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Original Essays | May 3, 2013
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More copies of this ISBNThe Mammoth Cheeseby Sheri Holman
Review-A-Day"The Mammoth Cheese teeters on the edge of parody from time to time, but Holman keeps all these wonderful characters — including the cows — grounded in her deeper themes about the debt one generation owes another and the lust for independence. Yes, colonies rebel and the ones we want most to protect reject our care as tyranny, but Holman knows that good parents can love their children and still let them have their whey." Ron Charles, The Christian Science Monitor (read the entire CSM review) Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments:Acclaimed best-selling author Sheri Holman's third novel, The Mammoth Cheese, has been hailed as "stunning...a Great American Novel par excellence" by Newsday and by the New York Times Book Review as "lovely, disarming...tough, sad and surprisingly sweet." An Our Town for our times, The Mammoth Cheese is beautifully crafted and driven by warm, vibrant characters as it follows the residents of rural Three Chimneys, Virginia, on their journey to re-create the original Thomas Jefferson-era, 1,235-pound "Mammoth Cheese."
As the book opens, the town is joyously celebrating the birth of the Frank Eleven (eleven babies simultaneously born to Manda and James Frank after fertility treatments) and enjoying the thrill of notoriety as reform-minded presidential hopeful Adams Brooke visits the newborns. But as autumn progresses and the babies weaken, the community seeks to redeem itself through the making and transporting of a symbolic Mammoth Cheese to Washington, as a gift for the newly elected President Brooke. The cheese is the brainchild of August Vaughn, a farmhand by day and a President Jefferson impersonator by night, and the creation of Margaret Prickett, a single mother and cheese maker trying to save her century-old family farm. As Margaret slips deeper into debt and desperation, her thirteen-year-old daughter, Polly, slides closer to an inappropriate relationship with her radical, attentive history teacher. Sheri Holman seamlessly weaves together the lives of Three Chimneys, delving into her characters' inescapable family histories as they grapple with religion, divorce, politics, and unrequited love. The Mammoth Cheese is a triumphant exploration of the burdens and joys of rural America and the debts we owe to history, our parents, and ourselves. Review:"Like the 1,200-pound cheese of the title, Sheri Holman's novel is a big, ambitious enterprise. Unlike many such enterprises...it possesses, page by page, or bite by bite if you prefer, an intense, refined and lingering flavor." Richard Eder, The New York Times
Review:"Holman deftly weaves these stories together, as well as a series of subplots, some of which are profoundly moving....Holman has fashioned a tale that is poignant and powerful and, like an award-winning cheese, surprisingly complex." Chris Bohjalian, The Washington Post Book World
Review:"[The Mammoth Cheese] dazzles with its combination of history, religion, political satire and tragedy. Every character here is a delicately nuanced, vivid creation." Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)
Review:"Holman virtuosically entangles two arresting plotlines....Part Jon Hassler, part Robert Altman film — and all-around terrific." Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)
Review:"The story line is droll, but the book is also tough, sad and surprisingly sweet." Jennifer Reese, The New York Times Book Review
Review:"A deft account of the contradictions of small-town life." Time Out New York
Review:"With these wonderfully inventive, charmingly flawed characters, Holman pierces one shallow vanity of modern society after the other. Highly recommended." Library Journal
Review:"This big but nimble novel...is absolutely compelling in its swift satire, yet readers will also respond to its deep sympathies for 'well-foibled' individuals....Human nature exposed at its rawest — and most entertaining." Brad Hooper, Booklist
Review:"Sheri Holman...catches the flavor of small-town America in this story of the rural South....There are many pleasures in this book: its vivid characters, delineations of cheese and cheesemaking, and its evocation of the South." Lois D. Atwood, Providence Journal
Review:"Holman's novel is brilliant, the characters deeply rendered, the philosophic underpinning astute, the touch sure....It's that sharp bite of cynicism about human nature that gives Holman's novel its tang..." Barbara Sjoholm, Seattle Times
Review:"[H]ampered by occasionally flat prose and a slightly sentimental tone....Too often, the novel's edge is dulled by Holman's warm embrace of her characters, most of whom are portrayed as flawed but ultimately good and kindly folk." Alec MacGillis, Baltimore Sun
Review:"[G]rown-up, sophisticated, sometimes humorous....Sheri Holman performs a nearly faultless balancing act between reality and satire." Sharon Barrett, Chicago Sun-Times
Review:"Mounting deficits are certainly a topic of current political concern and it is interesting to see the debate play out on a fictional scale. It is a merit that outweighs some flatness of character and plays well in a nicely readable tale." Robin Vidimos, The Denver Post
Review:"[A] marvelous, entertaining novel with characters whose lives are as unabashedly untidy as America itself." Robert Weibezahl, BookPage.com
Review:"[A]mbitious and at times slightly unwieldy....Holman's ability to constantly create sharply turned phrases, and the honestly earned humor that she instills in the story, help balance the tragic elements and make this a memorable modern pastoral fable." David Hellman, San Francisco Chronicle
Review:"The last 40 pages of this novel somewhat redeem the first 400, but the characters' troubles are wrapped up rather tidily. It's too bad, for Holman is an impressive writer. But her prodigious talents seem wasted on this book." Carol Cain Farrington, Miami Herald
Review:"Holman weaves all these stories together so well that it takes only a few chapters for the reader to feel like a native of Three Chimneys. After that, The Mammoth Cheese moves quickly and effortlessly toward its surprising and memorable climax." Jay Pawlowski, Rocky Mountain News
Review:"[An] engaging multidimensional tale....Holman's latest imaginative sprawl of a novel explores quintessential American themes — independence, patriotism and politics — to great tragi-comic effect." Anita Shreve, Book Magazine
Synopsis:With The Mammoth Cheese, Holman delivers a sharp, contemporary story steeped in history that will captivate a new audience while gratifying readers of her acclaimed earlier work, The Dress Lodger. Beautifully crafted and driven by warm, vibrant characters, The Mammoth Cheese follows the residents of rural Three Chimneys, Virginia, on their historic journey to re-create the making of the original Thomas Jefferson-era, 1,235-pound "Mammoth Cheese."
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