Of Salvation on Sand Mountain: Snake-Handling and Redemption in Southern Appalachia, Publishers Weekly writes:
After Covington, a writing instructor at the University of Alabama, novelist and freelance journalist, covered the trial of a preacher convicted of attempting to murder his wife with rattlesnakes, he was invited to attend a snake-handling service in Scottsville, Ala. He found the service exhilarating and unsettling; he felt a kinship with the people, for he was only two generations removed from the hill country of Appalachia. Of Scottish-Irish descent, the handlers are religious mystics who believe in demons, drink strychnine and drape rattlesnakes around their bodies. Covington attended other services with Brother Carl Porter; he eventually handled a huge rattlesnake, and recalls that at the time, he felt absolutely no fear. This is a captivating glimpse of an exotic religious sect.
The book was a runner-up for the National Book Award. The one below was not.
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“...the handlers are religious mystics who believe in demons, drink strychnine and drape rattlesnakes around their bodies...”
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