These High, Green Hills

Karon's Mitford series continues, with Father Tim Kavanaugh (an Episcopalian rector in the small Southern village) finding great joy in his new marriage. John McDonough brings the people of Mitford to life through an expressive, but never overstated, reading. His rich, slightly gruff voice never strains or hurries and always succeeds in finding an apt characterization for all the characters whose stories interweave to form this very satisfying novel. Through changes in tone, accents of varying degrees, and portrayal of all the emotions that make up the human condition, McDonough becomes these people, and the listener is quickly entranced. This is an audio experience that will be long remembered. M.A.M. Winner of AUDIOFILE Earphones Award (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine

July 29, 1996
This third in the Mitford series (At Home in Mitford--a 1996 ABBY Book of the Year finalist--and Light in the Window) is another sympathetic portrayal of small-town Southern life with just enough drama to carry the plot and gracefully developed portraits of endearing characters. Allusions to past events and cameos by peripheral characters will delight the fan but may frustrate the reader new to Karon's work. Mitford is a Southeastern mountain town where everyone turns out for benefactress Sadie Baxter's birthday, where the police chief gives copies of Southern Living to inmates--and where social trouble brews in a hillbilly enclave across the creek. Episcopal minister Timothy Kavanagh of Lord's Chapel is the pivotal character. A lifelong bachelor adjusting to marriage for the first time at 63, he has no perspective on his faith and future until he and his new wife, Cynthia, are lost--and found--in a cave on a youth-group camping trip. Most compelling in Timothy's affectionately drawn flock are the young people. Thirteen-year-old Dooley Barlowe was abandoned at the rectory and now struggles to adjust to Timothy's Pygmalion efforts; Lacey Turner, also 13, is saved from her father's abuse as much by Timothy as by social services. Like glass chips tumbling in a kaleidoscope, the people at Mitford fall neatly into place at story's end, having provided a cozy and satisfying read. Author tour.