Book Review: Jan Karon’s “Somewhere Safe With Somebody Good”

Book Review: Jan Karon’s “Somewhere Safe With Somebody Good”

Penguin Books, 2014. Mass Market Paperback. All electronic formats and CDs as well. 576 pages.

I’ve come home, and it feels great and comforting. In this case, home is the village of Mitford, N.C., home of retired Episcopal priest Father Tim Kavanagh and his wife Cynthia, their dog Barnabas, and Cynthia’s cat (and inspiration for a bestselling series of children’s books) Violet.
Mitford is a great place to come home to.

Jan Karon left an award-winning advertising career and moved to Blowing Rock, N.C., where she began her writing career, one she had put on hold for a long time. One night, she woke with the image of an Episcopal priest walking down the street. She began publishing installments about Father Tim in the local paper a la Charles Dickens. The paper doubled its circulation, and Jan successfully launched her career as a novelist. That career is adorned with twenty-three books, many of which have landed on the New York Times Best Seller List, often hitting No. 1. Of those  books, most are set in Mitford, and almost all are centered on Father Tim. Though she stumbled in a few (I did stop reading them for a few years), this is a homecoming.

Mitford is in the foothills of North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains. It’s a small village of a couple thousand people. There are characters and there are everyday folks — in short, every type. Life is slow but definitely interesting.

In the five years since Father Tim has retired from his parish at Lord’s Chapel, he and his wife have been traveling. He’s helped out in a parish in the Barrier Islands, found a half-brother, and visited Ireland, among other things.

But Mitford is a great place to come home to.

After returning from Ireland, he’s at a loss for something to do. The boredom of retirement appears to be setting in and leaving him wondering what to do with his life, and it’s pushing him toward the curmudgeonly side of life. Though he might be a little bored, life is not boring in Mitford.

The owner of the local bookstore, Happy Endings, faces a problematic pregnancy, and Sammy, the little brother of his adopted son Dooley, is rebelling against everything and leaving everyone wondering what will happen to him. A new café opens up, giving Father Tim’s group a new place for their weekly lunch, the local children’s hospital is gearing up for their annual fund-raising drive, and there are problems at his old parish. Life in a small town is never boring, despite what people may think.

In Mitford, Karon has created a home, a family that resembles our own neighborhoods and families. The people of Mitford know each other’s business and are religious, and they aren’t afraid to show it. These are people who pray with you when you need it, love their children, and have personal grudges as well.

And yet amid all this camaraderie, there are heartache, betrayals, and secrets. The secret to Karon’s writing is that she shows you a real world and how real world people deal with their joys and problems.

Karon doesn’t send you on a frenetic journey. She gently pulls you in with language that reflects the people she’s writing about, capturing each moment perfectly, sometimes with humor: “He wasn’t crazy about the Farmer leg of that run, some drivers insisted they paid taxes on both sides of the road and were determined to get their money’s worth.” Other times, she uses awe or heartbreak: “He found Coot in the storage room under the stairs, tears streaming. ‘What is it buddy?’ ‘I miss Mama.’ ‘Of course.’ ‘I always said she was mean as rattler, an’ she was, but I miss ‘er. She was my mama.’ They stayed under the stairs awhile. It was a good place to have a cry.”

Without crassness or vulgarity — there’s hardly a swear word at all — Jan Karon creates a real world that you know is part of the world you live in yet, at the same time, refreshes the soul. She gently and lovingly leads you along to a charming finish on a snowy Christmas morning.

Jan Karon’s “Somewhere Safe With Somebody Good” refreshed my soul and made me want to go back and read all the others again. That will have to wait for a while. This is a keeper. Mitford is a great place to come home to.