Plain Heathen Mischief

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Summary: Martin Clark for President!
Review: As a native southerner (and Methodist preacher's kid!) living the past ten years in Rhode Island, I was happy when The Many Aspects of Mobile Home Living was published because it was one of the quirkiest, yet most brilliantly written novels I had ever read and it took me back to the rural roots of my childhood and brought forth magic in the mundane as well as frequent belly laughs which are always good for readers of all stars and stripes. I have waited patiently for Martin Clark's next book and it does not disappoint. About a decade ago, I devoured Dominick Dunn's delightfully irreverent A Season in Purgatory -- about corrupt wealthy Catholics -- and as much as I enjoyed that novel, I wished for someone to write a screamingly politically incorrect view from a less affluent, perhaps protestant perspective. Well, the story is on the shelves and will soon be jumping off of them in record numbers. Plain Heathen Mischief is a page turner with delicious twists and turns. Clark has a way of introducing characters and/or circumstances which are delicate or difficult and then infuses his own brand of hilarity and honesty. The result is a moving, expertly written and welcome escape from wherever we live or whatever we do for a living. He has hit the ball out of the park.

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Summary: Author Clark Rolls On!
Review: I loved Mr Clark's "The Many Aspects of Mobile Home Living," but do believe he has topped that with his latest book, "Plain Heathern Mischief." Even though the works are quite different, the writing talent is the same. As usual, the author's story- telling moves alone with flavorful language, that does not distract from the storyline. "Plain Heathen Mischief" is a delight and will touch the soul of the reader, demanding an answer for what is black, white or grey. Joel King's character could be all of us, caught up in an unforgiving world, which begs that we use wrong to do right. Read it! And look for Martin Clark's next adventure. - Dwight Spencer

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Summary: THE REAL DEAL
Review: I never saw the end coming in this outstanding book about keeping faith in the face of difficult times. I was so busy being entertained by the story, which is at times funny, moving, and maddening, that only upon my arrival at the final page did it dawn on me that this is a novel with more than just a simple yarn to spin. Every character is meaty and real, and Mr. Clark takes his time with the plot. The writing quality is also excellent, but it's the way you, as a reader, get caught up in the people and place and profit in the end, just like they do, that makes this book special. My lone complaint is with a fishing scene about three-quarters of the way through that is good and important to the story, but might have been a few pages shorter. Still,overall, the best I've read in years, and head and shoulders above 99% of the stuff out there.

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Summary: Southern Baptist Angst
Review: In this self-described "grown man's coming-of-age story," Judge Martin Clark meanders through Bedrock Baptist Fundamentalism wherein there's no such creature as a minor sin - "There's the straight, correct, narrow route, and the rest is just Plain Heathen Mischief."

The Second Book of Clark is literate - the language sings and zings. Naming a major player after that whiner in the OJ saga is inspired. Though it doesn't have the magical mysticism of his first, "The Many Aspects of Mobile Home Living," it's still Plain Heathen Good. He socks it to insurance companies and American Gumball Jurisprudence like Jeannie C. Riley's Momma socked it to the Harper Valley PTA. /TundraVision, Amazon reviewer.

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Summary: GREAT LAST TIME, A CLASSIC THIS TIME
Review: Martin Clark's last book, the "Many Aspects of Mobile Home Living" is one of my all time favs, so it was a no-brainer to pick this one up, and I wasn't disappointed in the least. Mr. Clark has matured as a writer, and this book is a masterpiece. All the recent New York Times hype is proven correct on nearly evey page. Joel King is a minister who has lost his job and gets wound up in an insurance rip-off just to keep his head above water. The story follows him across the country and through events that are funny and heartbreaking. In Plain Heathen Mischief, every character is real, every situation is vivid and the plot starts in the very first sentence and races right along. This story has all the colorfulness of Many Aspects of Mobile Home Living, but it is more layered, better paced and full of surprises. Mr. Clark is two for two in my opinion, and I'm ready for the next one.

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Summary: "There are no shades and degrees in morality."
Review: Rev. Joel King, a good but exceedingly naïve man, dedicated his life to serving Roanoke Baptist Church-until Christy, a 17-year-old temptress, claimed he seduced her. Though he pled guilty when he was charged and served a six-month sentence, there is a gap between what Christy says happened, and what Joel knows happened. He believes, however, that he is guilty because there's no such thing as a "minor" sin. "There's the straight, correct, narrow route, and the rest is just plain heathen mischief." Learning that his wife has filed for divorce and that Christy has filed a $5M damage suit against him and the church, Joel, penniless, gratefully accepts help from Sa'ad X. Sa'ad, a lawyer friend of Edmund Brooks, a former parishioner now living in Las Vegas.

Edmund and Sa'ad X. Sa'ad are partners in a variety of insurance scams, and Joel is the ready-made, carefully selected dupe who gets sucked into a wild scam involving "borrowed jewelry." As the complexities grow exponentially, Joel never waivers in his religious faith but begins to question his interpretation of right and wrong and his understanding of his mission in life. Striving to accomplish long-term right by taking expedient measures which he knows are wrong, he eventually comes to new understandings about real life and the difficulty of identifying a heavenly voice in the cacophony which surrounds him.

Joel King's spiritual crisis is a only a part of this hilariously funny tale which features crosses and double-crosses, misread motives, and scammers getting scammed. The glitz and glamour of Edmund and Sa'ad's life in Las Vegas contrast with the simple life Joel has chosen in Montana, and the characters, while not fully developed, represent the full spectrum of humanity--the trusting and the cynical, the principled and the venal, and the charitable and the grasping. As insurance investigators, lawyers, local police, probation officers, and even the FBI array themselves against Edmund, Joel, and Sa'ad X. Sa'ad (who have betrayals planned for each other), the reader is thoroughly engaged, totally involved in the rapidly developing action, and constantly surprised by the twists and turns of the plot.

Well developed, and beautifully written, the novel is "A grown man's coming-of-age story," filled with the irony of a good man and "moral leader" whose absolute interpretation of what is right leads him to jail at the beginning of the novel and whose subsequent growth and sense of redemption occur through his criminal behavior. Fun, focused, and captivating, this is one of the most enjoyable novels I have read all year. Mary Whipple