Book Review - Archives

March - May 2004

Have you ever wondered what really happens every Sunday morning in black churches across America? Well, your questions will be answered in Michele Andrea Bowen’s book, Church Folk. Church Folk is the story of a Gospel United Church in Charleston, Mississippi, a small country town, and its goings-on. Led by the Reverend Theophilus Simmons, this church is not unlike any other. There is enough drama to fill a stage with its share of saints mixed in with tattlers, back-biters, brown-nosers, and women trying to tempt the tall, fine and single minister with their good home cooking or feminine wiles. However, the good reverend stays on his knees in prayer, asking God to guide him in the right direction and keep his mind off his burning loins and on the job of what he wants him to do.

Being the newly appointed minister at that church, his hands are full, and every eye is on him to trip up and make a mistake. However, he seeks help from his bishop friends and spiritual mentors when the going gets rough. After all, he was able to discourage the whorish rump shaker, Glodean Benson who tried every trick she knew to get him to marry her, so getting through whatever his congregation threw his way, was light stuff. However, Reverend Simmons was an upstanding minister—one who had a purpose in mind and he did his best to carry it out. One problem persisted though: He was also a man with needs and that became very clear to him when he couldn’t get his mind off Essie Lee Lane—a plain-speaking, take no mess, waitress at the local juke joint who served him the best rib sandwich he ever tasted. The story gets quite interesting as you follow the good reverend through his trials and tribulations.

Church Folk is a book that will make you curl up in your favorite chair and tell the world to go away. It’s that good. Bowen tells an engaging story that’s well-plotted and that’s rife with the prototypes of interesting and colorful characters that can be found in every church. This book is not preachy, but manages to have a message firmly ensconced within its pages-- if you read it well enough.

The best thing about this book in this reviewer’s opinion is that Reverend Simmons is depicted as human and not as a holier-than-thou minister. He is crafted as a man with human needs, wants, desires, and the struggles he faces to get past them and carry out his clerical duties. He also has to balance that with the constant demands on him to serve his flock and get it all in its proper perspective. Essie Lee is also depicted as human. Everything she believes in and thought she knew, is challenged and she must make some very real, very hard decisions.

These and the supporting characters seem like real people and are so well written. Their dialogue is excellent and Bowen proves that she has a good ear for the Southern lilt and dialect they speak. She deals with issues such as financial and sexual misconduct, politicking and greed well, but it’s done in such a way as not to offend either Christian or secular readers. This book contains a number of surprising twists that will fascinate and titillate the readers, pointing up the tightness of Ms. Bowen’s craft. In retrospect, this is an excellent debut from an extremely gifted and talented author.

Reviewed by Nathasha Brooks-Harris