The story of Red Dirt Hymnbook is one set in a land and time that are nearly prototypes of a mythic 'Anyplace' peopled by "Everyman' archetypes. It could be the 1970's or 1980's but seen through the lens of a religious strata - Holiness sects and subgroups - existing under a dozen or more banners - they are as current as today. In Kirk's work the author masterfully captures larger than life themes and small nuances with equal skill. She handles both with a soft focus haze of a dream of the not too distant past and the harsh edged shadows of glaring ugly reality.
Told through the powerful and authentic voice of Ruby Fae, young wife of young traveling preacher J.W.Jasper, throws back the covering of appearances of holiness to reveal the frailty of humanity tainted by patriarchy, power hunger, and manipulation. It is a land at once familiar and idealized, peopled by characters drawn in vivid lines of reality, whose stories speak to not just one group but to the broader wealth of human experience.
These all combine gently, elegantly. At first with just a teasing whisper of currents under the surface and then with gripping force to pull the reader into the story, and into a world bordered by appearances, corrupted by control, poisoned by the misuse of scripture, and stalked by the hunger of the human heart to be free.
The motif of music - how it can be used to manipulate perceptions of skill (as Ruby notes early in the book) and present a false front that helps people to see only what they manipulators desire. How that music and memories can serve as a soundtrack for the search of the soul for identity and value become thematic. Spanning the book like a long and much traveled country road. References to old camp meeting spirituals and hymns (well known to those in Baptist, Holiness, Nazarene and other religious groups) are interspersed with the hits of the book's setting (John Denver Country Roads to Three Dog Night's Jeremiah was A Bullfrog) creating almost count and counter point as two words and two realities begin to merge.
The Red Dirt Hymnbook by Roxie Faulkner Kirk is a beautiful story told in an eloquent, sometimes poetic manner as fresh as the prairie winds and as limitless as the broad blue sky. The voice of Ruby Mae Jasper is fresh, clean, and vividly compelling. Highly recommended!
Visit the author at: /http://www.roxiefaulknerkirk.com/about-roxie/
Review by MaH2019
