Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Raney by Clyde Edgerton

Raney is a young, small-town Southern Baptist and Charles is an educated, large-city, liberal from Atlanta and “Raney” is the story of the first two years of their marriage. Charles and Raney struggle to bring their lives together and meld themselves into a cohesive unit.

I’m not sure what to say about this little book.  All the way through I kept thinking, “Are you sure this is a book about a marriage? It seems like it is more about racism.” And then when I finished the last page and closed the book I found myself chuckling and loving the message about marriage.

There were, however, a few things I didn’t like. The racism in the book highly offended my 21st century sensitivities, but I believe it was probably a fair portrayal of the time and place.  The other things I didn’t like were that Charles convinces Raney to accept alcohol and ‘girlie magazines’ as a normal part of live when she was offended because of religious reasons. I felt like the message was that not wanting these things in your life was ‘backwoodsy’ and not an educated choice, which I do not agree with.

Overall, I guess I’m glad I read this book. It did have a good message about marriage.

3 stars (Rated PG – nothing too offensive except blatant racism.)

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