The moaner's bench

The Moaner's Bench is a novel that distills a lifetime of experience into the story of an African-American boy coming of age in the Depression-era South. Sun Hughes is the youngest child in a middle-class Baptist family. Protected by his parents' affluence, his life is sheltered and full of wonder - but when the Depression hits, the family's fortunes wane, and Sun's innocence is lost as well. Sent to live with his Uncle Pet, a proud and zealous Baptist who decides to make sure his nephew "gets religion," Sun grows up - and grows wise - as the world his Mama and Papa kept at a distance slowly comes into focus, in stark black and white. A moaner's bench, literally, is a bench on which sinners must kneel in the Baptist church while waiting for the Spirit to strike them into repentance. To repent - and to understand what one is repenting for - one must first acknowledge that a sin had been committed at a given place and time, and then wrestle with the truth of the evidence. This experience of searching for the truth is the first step toward healing. The Moaner's Bench is ultimately a story of healing - healing within oneself, healing between oneself and another, and healing within a nation.