Customer Reviews

The Bible Salesman: A Novel

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Clyde Edgerton, "a Southern tale-spinning master" (Rocky Mountain News) has put his finger on the pulse of the mid-20th century rural South, where religion and sex revolve madly around each other--where hallelujahs and hucksterism, hosannas and hormones, duel in antiphonal counterpoint.

Henry Dampier, 20, having found Jesus at the Antioch Missionary Baptist Church, is on a mission to spread the Word of God to the fundamentalist denizens of the Bible Belt.

Trouble is, Henry, now reading the Bible for himself for the first time, discovers what he perceives to be troubling contradictions in Holy Writ. For example, Genesis, chapter 1, portrays God's creation of animals, then people; Genesis, chapter 2, portrays the order as people, then animals. Henry is confused.

Our hitchhiking Bible salesman is picked up by Preston Clearwater, who bills himself as an undercover agent for the FBI. He convinces Henry to assist him in stealing cars from a car-theft ring, which, hye assures Henry, is destined for a government sting. Clearwater has found his mark, a naive, gullible innocent who soon finds himself in way over his head.

Henry's innocence is put to the test when he meets nubile Marleen Green, who sells fruits and vegetables at a roadside stand. Henry's infatuation complicates his ambition to become a G-man like Clearwater.

Edgerton's narrative wanders all over the map, with numerous flashbacks describing Henry's family relationships. The plot finally returns to the young man's conflicted situation--to a denouement that may end in violence or the consummation of love.

About the author: Clyde Edgerton is a professor of creative writing at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington. He is the author of seven best-sellers, including Raney, Walking Across Egypt, and Where Trouble Sleeps. Five of his novels have been New York Times Notable Books. A musician and song-writer, he lives with his wife, Kristina, in Wilmington, North Carolina.

There are a handful of authors who might be rightly described as national treasures. If I were to compile such a list Clyde Edgerton's name would be there in bold and underlined. He is a generous, guileless, if you will, writer, completely without artifice. His prose flows freely, his words are well chosen. Reading Edgerton is both relaxing and absorbing, very much like listening to a tale told by a julep oiled spellbinder on a lazy summer afternoon. You're captivated by his words, the verbal pictures he paints, and lean forward to catch every inflection.

Edgerton has been dubbed a regional writer, not so, although his settings are often the South. His understanding of the frailties of human nature spans state lines. Edgerton's characters are frequently quite eccentric even in today's ever surprising citizenry, yet he treats them with affection and respect. These imagined people can be both laugh out loud funny and endearing. Who but this author would introduce an older woman who lives with a house full of talking cats? (She throws her voice so that the biblically named felines seem to speak even when company hasn't come). Or, when someone has gone to his heavenly rest, one of the mourners approaches the casket, looks at the departed and says, "I like that red tie. It gives him a little color in his complexion." Then adds, "They do get pale at a time like this." Vintage Edgerton.

Twenty-year-old Henry Dampier has grown up in the postwar South tended to by Bible believing Aunt Dorie and, for a while, by fun loving Uncle Steve. He is inexperienced in the ways of the world or of women and a graduate of Bible- selling school. Good Book stocked valise in hand he starts out, hitchhiking on a road near Cressler, North Carolina.

As luck or fate would have it along comes Preston Clearwater, a charismatic, glib World War II veteran who has risen from swiping aviator sunglasses to stealing cars. What Preston needs is someone to do drive the stolen cars to their destination while he safely follows along behind. Henry is naive enough to initially believe that Preston is an FBI agent involved in a complex plot to capture the car thieves,. Further, he feels fortunate that Preston has had the insight to recognize Henry's latent talents and ask him to be part of the operation.

All goes along smoothly as Henry earns more money than Bibles would bring. He enjoys staying in motels for the first time where he can let the water fill the tub as much as he wishes. At home "Aunt Dorie let him use only just enough water to reach the back of the tub." Henry spends his evenings studying the Bible as Aunt Dorie would have wished, but is confused by some of the inconsistencies that he finds. However, such quandaries vanish when he finds the comely proprietress of a roadside fruit stand.

The Bible Salesman is exactly what we expect from Clyde Edgerton - rollicking, riotous, and simply wonderful.

- Gail Cooke

The story starts off on a dirt road in North Carolina in 1950, when a new Chrysler car driven by Preston Clearwater pulls over and picks up a young hitchhiker by the name of Henry Dampier, who is attempting to make a living selling bibles door-to-door. Preston see's some possible future potential that would surely benefit him... more than the boy himself... in the twenty-year-old Henry. The qualities that Preston holds in high personal regard are the "sensing" of gullibility and innocence, that's imbedded in the youthful bible salesman. Clearwater tells Henry that he is working undercover for the FBI, and he will pay Henry for each car he helps him drive away from car theft rings, which will eventually aid a larger FBI operation. Of course Henry can't tell anyone what he's doing, and even gives him a secret code word to tell the cops if he gets arrested.

Though Henry comes from a loving, nurtured, bible-based upbringing, he's not exactly free from sin... as his entire bible selling business is built around a scam. Henry writes a different religious organization every month, with a form letter asking for free bibles to hand out in his attempt to "support widows and orphans as directed by the Holy Scripture." When he receives the deliveries of bibles, he uses a razor to cut out the front pages of the new bibles that say: "COMPLIMENTARY COPY FROM THE CHICAGO BIBLE (ETC.) SOCIETY." Throughout the story the reader is informed via "flash-backs" to Henry's youth, which included his Father dying tragically young, and then his Mother abandoning Henry and his sister, and thus being raised by his Aunt and Uncle. Clearwater's background includes his entry into crime during World War II, where he and his current partner in crime "Blinky", met up in the army in France, where - "with creative paperwork and bold presentations of self - managed to steal two dump trucks, a forklift, four jeeps, seven chainsaws, and sixteen-hundred pairs of aviator sunglasses."

The entire story is told in the "sweet-innocent-southern-dialect" of the 1930's thru 1950's, which makes the entire story a smooth, velvety, innocuous, fable... despite the crime and misconduct that is woven throughout the heart of this coming of age story. The reader will share the innate sweet disposition of Henry as he comes face to face with the literal translations of the bible... along with his first true love... Marleen Green... who he meets for the first time at a fruit stand along the road. The reader will surely reflexively reminisce about how they felt back in the day, when they first felt the tingling of their first true love... as "HENRY FORGOT G-D, COUNTRY, BIBLES, AND FBI WORK"... "HE'D BEEN RUN OVER BY A MOVING MOUNTAIN."

This is a very pleasant, easy to read story, that will feel like a warm summer breeze... that passes through too quickly.

I didn't find this short novel nearly as humorous as David Sedaris did, but then I'm not David Sedaris. Still, The Bible Salesman is a an enjoyable read with some interesting characters.

The most intriguing is Henry Dampier, the 20-year-old Bible salesman of the title. He is naive, innocent, and gullible, but awfully smart for someone who thinks stealing cars is all in a days work for your everyday FBI agent. The smart part is revealed in his dead-on critique of the many contradictions in the Bible, like the first two chapters of Genesis which says first God created the animals, then man, but later reverses the order, man coming first.

Maybe poor Henry just has his mind too cluttered up with religious mysteries to notice that his mentor and employer, supposed FBI agent Preston Clearwater, is actually a criminal mastermind. It's that dichotomy of experience that makes Henry's plight so humorous as the unlikely pair make their way across the South stealing cars, safes, and other sundries while Henry pines for his first real love and the thief of his virginity.

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds: A Novel of Scandal, Love and Death in the Congo

Let me preface this by saying that I'm a long-time Edgerton fan. I've relished every minute of every previous book he's written. Reading The Bible Salesman was an unbelieveable disappointment. My best description for this novel is a simple word: boring. I don't mind excessive detail when it's well-written and/or makes a relevant point, but this was mindless, excruciating detail with no purpose but to make me say, more than once, "Let's get on with it." If you love Edgerton, as so many of us do, and feel you must read this book, I sugggest you order it from the libray or you may feel cheated, too. Hopefully, his next endeavor will be back to his old standards.

This was an interesting book, heavy on Christian language and implied symbolism. The book looses steam in that no character seems to share the moral compass of the books central theme. I hoped for more layers, and richer characters.
Bottom line: This is a fun, quick read, but the deeper Christian commentary the theme and language promises doesn't seem to be there.

This is not to say that this is a poorly written book, or that the story is not interesting. It is to say that fans that have followed this writer know that he is capable of delivering so much more. "The Bible Salesman" hardly holds a candle to "Raney" and "Walk across Egypt." The submersion effect in "The Bible Salesman" is minimal coming off more like a quaint and cute tale that we observe from afar rather than being on the front row up close to the action.

This book reminded me of John Grisham's "Bleachers." Perhaps this was a story that the author always wanted to tell, but probably should have shelved it in favor of something more dynamic and stirring. Yet knowing that his publisher would publish it anyway, went ahead and wrote it. Good for the author, good for the publisher, not so good for devoted fans.

Even the jacket hype put me off. "The 'burial tuck' alone should make 'The Bible Salesman' a classic." The dead cat with a dead snake in its mouth and the subsequent action was at best amusing, and far from anything that will ever be deemed "classic." Also, I found Henry Dampier's final act in the book totally unbelievable and completely out of character, which may have been only used as a convention by the author to set up the reaction of the cops not buying Henry's story; to what, make it funny?

I'd say that if the reader really wants to get inside the seamy underbelly of the violent South, onto those dark back roads that no one travels at night, where unspeakable horrors abound, read something like Robert Paul Blumenstein's "Flirtin' with Jesus." That book is scary, not "The Bible Salesman." I will certainly read Edgerton's next book, and even the one after that. Edgerton is a great writer; however, "The Bible Salesman" is not a great book.

This Southern tale set in the 50's blended adventure and place wonderfully - like the rest of Edgerton's books. I found the families interesting and the character's well developed but not belabored - you felt like you knew them just enough. I wanted the story to go on a little more - I wanted to find out more of Clearwater's background and what happened next in Henry's life. Which is a good sign in a book - you are left wanting more (rather than relief that you've finally finished). If this is your first book of Edgerton's you are off to a good start with many more great books to come.

Although Edgerton is one of those writers whose work I've always seen around, I'd never picked any of his books up until this one. And I have to say, while it does an excellent job at recreating smallish-town life of the Carolinas and Georgia in the 1940s and 50s, the book doesn't do much else. It's a kind of sluggish, meandering tale that never seems to settle down into any kind of rhythm. It's also suffused with a treacly Southern cornpone aura that never really connected with me.

The story revolves around a devout young Baptist named Henry Dampier, who embarks on a career as a traveling Bible salesman in 1951. He's a hardworking good soul who sends away for free Bibles by posing as an itinerant preacher, and then sells these Bibles to housewives to earn a living (and spread the good word). This background is all established with some folksy tales and flashbacks, but the story doesn't really get moving until he gets involved Preston Clearwater. Preston is a car thief posing as a G-Man, and uses this ruse to trick Henry into becoming his accomplice.

There's some decent Southern color as they road-trip around the South "infiltrating" a gang of car thieves, and getting into some bigger crimes. Naturally, Henry meets a crackerjack girl along the way and falls in love. And of course everything builds to the moment when he realizes that Preston has been duping him. There are all kinds of small episodes along the way, like a relative's attempt to semi-invent bumper stickers, a pair of elderly sisters who show true Southern hospitality, Henry's struggle with understanding the contradictions of the Bible, and Henry's family dynamics. But these all feel like individual little vignettes whose combined effect is that of padding a relatively simple story to book length.

Ultimately, what might have been a nice tight little tale of postwar Southern crime gets bogged down by all these side trips and flashbacks, and while Edgerton's existing fans may well lap it all up, it's hard to imagine him winning many new fans with a book this unfocused.

I throughly enjoyed reading this book and recommend it. I have a great appreciation for southern fiction that is creative, deeply true, and wry, which this novel certainly is. I also greatly appreciate the merger of the religious faith of one person, the protagonist, with the world around him, which is a comical merger at times.