..".Delivers haunting messages about the nature of love, freedom and forgiveness."
Until she met Augusta Holderfield, Dean Lynch was content to be a Sunday wife, the proud spouse of Reverend Benjamin Lynch. But gradually she realized that her husband was a different person than the congregation imagined, and she was at the crossroads of becoming a different person, too. Josephine Humphreys called The Sunday Wife "smart and funny and alert to the nuances of the complicated South."
A stunner . . . smart and funny and alert to the nuances of the complicated South.
Rich [and] satisfying.
An intelligent, witty novel, skillfully written.
. . .Delivers haunting messages about the nature of love, freedom and forgiveness.
Cassandra King catches these quirky, complex people and their world flawlessly. A wonderful book.
enticing . . . the reader will be rooting for the liberation of the courageous and talented wife, Dean, from her repressive husband.
A dazzling tale of deception, heartbreak and transcendence . . . sparkles with vitality and truth.
Joining a distinguished tradition of southern women writers, King explores the complexities of class and sexism.
. . . the dilemma facing women [The role of wife? Can it be filled without losing yourself?] . . . what made it real.
A wonderful book. Cassandra King catches these quirky, complex people and their world flawlessly.
Shines without turning into a sermon.
Florida International Magazine
Finely drawn characters and complicated social intrigue make Kings second novel (after Making Waves in Zion) a charming read. When Dean Lynchs ambitious preacher husband, Ben, is assigned to a pulpit in the small Florida town of Crystal Springs, Dean is resigned to the prospect of yet another church-owned house and the necessity of putting aside her own beloved music (she plays the piano and the dulcimer) in favor of the congregations choir. Orphaned as a child, the retiring Dean has spent 20 years of marriage in the shadow of her overbearing, charismatic husband, always feeling out of place. But when she befriends Augusta, a wealthy, well-born, caustic beauty whose attendance at the Crystal Springs Methodist Church would be Bens greatest coup, Dean finds herself coming out of her shell"and tangled up in secrets she is not prepared to handle. The only false note comes from the gay couple Augusta befriends, who border on stereotype. The rest of Kings secondary cast, which includes a sympathetic psychic and the magnetic but sinister former preacher at Bens church, is a captivating bunch. King has written a truly heartwarming story, a tale of turbulent emotions and the vagaries of public opinion in a small Southern town; she has a sure winner here. Author tour. (Sept. 4) FYI: King is married to novelist Pat Conroy. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
It's difficult to know what to make of this novel. For the first two tapes, this could be an American version of the British novelist Barbara Pym's writing: a portrait of the well-intentioned but power-hungry preacher with his mismatched mate. King (Making Waves in Zion) does an excellent job of creating eccentric Southern characters whose sense of formality and manners lets them go about their everyday lives without their real personalities, or their haunting pasts, being exposed. But on the third tape, with the death of the book's most intriguing character, the sense of mystery ends, and we are left listening to a generic and unremarkable romance novel, predicting most events before reader Joan Allen mentions them. To make matters worse, the work ends with Dean, the protagonist, suddenly finding God all around her and spewing a sermon more worthy of her husband. This is ultimately a frustrating novel (at least in this abridged version). Many will enjoy it, but finding the right audience will be a question of trial and error.-Rochelle Ratner, formerly with "Soho Weekly News," New York Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
