You can’t keep a bad family down.
Thomas Leslie McRae returns with another series of vignettes about matriarch Lillian McBride and her vicious family members who anticipate the worst of each other and act accordingly. In less than 50 pages, he destroys any semblance of harmony you would hope to find.
While there’s a thin thread of connection, each of the scenes could be taken as stand-alone misadventures. They highlight various family members fumbling through life and blaming each other for all their woes. There’s not an emotionally mature adult amongst them.
Once again, McRae’s salacious writing is highly amusing, hitting the dark spot inside all of us where we’ve thought back over an event and how we could have responded more viciously to win the day. McRae is highly religious but Pimp in the Pulpit Part II is devoid of any obvious religious teachings. There is no kindness or compassion between the pages.
What he does manage in his exaggerated storytelling however, is to dig into our soul to make us question those darker thoughts that we all have from time to time. The nasty characters make us pause to think about our own words and behaviour. If his intent was for us to teach ourselves the lessons of his religious beliefs, he’s done so admirably by never once broaching the subject.
Take from it what you will. Analysis aside, Pimp in the Pulpit Part II is quite simply a surprising, fun and quick read that has the potential to make you think about yourself.
Reviewed by Rod Lewis
Twitter: @StrtegicRetweet
Rating out of 10: 7
Distributed by: Amazon.com
Released: November 2017
RRP: US$11.95 paperback
- Read our review of the first book, Pimp in the Pulpit
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