Calling Home

July 27, 2010 | By In Article |

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5 Comments so far

  1. J. L. Cales on July 27th, 2010

    Enjoyable to read a novel set in Kentucky! This book gets better and better as you go along. It is a real page turner the last half of the book!
    Rating: 4 / 5

  2. Harriet Klausner on July 27th, 2010

    In Falling Rock, Kentucky, Roger Lemmons deserts his wife Virginia and their two teen children, eighteen years old Will and fourteen years old Shannon. Roger left the rural backwater town accompanied by a beautician. Although despondent even before her spouse left her, and now worried about their future, Virginia knows the way of the hills is to move on and tale care of business as she did when her dreams were violently destroyed years ago.

    Virginia especially sees much of her former self in spirited Shannon. She vows to insure her daughter gets out of Falling Rock by avoiding the errors she made as a teen. As Will has his own issues of abandonment by his dad and feeling like an outsider with the two females in his life, mother and daughter bond closer together with Virginia seeing her “escape” if Shannon makes it, but people have a way of repeating the most awful of truths.

    Using music to set the time as the late 1970s, readers will appreciate this strong family drama that looks deep into relationships especially between a mother and her daughter. The rotating perspective of the story line enhances the poignancy; as the Lemmons face extremely difficult choices that with each step turns more complex and disturbing. Life is realistically portrayed as a bi*ch with caveat that somehow the strong thrive. Janna McMahan writes a deep character study of people facing personal problems.

    Harriet Klausner

    Rating: 5 / 5

  3. S. Douthett on July 27th, 2010

    What a wonderful novel! Very rich descriptive characters keep your interest….you wont want to put it down. A book you will want to read!
    Rating: 5 / 5

  4. Susannah Connelly on July 27th, 2010

    The opening chapter of “Calling Home” is a grabber. Right from the start, Virginia Lemmons shows us what she’s made of. Like the lone Wild West scout in the desert, she confronts the reality of the gangrenous wound threatening to kill her and lances it despite fear of the pain.

    Wondering how the events of the book will affect this central character kept me turning the pages of this complex narrative of a family in central Kentucky during the 1970s. The other characters — her children, her cheating husband, her vaguely involved boyfriend — seem to bounce off Virginia’s tough, resilient hide as she bears up, holding things together through a series of some of life’s hardest blows.

    Shannon, Virginia’s teenaged daughter, seems oblivious to the pain swirling through her family. The reality of it, however, lurks in her peripheral vision, muffling joy as well as pain and limiting her ability to read potential danger. In her concentration on daily events and the framework of her teenage life – grades, boy friends, girl friends – Shannon seems her mother’s daughter. All in all, this young woman seems a true representation of a good girl trying to survive a dysfunctional upbringing.

    As other reviewers have stated, “Calling Home” demonstrates the author’s considerable skill at exposition. Some of the sections on processes – curing tobacco, taxidermy, etc. – could be the beginnings of how-to manuals, so thorough are they. In contrast, her descriptions of tragic events seem somewhat detached, perhaps deliberately echoing her characters’ self-protection mechanisms.

    The resolution of the bad season of the Lemmons family is the most satisfying part of the book. Virginia finally realizes that what she thought was weakness may be not only her greatest strength but the only way to begin the healing the family so desperately needs. The freedom she finds by at last giving herself permission to feel brings the whole family into a place of new peace and hope. At the end, we leave the Lemmons family expecting that they will survive, maybe even triumph.

    I gave “Calling Home” four stars instead of five because I would have liked the first part of the book and the last to be more equal in length and because of McMahan’s tendency to embed otherwise excellent prose.

    The strength of “Calling Home” is in the personalities McMahan has created. Very real ordinary people, stilted by their culture, repressed by trauma, and devastated by loss, struggle to survive and find a new way to live. The Lemmons family is very easy to root for. This is a book about a family that you won’t soon forget.

    Rating: 4 / 5

  5. L. Manley on July 27th, 2010

    I live in Kentucky and love to read books set close to home or at least in the south. This book caught my attention because it was a double whammy, rural Kentucky and during the time I was in high school. While at first I was caught up in the description of the countryside and schools to see how authentic the author was in her writing, I found myself absorbed in a story that made me forget where it was set. This story could happen in any rural southern community.

    Virginia and her family have an awakening of lifes struggles and the author weaves their troubles into a compelling tale of hardship and resolution.

    You learn why some secrets should be shared and why communication between those you love is so important.

    Upon finishinig this book, I couldn’ wait to read the author’s next one. She is a new talent that I can’t wait to explore.

    Rating: 5 / 5

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