Evangelism Spotlight: Jane Hamilton

At some point in all the bookshopping I did in the Pacific Northwest this month, I picked up The Book of Ruth by Jane Hamilton. It's her first novel and won the 1989 Pen/Ernest Hemingway Foundation Award for best first novel. Rightly so. This book is good. If you're looking for a good novel about rural poverty in Illinois-- look no further. Even though the subject matter isn't exactly uplifting, Hamilton's dry wit brings complexity to these characters and saves them from becoming stereotypes.

I also recommend Disobedience by Jane Hamilton. This time the narrator is an adolescent boy making sense of his mom's infidelity and his dad and sister's obsessed devotion to Civil War reenactments. My favorite piece from this book: ". . . because I don't think the truth, uh, the truth, is going to set me free or get me back to Kansas or bring me to Jesus-- and I'm not sure, but there's no guarantee that telling would be a magical experience for you either."