A Burning in Homeland

December 2, 2002
When a parsonage goes up in flames in 1960, memories of a 20-year-old murder are stirred up in the small town of Homeland, Fla. Yancey's powerful if somewhat glum Southern gothic debut is a Capote/McCullers/Foote cocktail with a twist. Three voices tell Yancey's story. Robert Lee "Shiny" Parker, wise beyond his seven years, provides much-needed humor as he describes the invasion of his home by Mavis and Sharon Rose, the wife and daughter of the town's Baptist preacher, who has been seriously burned in the conflagration. "Sharon-Rose.... She was three years older than me so I didn't know her very well, until that summer she moved in with us, because God burned her house to the ground and me and her got engaged through no fault of my own." Meanwhile, 38-year-old Halley Martin, just released from prison, thinks back on the day 20 years ago when he murdered his rival for the affections of Mavis Howell, the daughter of an orange-grove plantation owner. "It's what we remember, not what we do, that truly damns us," he says. In prison, he was befriended by a visiting Baptist preacher, Ned Jeffries, who saves Halley's life, then steals the woman he loves. Mavis's letters to Halley in prison offer a third perspective on the story, explaining how she came to marry Jeffries while still loving Halley. Yancey is an honest, uningratiating writer, whose characters are grittily convincing, though rarely charming. Troubled, strident Sharon Rose, in particular, is a striking creation, and Halley is a marvelously flawed protagonist. Moving along at a seductive pace to a religiously charged finale, the novel maintains its curious, uncompromising tone to the very end.

March 15, 2003
In the summer of 1960 the small town of Homeland, FL, waits for the return of Halley Martin, who served 20 years for a brutal, public murder. Illiterate, teenaged Halley worshiped beautiful Mavis and killed to avenge her honor; she's now the wife of Pastor Ned Jeffries, once Halley's prison chaplain. Seven-year-old Shiny Parker is an uneasy witness to the unfolding events. His family has recently taken in Mavis and her precocious ten-year-old daughter, Sharon-Rose, after the pastor was badly burned in the fire that destroyed their home. The past and the present are revealed through Halley's, Mavis's, and Shiny's narratives and letters. This complicated story of obsession and the mysteries of the human heart moves relentlessly to its conclusion. But the intended audience is unclear. Literary readers will recognize conventions more powerfully employed by the likes of Shakespeare and Faulkner, yet there's not enough humor, romance, or sex for other markets. First-time novelist Yancey originally wrote this as a short story and then as a screenplay; film might have been the best medium.-Rebecca Sturm Kelm, Northern Kentucky Univ. Lib., Highland Heights

Copyright 2003 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2003
All the elements of a good southern yarn are present in this novel. Told from the point of view of a seven-year-old boy in the late 1950s (shades of John Grisham's "A Painted House "[2001]), the story begins with a mysterious fire that destroys the home of the pastor and his family. All is lost except for a pile of letters saved by the pastor's beautiful wife, Mavis. Miss Mavis and her daughter, the slightly disturbed Sharon-Rose, are taken in by the Parkers to the dismay of the Parker boys, Bertram and Shiny. In the months to come, Shiny is tormented by Sharon-Rose and taken into confidence by Mavis as all await the release from prison of Miss Mavis' first love, the murderer Halley Martin. Told in flashback, Mavis' and Halley's stories finally converge, with tragic consequences for all. Occasionally the story lapses into melodrama, and it employs a cast of recognizable southern types. Dripping with atmosphere and drama, it's a pleasure as guilty as a third helping of pecan pie. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2003, American Library Association.)