Luminous Mysteries [Hardcover]

John Holman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 15, 1998

A novel set in the New South, Luminous Mysteries follows the lives of Grim Power and his sister, Rita, from their youth to early middle age. In prose that has been compared to that of Raymond Carver, John Holman tellingly paints a portrait of the lives of middle-class African americans today. “Reminiscent of Steinbeck’s Cannery Row” (Tampa Tribune).

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

John Holman's first book was a collection of short stories; his second is a novel that is almost a collection of short stories. In Luminous Mysteries, Holman tells the story of Grim Power and his older sister, Rita, in 13 chapters that could each stand alone but are woven together by recurring characters and themes. Orphaned at an early age by their mother's death and their father's desertion, Grim and Rita manage to raise themselves in their small, close-knit African American community. Rita, 15 years older than Grim, does her best to fill the role of surrogate mother, but her bouts of manic depression provide frightening interruptions to their lives. Despite her illness, Rita manages to support herself and her brother teaching math while Grim eventually goes to college. Then Grim drops out, Rita gets married and disappears, only to return a few years later with a husband and three adopted children in tow. Grim, meanwhile, has only recently come back to town himself, after spending time on the road as an itinerant race-car driver among other things. Holman tells the story of the Power family and their friends from many different perspectives: there is Mayes, Rita's husband, and Belly Man, an associate of Grim's, in addition to Grim and Rita themselves. Holman writes in spare, elegant prose that makes Luminous Mysteries a pleasure to read for anyone as interested in craft as in content.

From Publishers Weekly

The distinctive characters in Holman's (Squabble and Other Stories) fragmented novel will stick in readers' minds long after they've stopped wondering about the bizarre scenarios the author concocts to highlight their lives of barely controlled desperation. Holman sets the story in a rural Southern community where blacks and whites mingle uncomfortably and blacks still labor to understand what equality means in their day-to-day transactions. Orphaned, outcast from their families and ill-suited to their limited circumstances, Rita and her brother Grim, his girlfriend, Butter, Rita's lover, Lonnie, and the others nevertheless find ways to reach out to each other and, in doing so, discover a meaning in the madness of their lives. From saintly Rita's mental instability and Lonnie's drug-addicted past to Butter's transformation from schoolteacher to sex kitten, Holman minutely examines the eccentric and neurotic behaviors that they've contrived to try to make themselves complete. His spare language, occasional psychedelic descriptions (when Rita's car is hijacked, she sees her abductor surrounded by an aura, "a gleaming silver-gold sheen issuing from him like the spiny fins of phosphorescent fish") and the snappy repartee he whips up for his characters will appeal to readers who are drawn to life's more absurd or ironic moments. Others may be disappointed by the lack of an overriding structure or plot. But by giving his characters moments in which they break out of their cliched roles, Holman provides a thread?the luminous mysteries?that makes the individual pieces coalesce into an uneasy whole. Editor, Drenka Willen.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; 1st edition (September 15, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0151003491
• ISBN-13: 978-0151003495
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,827,303 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars FABULOUS!!, September 28, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Luminous Mysteries (Hardcover)

John Holman has blurred the line between novel and short story with wondrous results!!