas Sparks.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)