Home to Harmony

Author: Philip Gulley
Genre: fiction
Publication info: HarperCollins, 2002
Pages: 220

I'm back! Finally. Not that I expect anybody to have missed me or to have missed reading this blog, but I have certainly missed writing it. Actually, I've missed reading for a while. Thanks to some factors not at all related to this blog, I haven't been able to do any recreational reading for quite a long time until just recently. It got so bad that one day I went to the library and had no idea (at all) what to read. I owe a lot to some loved ones who gave me recommendations and got me back on track.

The first of these is Home to Harmony, recommended by my mother and my girlfriend. The latter was especially vocal about how much she liked it, and now I know why. The fact is that you can't not like this book. Unless something is wrong with you, you simply must enjoy this book. It's just a delight. I might as well throw out another cliche while I'm at it: It's guaranteed to raise a smile.

Philip Gulley is an actual Quaker minister, and the narrator of his book, Sam Gardner, is also one. The first chapter of the book tells of how he returns to Harmony, the small town of his youth, and becomes the minister there. All the other chapters are basically vignettes about different inhabitants of the town, sometimes mildly poking fun at them (and not exempting himself from that treatment), sometimes using them to teach a powerful lesson (he is a minister, after all). I came to love each of the quirky characters and smiled at the strange situations they found themselves in. I really felt at home in this lovely little town.

Gulley is a talented writer, especially with his tone that feels light and easy but I'm sure took an awful lot of work to perfect. Of course, the book isn't perfect. Sometimes I wondered how the minister could know so much about the personal lives of these people. Granted, ministers probably know more than anything about their congregation, but sometimes it was a real stretch. Also, there were times when his end-of-chapter lessons felt a little excessive. I already got a profound message through the story, so I didn't need the narrator to explain to me what I should learn from it. That said, some of the lessons were very touching, especially the one in the final chapter.

I recommend this book to anyone. It's a feel-good tale, but not in an unrealistic way. It is a great escape from the pressures of life, but it is also a good teacher for how to deal with those pressures. Just as a minister's words should be.