Customer Reviews

Handling Sin

5 star:		(74)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

OK... I admit I read this book well over a decade ago for the first time. I've read it twice since. "Handling Sin" is just one of those really great books. I don't mean great like "Bonfire of the Vanities" or something like that. I mean great like 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" or "David Copperfield". I'm talking classically great. And "Huckleberry Finn" is good for comparison as "Handling Sin" is a journey book as well, where the main character, Raleigh Whittier Hayes, travels throughout the south in search of his father, only to find, you know i'm gonna say it, himself.
First and foremost, "Handling Sin" is belly-laugh funny. I've never laughed with a book as much as I did with this one. And it's touching as well. I came to really like the characters that people this book. At the end, I really wanted to continue knowing them. I could go on and on praising the merits of this book, but you people don't know me so I'll keep it short. There is one last thing to be said: none of Malone's books approach the sheer joy and mastery of this one. I know; I've read and been disappointed by them all.

Do not read this book where you are supposed to be quiet because it's sure to make you laugh out loud. I first read this book about ten years ago and recently reread it and it was even funnier the second time around. Michael Malone characterizes Raleigh Hayes, his family and friends not as buffoons but as real (if somewhat eccentric) people that get swept up in extrodinary situations. If you've ever felt you were the only sane person in a world gone mad, you will be able to identify with Raleigh. Not only did this book make me laugh till my face hurt but there are some very touching moments as well.

This is my all-time favorite book, and I have read a LOT of books. I bought this book over ten years ago at a grocery store, and have read it about once a year since then. I've loaned it to many friends, it's been mailed to Hawaii and Tennessee, I've dragged it across country with me on vacation (I ALWAYS take it on vacation trips). I had to quit reading it while eating lunch because I would laugh so hard, I was afraid I would quite literally choke to death.

"Handling Sin" is an absolute must-read, a hilarious and touching story about family, love, friendship, and accepting life as it comes to you. Raleigh Hayes and his neighbor Mingo set off on a quest to return Raleigh's father Earley to the hospital. Earley has taken off with an unknown young woman, and has left Raleigh instructions to gather several seemingly bizarre and unrelated objects, and bring them to New Orleans. Desperate to retrieve his ailing father, Raleigh approaches this task with the same determination and focus his applies to everything he does. Life, however, has other plans for our hero.

Join Raleigh, Mingo, Raleigh's ne'er-do-well brother Gates, master criminal Simon Berg, saxaphone player Toutant Kingstree and Peaches the pig as they galavant throughout the South, butting heads with the Marines, Hell's Angels, nuns, and gangsters. Enjoy the Infamous Barbeque at Wild Oaks, and thrill at the derring-do atop Stone Mountain. This story is a joyride from beginning to end. Come join us.

Wonder, madcap, outrageous, hilarious farce. Raleigh Hayes of Thermopylae, NC, discovers his father has absconded (after escaping from the hospital) with the family fortune and taken off for points unknown in an egg yolk-yellow Cadillac convertible. His companion of choice is a young female - no big surprise - but she's also a mental patient and of a race traditionally looked down upon in the Deep South. Raleigh, following clues on a left-behind list that give him 7 tasks to accomplish, sets off on what quickly and predictably becomes an odyssey. His sidekick is his friend Mingo, and the two of them quickly become the lead comedic characters in their own play as they wend their way toward New Orleans and a "planned" rendezvous - as if anything could really be planned when dealing with this wacko cast.
Wonderful.

I've just finished reading Handling Sin for the second time--something I rarely do, there are just too many books I haven't read yet--and I think I enjoyed it more this time. It is a laugh out loud, fall out of your chair funny story. I loved each of the characters our hero Raleigh takes on the journey his father sends him on. I hated to see the story end -- I want to know what Mingo is doing now, what happened to Gates, and where or where is Weeper Berg. I'm sure I'll read this book again.

I bought this book ten years ago at a drug store for $1 thinking it would be a good way to pass the afternoon at my swimming pool. Little did I know that the afternoon of reading at the pool would leave me laughing, crying and shaking my head at the unbelievable adventures of the stoic and sane Raleigh and his roving band of ne'er do wells. I think that Mr. Malone has captured the personalities and quirks of every Southerner I know or have met. Since I am Southern, I read each novel about the South with a very cynical view that the author will never be able to understand what it is like to be Southern and a part of a huge family-but Mr. Malone does and has done it in such a hilarious way that I recommend this book to everyone I know. I just wish he would write another book using this delightful cast of characters in another adventure.

I have read Handling Sin at least five times. Each and every reading brings new insights. It is, quite simply, the best contemporary fiction in American literature. Catch-22 and Cider House Rules are the only two books in the same class. It starts out as howlingly funny, moves into farce, and gradually becomes serious as our heroes near the end of their quest. We begin to understand how Malone feels about life. There is a scene where Raleigh looks at a 25 year old wedding snapshot, and reflects upon those years that have passed. Here is where we learn what Malone really has to say about our lives. Not for some of us, but for all of us. This is what the book is about, the victories and failures of life and death, the presence of a supreme being who gave us life, the sense of family that keeps us alive. It is truly a masterpiece, and you will want to share your copy with friends.

Handling Sin has got to be one of modern literature's best-kept secrets. Malone has crafted a laugh-out-loud, action-packed rollercoaster ride featuring characters so outrageous and memorable that they seem to leap right off the page. For anyone that needs a pick-me-up, is fond of satirical novels or just wants to read a great book written by a talented author, there could be no better choice than Handling Sin. It's a shame that Mr. Malone seems to have vanished from the literary scene. (And for what its worth, I take issue with those who would compare this book to Toole's "A Confederacy of Dunces." Their plots are extremely disparate, but Handling Sin is by far the more hilarious of the two.)

My wife found this book at a store a year ago. It had a torn cover so we got 30% off but little did we know just how much of a bargain we got. My wife read it first, was laughing so much during that I couldn't wait until she was done. Yeah, I laughed and I cried but mostly, I laughed. A lot. I can't recommend this book enough. I'd give it ten (10) stars but that's not available. Perhaps some of the funniest parts are when the Hell's Angels gangs keeps turning up. YOU MUST READ THIS BOOK.

I found this book on the coffee table of a rented beach house. It looked sufficiently mindless for sunbathing so I gave it a shot. My family watched in amazement as I spent the rest of the week quite literally rolling in laughter. They all lined up to read Mary Ellen's "funny book." If you want to read a book that will make you laugh, fine. This one will. But, my God, there is more. Mr. Malone uses the least likely hero one can imagine and places him in a setting not noted for its universal appeal. Protagonist Raleigh Hayes embodies persnickety and he lives in a forgotten corner of North Carolina. Hardly a guaranteed recipe for success. Our best novelists, however, take the specific and teach us the general. The more heart-breakingly and side-splittingly detailed he is in drawing his characters, the more we see of ourselves -- strengths, weaknesses, triumphs and foibles alike. Not just the South, but all of America (dare I say the world?) is covered in the story of Raleigh Hayes, his friends, his family and just one enemy. I recommend this book unreservedly