- Mass Market Paperback: 272 pages
- Publisher: Penguin Books Australia; Reprint edition (28 Mar 1996)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0140254587
- ISBN-13: 978-0140254587
- Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.7 x 1.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,085,326 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Salvation on Sand Mountain
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
"Option", 8/15/11
"Heartfelt yet sensational...Covington's memoir is genuinely life-changing."
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
Product Description
The people of Southern Appalachia are hill people of Scottish-Irish descent--religious mystics who cast out demons, drink strychnine, and handle rattlesnakes. When the author, himself Scottish-Irish, uncovers records of snake-handling Covingtons, he decides to take up serpents himself. The result is Flannery O'Connor, Carson McCullers and Garrison Keillor all rolled into one quirky, unforgettable read.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
I first read this book while in College. I found it so interesting that I found myself re-reading it over and over. It it an extrodinary look at Southern Apalachia, the culture and lives of it's Mountain people. The prologue is as a fine peice of southern literature as I have ever had the priveledge to read. Portions of the book are chilling, even more so, when you realize that it is all true. Little did I know that 2 years after first reading the book I would live directly in the middle of the area Covington wrote about. I have had the oportunity to meet and know some of the people he described. When my job forced my wife and I to move to Scottsboro, we used the book as a literal road map when we arrived. I have loaned it out several times. I would encourage anyone, in particular Southerners, to read this fascinating book. The recent and much publicised death of one of the book's characters (John Wayne "Punkin" Brown, who was bitten by a rattle snake and died at a recent church service) led me to re-read the it again. I still could not put it down. It is unlike anything I have ever read. When this book wraps itself around you and sinks in it's fangs, there is no letting go.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
I am from rural Appalachia, a few miles from some of the sites in Covington's book. It's rare to see us "rednecks" and "hicks" presented with an open mind. Southern culture is quite complex--in equal parts chaotic, convoluted, and compelling. Covington captures that well. He also captures the curiously all-consuming intensity of an ecstatic religion--it never fails to bemuse me that some people won't tell you the time of day without a mention of Jesus. Snake handling is a fascinating subject, and Covington not only paints a vivid picture, he also elucidates the inchoate desire of all Southerners to recapture our past and at the same time move beyond it in the eyes of the nation. What he doesn't handle well is journalistic distance from the subject. When he gets deeply involved in the services, his analytical voice is abandoned in favor of simply recording events. I wish he had worked harder at maintaining his objectivity. But don't let that stop you from reading an intriguing book.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
What makes this book so interesting to me is the way that it not only chronicles the actions of the snake handlers, but the affect the situation has on the author, as well. I always appreciate books about religious subjects by authors who are not skeptical or hostile to religious matters. Covington's experiences on a spiritual level are just as compelling as his experiences with the members of the church. This is a very good book, one worth reading.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Moving account of a culture and a spiritual quest
This remarkable book tells of the author's interest in the serpent-handling Holiness believers of the south, his own spiritual journey and a search for his roots. Read more
Published on 21 July 2007 by Pieter
Entertaining, but not worth purchasing.
Read for a college Theology class. It's entertaining, but didn't hold my interest for long. I recommend borrowing it from a library--it's not worth purchasing. Read more
Published on 17 Jun 1999
Both the fact and the feeling of the snake handlers' faith.
Dennis Covington takes the reader on a journey with him to the snake-handling Pentacostal lands of Southern Appalachia. Read more
Published on 15 May 1999
A compelling look at today's South
As a native Southerner and a life long resident of one of the most colorful areas of our country, I was most impressed with the loving care Mr. Covington treated our culture. Read more
Published on 11 April 1999
Snake Handling - Biblical Fundamentalism Gone Awry
Probably the biggest problem any reader of Dennis Covington's Salvation on Sand Mountain would encounter, is where to file the paperback when read - in the religion or herpetology... Read more
Published on 30 Oct 1998
Very alive
I found this book to be a powerful exploration of what is at once both a very simple and very complex faith. Read more
Published on 22 Oct 1998
Left out historical documentation of the movement.
I am a cradle Pentecostal who has converted to the Catholic Church, and am from Appalachia. As a child, I remember a "Signs" church that was not too far from my... Read more
Published on 17 Mar 1998
This book is both fun and fascinating
I handle snakes and attend church but unlike the the people whoare the subject of this fascinating book I don't happen to do both at the same time. Read more
Published on 10 April 1997
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