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4.0 

Handling Sin

By Michael Malone
Handling Sin by Michael Malone digital book - Fable

Publisher Description

On the Ides of March, our hero, Raleigh Whittier Hayes (forgetful husband, baffled father, prosperous insurance agent, and leading citizen of Thermopylae, North Carolina), learns that his father has discharged himself from the hospital, taken all his money out of the bank and, with a young black female mental patient, vanished in a yellow Cadillac convertible. Left behind is a mysterious list of seven outrageous tasks that Raleigh must perform in order to rescue his father and his inheritance.

And so Raleigh and fat Mingo Sheffield (his irrepressibly loyal friend) set off on an uproarious contemporary treasure hunt through a landscape of unforgettable characters, falling into adventures worthy of Tom Jones and Huck Finn. A moving parable of human love and redemption, Handling Sin is Michael Malone's comic masterpiece.

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Handling Sin Reviews

4.0
“to say my feelings about this book are complicated would be an understatement. i don’t know that i would have picked it up at all if it wasn’t for book club, and, i’m honestly not sure whether i would have pushed through to finish it either. even *with* it being for book club i considered DNF-ing in the first 20%. i don’t think that i would necessarily recommend it. in fact, for many people, i would probably warn against reading it. it was written in the 80s and is extremely non-politically correct. it is set in the south. i will let you draw your own (probably accurate) assumptions there. HOWEVER… i did find parts of it entertaining and, weirdly enough, the characters (despite their flaws) ended up growing on me?? i do think the author did an incredible job creating interesting and unique yet believable characters. i truly believe some of these people could have been my relatives, that’s how vivid they are. i would like to add that i listened to the audiobook narrated by nick sullivan, who truly made the characters come alive! if you are wanting to give this book a shot, i do recommend this audio version.”

About Michael Malone

Michael Malone is the author of ten novels, a collection of short stories and two works of nonfiction. Educated at Carolina and at Harvard, he is now a professor in Theater Studies at Duke University. Among his prizes are the Edgar, the O. Henry, the Writers Guild Award, and the Emmy. He lives in Hillsborough, North Carolina, with his wife.

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