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Snakewoman Of Little Egypt (2010)

by Robert Hellenga(Favorite Author)

3.32 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

1608192628 (ISBN13: 9781608192625)

languge

English

genre

Fiction

publisher

Bloomsbury USA

review 1: This was an early review book. I requested it because many years ago I had read a novel by Hellenga and remembered liking it. This did not disappoint me. I found the characters alive, interesting, ecelectic. And the plot includes learning about snake-handlers as a religion, relationships, and just what should one do with his/her life and what is most important in living and working with people. The writing was fast paced and as the pages went by I felt a connection with the main characters and cared about their choices and their welfare. The jacket blurb hooked me saying that Sunny was released from prison because she tried to kill her husband because he forced her to put her hand in a box of rattlesnakes. He is pastor of the Church of the Burning Bush with Signs Following... more. The story follows two main characters: Sonny who after being released from prison pursues a college education and Jackson who is an anthropology professor at the university, overcoming Lyme disease and tryng to decide if he should return to Africa to find his Mbuti girlfriend and his daughter. They have a mutual connection who brings them together and their lives and stories become intertwined. The reason I did not rate this with five stars is that Jackson's attraction to Sonny's ex-husband Earl and his snake-handling sometimes seems a bit forced. Although Hellenga adequately provides how the attraction could be, I still found it a bit forced because he needed it for the growth of Sunny and for a decision Jackson needed to make. I would recommend this book. It can be funny, poignant and there is fascinating information on such things as killing a groundhog, and studying the habitat of snakes. Very satisfying.
review 2: So much about Robert Hellenga's Snakewoman of Little Egypt appeals to me. He creates intriguing characters, an interesting and fast moving plot, his use of blues music and food throughout the story and his fascinating descriptions of such things as a snake roundup and a NHI proposal process.The story divides between Sunny's story told in the first person and Jackson Carter Jones told in the third person. Sunny is a woman who has just been released from prison for shooting her husband who forced her to put her had in a basket of poisonous snakes and Jackson Carter Jones is a professor of anthropology at Thomas Ford University in Illinois. They meet because Sunny's uncle has arranged for her to live in the apartment above Jackson's garage while she attends Thomas Ford.They are both at a sort of crossroads of their lives and unsure of which direction their path will take them. Jackson who has Lyme disease and has just turned 40 has been debating if he should return to the Congo where he previously did research with the Pygmies or Mbuti and went native with them.Sunny has used prison as away in which to escape her husband who is a pastor for the snake handling Church of the Burning Bush with Signs Following. She received her GED in prison and is anxious to continue her education. How their lives intersect is really the essence of the story and it is much more fascinating than it sounds.The reader can expect some twists and turns along the way and really some interesting writing as the snake roundup by the biology department for a study:"We faced each other __snakes and humans__like two football teams facing each other across the line of scrimmage, waiting for the referee to blow his whistle, or the quarterback to call the play. But no one moved. Not for a long time. I didn't know what the others were thinking, but I was thinking of a verse from the Bible:"There are three things which are too wonderful for me, yea, for which I know not: the way of an eagle in the air; the way of a serpent upon a rock; the way of a ship in the midst of the sea; and the way of a man with a maid."I think perhaps that Snakewoman of Little Egypt is not a book that will have universal appeal because of lengthy esoteric descriptions and the appeal and choices of the characters, but I found I couldn't put it down and loved it. less

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