Sam Torode – Rosepoint Publishing

#ThrowbackThursday

Renee began the #ThrowbackThursday meme on her blog, “It’s Book Talk“ to share some of her old favorites as well as sharing books published over a year ago. Hopefully, you’ll find either a story or author that interests you and you’ll check them out. And, if you’d like to join the fun, you’re welcome to use Renee’s pic from her website. Just provide the link back to her please).

OMG, I can’t believe I’m just getting to this particular author and his book, The Dirty Parts of the Bible for a Throwback Thursday!

I previously mentioned it in an article I wrote regarding historical fiction. Sam Torode has written other stand-alone books, along with such co-authors as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Oscar Wilde, and James Allen. I reviewed The Dirty Parts of the Bible on Goodreads. This novel was self-published in March 2010. Torode garnered an amazing 2,109 reviews of which more than 1,000 were five stars and was a semi-finalist in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards. Amazon classifies the novel as literary fiction, humor and satire, coming-of-age.

Originally posted April 27, 2016

Book Blurb:

The Dirty Parts of the Bible is a humorous adventure across America during the Great Depression–a rollicking tale of love and liquor, preachers and prostitutes, trains and treasure, sure to appeal to fans of O Brother Where Art Thou?, Water for Elephants, Mark Twain, Willie Nelson, and Johnny Cash.

Publishers Weekly says:
“While the title suggests a raunchy read, this rich and soulful novel is actually a rather well-done bildungsroman [coming-of-age story] steeped in wanderlust and whimsy that at times recalls The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and at others a tamer On the Road. The story begins in 1936 as 19-year-old Tobias is thumbing his way from Remus, Mich., to his uncle’s farm in Glen Rose, Tex., to find a hidden bag of money, after his father, a Baptist pastor, drunkenly slams his car into the church and is removed from the parsonage. The author does an excellent job in making well-charted territory (riding the rails; scavenged campfire meals under the stars) seem vibrant and new. Snippets of scripture, Southern spirituals, and folk ballads lend context and flavor to the text. Most impressive are the jangly dialogue and the characters’ distinctive voices, which are authentic and earthy but not remotely hoary. When Tobias finally arrives at his uncle’s, the surprises that await him are more than enough to keep his–and readers’–interests piqued.”