Mt. Moriah's Wake

A woman returns home after years of self-imposed exile and confronts unresolved trauma. JoAnna Wilson grows up in Mt. Moriah, a quiet redoubt in the genteel American South. However, the cozy bubble of her happy life was twice burst by tragedy--when only 8 years old, both her parents die suddenly, and she's raised by her Aunt Doro, who becomes like a mother to her. Years later, JoAnna's best friend, Grace Collins, is brutally murdered, a crime that goes unsolved. JoAnna flees Mt. Moriah for Chicago to pursue her dream of becoming a writer. She marries Tom Rivers, who at least for a while is a source of loving comfort or as she puts it, a "balm to my scarred heart." Nevertheless, JoAnna mourns Grace acutely and suffers inexplicable guilt--and a terrifying sense that some threat remains: "I had the disconcerting feeling that there was something to worry about--something unfinished, unsaid. A nagging doubt lingered at the edge of my subconscious." Carro sensitively chronicles JoAnna's emotional struggle--upon Aunt Doro's death, she returns home, and old demons barely silenced demand an audience. The prose, however, abounds with tiresome clich�s: "You can leave home, but home never leaves you." Also, Carro can reach too strenuously for a homiletic lesson, especially regarding the protagonist's recovery of her faith. Finally, the novel is simply too long, and the plot unfurls at a sluggish amble. The author's emotional astuteness and the depth of her characters remain impressive but not impressive enough to make this a fully worthwhile read. A slow, often platitudinous emotional drama.

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November 8, 2021
Carro debuts with the emotional but disorderly story of a young woman who is tormented by a tragedy that consumes her with grief and tests her Christian faith. JoAnn Wilson, 26, works at an ad agency in Chicago. Pregnant and separated from her husband, she returns to her hometown near Atlanta to attend the wake of her aunt Doro, who had raised her since the age of eight after both of her parents died in a car accident. In a series of flashbacks, JoAnn confronts her internal struggles and reasons for turning away from Christianity—and leaving Georgia—four years earlier. As a child, she had difficulty adjusting to rural life with a new parental figure, her flamboyant but religiously devout aunt, especially when Doro converts her rundown farmhouse in Mt. Moriah into a bed-and-breakfast. Most traumatic was the murder of her best friend Grace, which sent JoAnn fleeing to Chicago with a terrible secret. Now despondent over her future and wondering what to do about the pregnancy, JoAnn seeks advice from dear old family friend and pastor Madison Blair. The nonlinear narrative of JoAnn’s experiences sometimes confuse more than clarify, but Carro pulls off a thoughtful account of JoAnn losing and regaining her faith. This will charm and inspire.