Talking Location With … author Tom Benjamin: BOLOGNA and environs
Salvation on Sand Mountain: Snake-Handling and Redemption in Southern Appalachia
Location(s): Alabama
Genre(s): Nonfiction
Era(s): 1990s
Fascinating nonfiction read about the culture of snake handling Pentacostalists in Southern Appalachia. The author, a reporter for the New York Times, originally approached the story as a journalist covering an attempted murder trial: a snake handling preacher was convicted of putting a gun to his wife’s head and forcing her to reach her hand into a rattlesnake cage, where she was then bitten. The author covered the story, but was captivated by the snake handlers’ culture, and as he got deeper into their stories while simultaneously tracing his own family’s roots, he became part of the story himself. He writes their faith beautifully and convincingly, but as time progressed, he also began to see the handlers’ too human faults and hypocrisies.
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