Book Review: Home to Holly Springs by Jan Karon

As I said in a previous post, I received the book Home to Holly Springs by Jan Karon as a Christmas gift from my husband. I looked forward to a visit with my old friends from Mitford -- Father Tim, Cynthia, Dooley and the rest. It still saddens me to know that the books won't be set in Mitford anymore, and I wondered if Father Tim would still hold my interest without the cast of interesting characters that the Mitford setting provided. I was not disappointed.

Throughout the Mitford series, there are tantalizing hints about Father Tim's past -- his troubled relationship with his father, his friendship with Tommy Noles, and his love for Peggy who was like a second mother to him. In Home to Holly Springs, he is drawn back to his old hometown after receiving an anonymous note.

In Holly Springs we meet the usual cast of interesting personalities that make Karon's books so satisfying. There are some people he knew in the past, and others who become new friends. In visiting the people and places he had thought never to see again, Tim comes face to face with old hurts and discovers that the things he experienced as a child weren't really always as he believed them to be.

What I've always loved about the character of Father Tim is that the author doesn't make him perfect. He is a kind, loving and gentle soul, but he struggles with the human feelings of anger, hurt and unforgiveness that we all deal with. He faces but doesn't always overcome them with his faith. His very "realness" is comforting and makes him more believable.

Running through the book is a secondary theme of Tim's belief in the fact that everything happens according to God's plan. It's a familiar theme, and consistent with Tim's character, but the events that serve the theme are sometimes just a little too coincidental, giving an unrealistic feel to parts of the book.

All in all, though, this is a good that made me feel good. As Jan Karon's books always do, it made me look at my own life, my own past, my own grudges and hurts and misunderstandings. It is a story of connecting with the past and, most importantly, one of forgiveness. I highly recommend it.