Customer Reviews

Calling

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4 star:		(1)
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Calling is a great read. Starnes deftly interweaves two stories of rising and falling fortune, two stories of men who struggle with morality and purpose and their own bad habits, and the stories are so engrossing that you just don't want to put the book down. Starnes not only knows the voice and character and heart of the South -- something he demonstrates in every paragraph -- he also knows how to tell a tale.

Joe Samuel Starnes' Calling takes the reader into the dirty South beautifully and unflinchingly, reminiscent of Harry Crews' Feast of Snakes, and Larry Brown's Father and Son. Like Brown and Crews, Starnes is an exact detailist, compelling the reader to taste the "boiled crabs dusted in cayenne pepper" and the cold, bitter sips of young Timber's first beer, for example. Starnes also dares to liken religion with sexual awakening (his novel often blurs antitheses, like sin and salvation, flesh and spirit, protagonist and antogonist), as the following baptismal scene elegantly conveys:

Little Zeke had been just another sixteen-year-old small-town country boy until Sally Claxton went under that water in a flowing, white robe. When she came up-her drenched black hair pulled back, her opalescent skin moist, her dark eyes illuminated by a glint of sunlight, the wet robe clinging tight to her thin waist and long slender legs, her dark nipples stiff and visible through the linen-he knew he would go into the water and baptize her kind one day.

The final, climactic scene of Calling is more shocking and intense than any I've ever encountered in fiction, a scene that stays with you weeks after putting the book down. Starnes portrays the grit of the world with such authenticity, you can almost imagine the red, Georgian clay under the fingernails of his writing hand-or at least, feel it under your own.

As lovers of fiction know, Larry Brown passed away suddenly this past year, leaving his fans bereft of his extraordinary work. However, Joe Samuel Starnes provides us with hope as a writer talented and capable enough to pick up where Brown left off.

I am no more than an English teacher of young minds. I have no insight as to whether Samuel Starnes will be the next Brown or Faulkner. I can say with great certainity that this novel dusts off the cobwebs of old southern literature and gives it a new shine and twist. It's captivating, soul searching, and brutally honest. Calling takes away the magnolias and mint juleps typical of the south and replaces them with red clay and whiskey of the 'dirty south'. There will be a day when Starnes's books are placed on the lists for "Great Southern Literature"! Truly a classic in the making!

An engaging and insightful Southern Gothic Literary work that is as sophisticated as it is accessible. Starnes depicts the fall from grace of a wayward Baptist minister and the regaining of peace and direction of a disgruntled, if not depressed, deejay after they meet on a Greyhound bus destined for Las Vegas. Only someone like Starnes--who was born, raised, educated, and who has experienced the inner sanctum of Southern culture-- can produce a work of this poignancy and insight into the vicissitudes of Southern culture. Starnes' "Calling" deserves to be included among the best of the Southern Literary Tradition.

S.C. Dombrowski, Ph.D.

Graduate Professor of Psychology

Rider University, Lawrenceville, NJ

I enjoyed this book as much as I have ever enjoyed any book.. It was interesting and fascinating. I am a contemporary of the author's mother and grew up with her. I was a little puzzled that the author had such a command of the sexually explicit scenes. I don't think he learned them in Cedartown, Ga. However, I am 68 years old and have no idea what goes on in that small town. Again, it was a great story and I can't understand why it didn't make the bestseller list.

Joe Samuel Starnes' premier novel 'Calling' continues the noble tradition of Southern storytelling with humor and gothic nuance. The predominant theme is that of two sons bound to their father's blood and ways, and their desperate need to escape heritage and habit: a theme that resonates through much of the tangled web that creates the Southern mystique. Can a man escape his own blood? This story is one of redemption and the often-strange idea of grace, an idea whose roots run deep in the South. The unpredictable nature of grace has a particular savor in Southern literature, especially seen in the works of O'Connor and Brown, and here continued by the very capable Starnes. The action of the last few chapters is undeniably well written, fast-paced and totally engaging, maintaining narrative tension and creating a high level of suspense, reminiscent of the heavy-hitting impact of Harry Crews. This book assures me, as a Southern literature devotee, that the tradition of great storytelling can and will continue.

I picked up this book because Larry Brown is one of my favorite authors and those that likened Starnes to him gave me hope. first off, i don't think this guy can hold a candle to brown. brown, like no one, except maybe faulkner, had the ability to capture tension and despair and hope and disappointment and so many emotions in so few words while painting beautiful and miserable pictures of life. i won't say that i didn't find calling to be compelling, because it was, i finished it with interest. but the literary style and ability of this writer leaves a lot to be desired. he uses very immature and amatuer techniques such as advising the reader of how he's going to tell the story, rather than just telling it. but more disturbing was my sense that the editor took a nap about a third of the way thru the book. the last 2 thirds of the novel was rife with very poorly contructed sentences. were it not for the use of couple "non-words" and a few misspellings that made it thru, i might have convinced myself that what seemed poorly constructed and awkward to me was just a different style. but after the first few i was on the lookout and i was really surprised at the number of items i wished the editor had noticed.

i suggest anyone looking at this book, redirect your browser to any or all of larry brown's masterful works and forget about this book.