Quirky novel set in N. Vermont. OK ( )

What a delightful little story. There's no deep philosophical dilemmas or profound character development, but the language is clean and the characters interesting. It's just a fun glimpse into this very believable little town populated with fun characters. I also enjoyed the May December romance aspect with the older woman. Not a common thing to find and in this case done in a delightful way. ( )

I must say I enjoyed this story of Jane Hubbell Kinneson and Henry Satterfield. They are two very quirky characters and I always enjoy that about a story. There are many other characters in the novel as well that I enjoyed reading about. The story has humor, drama, and an unexpected love story. Mosher is a true story teller. ( )

Started reading this today - after about 30 pages, I found I couldn't stay awake (may have more to do with all the gardening I have been doing this weekend...but a sign nevertheless) and couldn't get attached to the story. I found the old-fashioned language and inclusion of family names and lineage a little confusing. I may give this one more go or look to share with another reader. ( )

Here is the review I did for our book club:

ON KINGDOM MOUNTAIN
by Howard Frank Mosher

I had to work hard to like this book, and I think it grew into liking it rather than thinking it was great from the beginning.

My problem is that I don’t like fishing and hunting, so the long exposes on those subjects left me going ho hum. And the heroine, Miss Jane! If she was part of my real life, rather than fictional life, I probably wouldn’t even like her! I found her grating, opinionated, with rather strange views (or maybe even heretic) on religion. Lets see, Jesus is the Nazarine know it all, the apostles the 12 fawning slackers, and John the Baptist, the lunatic imposter. Her views on great authors was no better, She called Henry David Thureau the pronouncer and proclaimer. That might also be the name for our Miss Jane! So as I said, I am not sure I would have liked her as a friend.

I also found the author’s writing a bit choppy, uneven, and the search for the money was all over the place. Some of it was funny and amusing. I laughed out loud visualizing her ride home on the great fish. But I often was exasperated by the plot in general.

But what saved this book for me was another book that the author wrote. I noticed on the front of the book it says that this book is a RETURN to Moser’s lovingly crafted village of Kingdom Common. So at Barnes and Nobel I found A Strange in the Kingdom. Aha!! After I read it I reread On Kingdom Mountain and liked it much better!!

Even so I still only give it a 3.

And A Stranger in the Kingdom gets a 4

And it was nice to know that Mosher really can write, he just didn’t do it in this book. ( )