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Title: Sacred Dust by David Hill ISBN: 0-385-31816-2 Publisher: Delta Pub. Date: 09 June, 1997 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $19.00

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Average Customer Rating: 4.57 (7 reviews)

Rating: 4
Summary: Sacred Dust by David Hill
Comment: David Hill does a great job of really getting deep into each character in his novel _Sacred Dust_ and hooking you on the plot.
(...) Overall I was very impressed with David Hill's novel, even more so considering the fact that it was his first ever published. I would recommend this to everyone and I look forward to reading other novels written by Hill.

Rating: 4
Summary: History comes full circle...
Comment: The history of this place in the South, Prince George County, was actually begun 75 yrs ago when all the blacks living there were chased out of town on one infamous night that profoundly changed the lives of the victims and the bigots. Children have grown, married and died in the intervening years, but no one has ever forgotton "The Trouble". It hangs over the county and its white inhabitants like a cloud of ashes. The swaggering fools who call themselves the Klan, describe themselves as the guardians of their culture. Then, after all this time, one lone black fisherman challenges everything they hold near and dear: hate, bigotry, arrogance. This fisherman, who does indeed know that he is a dead man, camps by their lake and fishes their waters. He ends up with a bullet in his head. The story spins itself out in two elderly women who once were friends before "The Trouble" banished one, a daughter, Rose of Sharon, and her friend Lily. Challenging eachothers lives and marriages, each woman leaves her repective abusive, ignorant husband. Lily seeks to run away in the arms of a young long-haired teacher. Rose of Sharon returns home to live with her mother. Events keep closing the circle of history, until finally, there is a march back into Prince George County, and the white-sheeted cowards have to hide their costumes as the tide is turned once more. This is a skillfully written, often poetic book, told with compassion and understanding of the many voices with which the author tells his story. Truth is a long time coming, but always worth the wait.

Rating: 4
Summary: Provocative and moving despite slow opening, minor glitches
Comment: "You'd have to know the South to know the thing I'm trying to tell," David Hill writes in _Sacred Dust_, and the book clearly shows that Hill knows the South. Despite some minor flaws--the first half moves slowly, the biblical quotations don't work as well as they might, and "Prince George" is an unlikely name for a county in Alabama--Hill's novel portrays movingly and provocatively the racial conflict that continues to plague the South. The multi-character narration prompts inevitable comparisons to Faulkner. Hill hasn't yet written enough to merit a fair comparison with the warped genius of Faulkner, but in some ways he succeeds where Faulkner doesn't in making the reader empathize with the characters. Rose of Sharon is the obvious heroine of the novel, but she couldn't fulfill that function without the prompting of Lily. Hill succeeds admirably at giving authentic voices to his women characters, but I found his portrayal of Heath Lawler nearly perfect as well. Even Rose's husband Dashnell, detestable as he is, comes across as victim of his own villainy. The total absence of African-Americans in Prince George County and the Harmony Festival March stretch the limits of credibility a little--but only a little. Equality-minded Southerners should read _Sacred Dust_ because it will scare the hell out of them and maybe prompt them to make sure nothing like the events of this book happens in real life. Non-Southerners should read it because it conveys so truly the complexity of the Southern experience. Not factually accurate, Hill's novel nevertheless rings true. _Sacred Dust_ is definitely a novel worth reading.