The Hallelujah Side

By Rhoda Huffey

Book Overview

"It had been a Second Coming sky all day, which meant they might be in heaven by this evening." So begins the uproarious and tender tale of Roxanne Fish, daughter of Sister Zelda Fish and Pastor Winston Fish of the First Assembly of God Church of Ames, Iowa, who believe fervently in the imminent return of Jesus to take the Christians up to heaven. The Fishes' older daughter, Colleen, wants no part of their exuberant faith ("Where are you going, young lady?" "To find my real family "), but Roxy longs to be saved even as she fears her sinful desires, such as marrying Elvis Presley when she grows up. If she grows up. Roxy lives in a world populated by angels with blue noses and demons who follow her around whispering "God doesn't like you." And sinners, sinners everywhere, easily identifiable by their makeup and capri pants and knowledge of television programs. Her soul's journey through this wicked world to her own particular salvation--with an assist from the Queen of Soul herself, Aretha Franklin--is unforgettable.Rhoda Huffey's affection for her characters shines in every line. She handles large themes with a sure hand, perfect comic timing, and an utter originality that make The Hallelujah Side a joy.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1953002153
• ISBN13: 9781953002150
• Release Date: May 2022
• Publisher: Delphinium Books
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.4" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

A Delightful Read

If you are not already a Holy Roller, reading "The Hallelujah Side" will make one of you. You'll roll in the floor laughing. The author does not ridicule Pentecostals. She writes from the perspective of an insider who has learned to laugh at herself. Anyone with a sense of humor will enjoy this book, regardless of their religious affiliation, or lack of it. Evangelical Christians with a Holiness or Pentecostal background, will especially relate. Those who find this book interesting will definitely enjoy "Growing Up Pentecostal," a non-fiction book on the same subject by J. Sephen Conn.

Read This Book!

Huffey tells her story without mocking or parodying her subject matter. This is a significant accomplishment when you consider that she is taking on organized evangelical religion, the 1950s, and the midwest, all in the same book. The book is wonderfully comic, and her nine-year-old narrator is neither cloying nor terminally cute. I laughed out loud on just about every page. Reading this book gave me a bit more sympathy for organized religion, something this old cynic hasn't felt for many years. I recommend this novel very highly, and I can't wait until Ms. Huffey writes another one.

God and Rock & Roll: Wherever the Twain Shall Meet

Roxanne Fish, heroine of The Hallelujah Side, struggles to choose between serving her family's God or letting her gospel light shine by singing rock and roll. Ultimately she does both. What an interesting and funny and worthwhile book!

Great book funny and very unusual!

This book is very well-written, unusual and a great read. I would highly recommend it to baby-boomers and also people interested in different religious backgrounds.

A gem of a debut!

Living on "The Hallelujah Side"Those of us who as children were dragged kicking and screaming against their will into church by their parents know that there are few joys in life better than sleeping in on a Sunday morning. As a result, who could blame us if we grew up harboring cynical attitudes and major resentments toward anything that smacked of God or organized religion. Hey, it's a lot easier to blame God (or your parents), than to look at how you might have contributed to your very own present miserable lot in life, right? In fact, the church has been such a darling scapegoat and negative narrative engine driving so many novels that it is often easy to forget one seldom addressed and simple fact - there is real, bona fied, magic at the heart of religion. And that is the triumph of "The Hallelujah Side," a wonderfully comic and sublime antidote for spiritual cynicism - a canny coming of age debut novel that recognizes the fear and intolerance fueling organized religion yet embraces rather than condemns the wonder, magic, and protective healing power of faith. "It had been a Second Coming sky all day, which meant they might be in heaven by this evening." This remarkable first sentence kicks off a world of plush toy demons and blue-nosed angels - of midnight rooftop flights and wondrous water lilly maiden games. In other words, the divinely haunted world of precocious nine-year old Roxanne "Roxy" Fish. The novel is set in the sputnik-fevered fifties in Ames, Iowa, where "it was so quiet you could hear the night crawlers traveling." Not unlike the Brewster clan in Arsenic and Old Lace, Roxy's immediate family, the Fishes, are lovingly drawn eccentric and likable oddballs. The difference is the Fishes don't want to kill people, they just want to convert them door-to-door. In fact, to the idealistic Fish way of thinking it is a glorious accident to be living in the Last Days. "Roxy marveled at her good luck in being born into a family that knew the truth. You could feel the Holy Ghost and the godly power of it, mad with possibilities." The down side is Roxy not only has to endure the humiliation of growing up in her ultra-evangelical family but must also try to cope with the ever-present threat of eternal damnation hanging over her small red-headed soul. Needless to say, maintaining constant holy zeal can be very stressful. Luckily, like Moses and the burning bush, Roxy's best friend and spiritual advisor is a talking hedge. Roxy's father, Winston, when not practicing baseball with Roxy, is a diligent minister in the First Assembly of God Church who regularly reads Newsweek and Life magazine to study the abhorrent things Americans are doing to find fodder for his sermons. Winston is a by-the-book Bible thumper who is none the less capable of amazing tolerance for his daughters' and others dissenting points of view. Roxanne's mother, Zelda Fish, who adores her family and constantly frets about them