An Affair of Honor

Starred review from August 20, 2001
In the early 1950s, Bourbonville, Tenn., becomes a crucible for moral self-examination and religious debate, as a double murder forces the community to confront dizzying changes in the fabric of life since WWII. When Hope Kirby murders his wife and her lover, he is following the code of the hills and the orders of his father. Unfortunately, 20-year-old Charles Alexander, an aspiring Baptist preacher of already wavering faith, happens upon the crime scene. Hope's code doesn't condone killing an innocent boy, so he lets Charles live after exacting from him a promise of silence. But Charles is not able to keep his secret, and soon the town is consumed by the drama of a murder trial. Hope is a war hero, and there is strong sympathy for him even though his guilt is evident. But he begins to see that his code has served him poorly, that he has been changed by the violence in his life and that indeed the world has changed since his family was forced off their land in the mountains. Charles too must face the weakness of his faith and the many quiet hypocrisies of his life. Others touched by the tragedy face similar crises of faith: rival preachers at neighboring Baptist churches clash in their advice to Charles even as they repress damning secrets of their own pasts. The sheriff and prison guards question the honor of their duties, and the Kirby brothers eventually oppose their father. Marius (The Coming of Rain; After the War), who died in 1999, confidently draws on history, psychology, theology, autobiographical detail and an obvious belief in his characters to bring them vividly to life in this lovingly captured time and place, where establishing the true history of events and personalities becomes as gripping as unmasking a murderer.

August 1, 2001
Marius' dense fourth novel is a loving, epic tribute to the American South. Bourbonville, Tennessee, 1953: war veteran Hope Kirby shoots his wife and her lover in the town square. Charles Alexander, a young, aspiring minister, happens upon the scene and finds himself with a gun to his head. Hope is ultimately unable to pull the trigger; instead, he makes Charles promise to keep his secret. When Charles breaks his promise the next day, he sets in motion a far-reaching chain of events. The novel is both a legal drama and an intricately detailed character study of Charles, Hope, and those connected with them. Everyone has a story--of familial love and betrayal, religious beliefs and doubts, war and its aftermath. And everyone has an opinion about whether Hope was right to kill his wife and whether Charles was right to tell the truth. What is honorable, and how far should one go to defend what one thinks is right? An absorbing and powerful story.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2001, American Library Association.)