The Sweetest Hallelujah

When I hear about a Southern novel I just have to check it out. Even better if it is historical Southern fiction! I learned about THE SWEETEST HALLELUJAH by Elaine Hussey through Books A Million Book Clubs and decided to read it despite the mixed reviews. THE SWEETEST HALLELUJAH is a good Southern novel. Its not a *great* Southern novel. 1955 was a turbulent time in the South and all across the U S including Mississippi Tupelo where the story takes place. White Hussey made reference to racial tension and prejudice in the story I felt like she was skating around the issue as if she didnt want the story to be marred by ugliness and evil or let the book be too realistic. It is almost as if she was aiming the book for a teenage audience and maybe that was her goal. Or she was more interested in the emotion in the story rather than being realistic or historically accurate. After all, it was unheard of during that time for whites and blacks to mix on either side and while i am sure some white men fathered children with black women it was not brought into the open and it would have spelled ruin for a white woman to adopt a black child no matter the cir***stances. The racial incidents in the book were glossed over and didnt really lead anywhere. Everything was almost too perfect. Billie was a typical 10 year old, but wise beyond her years, Cassie was progressive in her thinking but incredibly naive, and even stupid in her actions, Queen was the wise almost stereotypical Negro grandmother and Betty Jewel was the idealistic long suffering victim of a bad marriage and later cancer. In trying to create this world the author almost relied too much on convention and stereotype so the story didnt ring true to me despite the emotion behind it. The Southern sayings, similes and analogies were almost too much and dragged the story down sometimes. When I finished the book I felt like it was lacking depth, realistic plot and the ending was tied up too neatly. The characters seemed to change to suit the authors word count. I liked the book and was caught up in the story but I left it feeling disappointed that I wasnt given more.