The Holy Ghost Speakeasy and Revival, by Terry Roberts

Terry Roberts grew up in North Carolina.  Reading his books, you'd think he grew up in North Carolina in the 1920s or earlier.  He knows the land, knows the people, and knows the stories.  In The Holy Ghost Speakeasy and Revival, he affectionately takes us back to the 1920s, during a time when prohibition and speakeasies barely tolerated one another, and when tent revivals were a great form of entertainment and cultural life.

Jedidiah Robbins travels through the South by train with his merry band of an evangelistic team.  With a circus tent, and the circus roustabouts that came with it, they roll into town bringing a taste of old-fashioned revival fire.  On the sly, they bring a fire of another kind.  In the same train car where they carry their Bibles, they have cases of moonshine, which they surreptitiously supply to speakeasies, blind pigs, and juke joints in the less reputable parts of town.  They want to be certain that some of the town folk will have plenty to repent of!

Along the way, Robbins and his crew attracts crowds, but also attracts the wrong kinds of attention.  (Or, in a way, the right kind.)  When he preaches in Ashville, the crowd isn't the usual working class of farmers and coal miners that usual fill his benches, but the white collar, high dollar crowd.  So of course he preaches about the dangers of wealth and camels in the eye of a needle, offending most of the congregation.  When the leader of a fraternal organization fond of wearing white hoods and burning crosses asks for Robbins's support in their work, Robbins turns him away scornfully.  Unfortunately, his team pays the price for getting on the wrong side of the Klan.

Roberts's portrayal won't please many from a theological perspective.  Robbins is more about putting on a show and collecting the cash; the Bible is merely the means by which he has chosen to do so.  He eventually comes around to faith of a kind; his getting there is the journey of The Holy Ghost Speakeasy and Revival.  The story takes the reader to another time, and could almost have been written in another time, like it dropped through a time machine from a publisher half a century in the past.  This is an enjoyable trip back to the 1920s.


Thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!