Rating: 
Summary: Loved Ella, at least
Review: *Welcome to Higby* was a disappointment considering the wit Dunn exhibited in *Ella Minnow Pea*--not that the book didn't have wit; it just didn't have the spark that *Ella* had.
Part of the problem was the writing itself. Dunn spent a lot of time "head-hopping" in this one. He drifted from one point-of-view to another. Not only was this distracting; it was confusing. I had to reread paragraphs to find who the main player was from one minute to the next.
His theme is beaten to death, as well--everything goes as long as "love" is involved. A minister ignores his son, partly because of his grief over his wife's death and partly because of his work; then he falls "truly in love" with a former prostitute and has sex with her upon their second meeting while his son climbs the Higby water tower for the second time. Another man falls instantly for a woman who has rear-ended his vehicle. And another man who has just converted to Christianity--but is still shacked up with his girlfriend due to an imagined "grandfather clause"--decides to bed down with a new flame, then goes back to his girlfriend, making passionate love to her the same day; and then the minister who catches who catches them is made to look ridiculous??? Other types of "love" that are deemed unacceptable by society are gushed over in this book, as well.
What humor is there is pretty run-of-the-mill (for example, a bumbling policeman, an adorable older man bordering on senility).
Little new; little original; little reason to read it.
Rating: 
Summary: Not as clever as Ella Minnow Pea......
Review: A fine book but I was disappointed because I was looking for another Ella....
Rating: 
Summary: Clever and funny
Review: Although very different from Dunn's previous masterpiece "Ella Minnow Pea", "Welcome to Higby" is every bit as imaginative and humorous. Through a series of interrelated vignettes of small town Mississippi life, each titled with a relevant Biblical verse, Dunn depicts the lives of some of Higby's residents, each of whom struggles with a personal problem. These problems run the gamut from the mundane to the hilarious. Talitha is kidnapped by a small religious vegan cult. Oren, the town minister, has a crush on the town tootsie and worries about his son Clint, who climbed to the top of the town's water tower and fell off. Carmen crafts pictures with macaroni and gets advice from her guardian angel on making the best of her shopping dollar. The clueless but good-hearted Euless is stunned by a financial windfall from his employer. Hank, on the edge of the downhill slide of Alzheimers, preaches to the neighborhood pets and frequently wanders off, to the consternation of his sister. Stewie has found God, but is foundering in his relationship with women. Ex-convict Bowmar is dogged by the police for every crime in town even though he is reformed and above suspicion. In spite of all the goings-on, this novel never degenerates into a soap opera. The common thread binding all the story lines is the endurance of love and redemption. The reader is in turn amused, touched, concerned, and ultimately satisfied that the residents of Higby have bumbled their way to a happier life. So take a trip to Higby and enjoy the ride!
Rating:
Summary: Fun and funny, if a bit over the top
Review: Amusing and brisk, "Welcome to Higby" could have been called "Melrose Place, Mississippi"--although Dunn's ear for dialogue is far superior to any trashy sitcom's script. I admit I couldn't put it down, and I certainly laughed out loud on several occasions. Yet, like a television comedy you just can't stop watching in spite of yourself, Dunn's sophomore effort will undoubtedly fade quickly from memory. The novel follows the adventures of a large number of Higby's residents over Labor Day weekend in 1993, and there are some truly crazy and truly troubled and truly loveable people in this town. The kind but insecure Euless Ludlam and the homely and lonely Carmen Valentine are certainly favorites, while the put-upon and illiterate (but fully reformed) ex-convict Bowmar Stambler can be my neighbor anytime. Another reviewer's rant disparaging the "stock characters" isn't in the least fair: In what Southern town would these people be cliches? To cite just one example, I didn`t fully realize until halfway through the book that the Leigh sisters, neither of whom match any type I've ever imagined, were "people of color" (to use the author's expression). Yes, the plot may be predictable--a bit too predictable, in fact--but the characters, their beliefs, and their behaviors certainly are not. Still, I agree that the novel occasionally go so far over the top that it turns from sitcom to farce: a vegan fundamentalist Christian cult that kidnaps wayward drunks and imprisons them until they become complacent believers? What's the point? If you`re looking for an undemanding, eccentric romp, you may well enjoy the hijinks of the inhabitants of Higby. It's a nice place to visit...
Rating: 
Summary: Funny and uplifting
Review: I loved this book. The people you meet in Higby are eccentric and charming and wonderful. The introductory biblical quotations for each chapter are a real treat and must be reread after finishing the chapter for full appreciation.
Rating:
Summary: Endearing and Humorous!
Review: Mark Dunn's new book is the perfect antidote to winter chill. Curl up with it in front of a fireplace while a blizzard rages outside, and watch it warm your heart and cheer your soul. Set in a small town in the Bible Belt south, the book traces the lives of several characters, including a despondent minister, a sagacious masseuse, the local male heartthrob and several cultists, over a Labor Day weekend. Stereotypes quickly fade in the author's able hands, as he weaves a tale of his characters' endearing foibles and takes the plot round some unexpected twists and turns. There are some absolutely hilarious passages, written with a deadpan humor that had me laughing out loud in the middle of the night. The book is in many ways richer than the author's award-winning "Ella Minnow Pea", and demonstrates Dunn's extraordinary versatility as a writer - the subtext is more subtle, the humor more biting, the author's command of setting and tone more skilled. Well done!
Rating:
Summary: Funny and uplifting
Review: The brevity of chapter length in Mark Dunn's Southern comedy entices the reader to keep reading. Yes, the character names are contrived and ridiculous, but no more than other authors have penned in their comic tales. In fact, this tale of the citizens of Higby, Mississippi, mirrors the bizarre cast of Larry McMurtry's ribald "Texasville", and of the humor of the movies "Daddy's Dyin': Whose Got the Will?", "Home Fries", ad nauseum. But I liked it enough to read on. Perhaps I was wondering how Dunn's plot might parallel T. R. Pearson's "A Short History of a Small Place", what with the town water tower serving as the start and end of the Higby visit. The characters in this tale are richly eccentric and colorful to match their names. Dunn had fun with these names: Carmen Valentine, Harold and Carold, the Pedloe twins, Klaus and Abbadene Ostermeyer, Stewie, Tie, Ponce, Talitha, Bowmar, and more. And the reader is reminded of the cleverness of Dickens and Twain in their naming of casts of characters. Dunn's playwright's talent definitely influences his novel. He has a way of setting up scenes that might be vividly played out on stage or on screen. And with the humorous situations into which he places his cast, one also sees the pathos of real life, the true basis of humor, a deep sorrow of the valleys of life, not just the high points. Each character, starting with a grieving teenaged boy named Clint Cullen, a preacher's son, no less, and a love-starved maker of potato salad, virginal Carmen Valentine, is likeable and believable. In fact, you may swear that you know some of these people. Dunn skillfully manages his "cast of thousands" by weaving them into one another's lives, just as small towns tend to do to their citizens. I do recommend this book. It is a nice escape from TV and its laugh track sit-coms and over-done reality series. And you will find laugh-out-loud moments, good for what ails you during winter doldrums.
Rating:
Summary: Visit to Mississippi town mirrors a Texasville visit of yore
Review: The brevity of chapter length in Mark Dunn's Southern comedy entices the reader to keep reading. Yes, the character names are contrived and ridiculous, but no more than other authors have penned in their comic tales. In fact, this tale of the citizens of Higby, Mississippi, mirrors the bizarre cast of Larry McMurtry's ribald "Texasville", and of the humor of the movies "Daddy's Dyin': Whose Got the Will?", "Home Fries", ad nauseum. But I liked it enough to read on. Perhaps I was wondering how Dunn's plot might parallel T. R. Pearson's "A Short History of a Small Place", what with the town water tower serving as the start and end of the Higby visit. The characters in this tale are richly eccentric and colorful to match their names. Dunn had fun with these names: Carmen Valentine, Harold and Carold, the Pedloe twins, Klaus and Abbadene Ostermeyer, Stewie, Tie, Ponce, Talitha, Bowmar, and more. And the reader is reminded of the cleverness of Dickens and Twain in their naming of casts of characters. Dunn's playwright's talent definitely influences his novel. He has a way of setting up scenes that might be vividly played out on stage or on screen. And with the humorous situations into which he places his cast, one also sees the pathos of real life, the true basis of humor, a deep sorrow of the valleys of life, not just the high points. Each character, starting with a grieving teenaged boy named Clint Cullen, a preacher's son, no less, and a love-starved maker of potato salad, virginal Carmen Valentine, is likeable and believable. In fact, you may swear that you know some of these people. Dunn skillfully manages his "cast of thousands" by weaving them into one another's lives, just as small towns tend to do to their citizens. I do recommend this book. It is a nice escape from TV and its laugh track sit-coms and over-done reality series. And you will find laugh-out-loud moments, good for what ails you during winter doldrums.
Rating:
Summary: Tremendously amusing look at the Southern lifestyle
Review: The Labor Day weekend of 1993 finds the residents of Higby, Mississippi seeking happiness though everyone looks for this mythos differently. Teenage Clint and his minister father have not recovered from the death of Clint's mom nor do they share their feelings of doubt and struggles with struggles with their beliefs. That changes when Clint falls from a water tower luckily into a swimming pool and dad meets the massage parlor owner. Carmen Valentine trips over a crack but does not break her mother's back. Instead she badly peeled her face's epidermis. She follows up this scrape by plowing into the pickup of Euless, who had stopped to help an Alzheimer's victim. Euless and Marci, the girlfriend of his roommate Stewie, shared intimacy. However, Marci has since found Jesus, but not in Euless' bedroom. Euless worries that there is something wrong with him when he feels the hots for Carmen. Meanwhile Stewie and Marci reconcile passionately while alas a cult kidnaps poor Talitha. Labor Day in Hixby is like any other day in a town where bedlam is the norm even for those who try to strictly adhere to the Word. WELCOME TO HIXBY is a tremendously amusing look at the Southern lifestyle through a series of interrelated stories. The book is not an anthology as incidents in one-segment impact events in another. Fans will enjoy the antics of the eccentric while praying this does not happen to me. The use of biblical quotes are not chapter gimmicks but instead add to the overall flow that makes this book feel like a novel whose theme is enjoy life by finding God in your own way. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: Kind of fun.
Review: This is a feel good story about a whole bunch of small town characters told in short rapid fire chapters. There is nothing special about the plot, and the characters certainly aren't deeply drawn. As light reading, I kind of liked the book. The characters are often fun, sometimes fresh, and it is fun how so many of the characters will appear, exit, and then re-appear some time later. It is multi-generational, and ranges over the entire middle class, even upper lower class! The book isn't mawkish, and fails only when attempting to meaningfully depict personality change (one partial exception being a lonely woman who meets her man). Let me confess that I stopped reading the biblical quotes which begin each chapter, and perhaps I did not properly appreciate the deeper significance of the work and its themes of salvation and redemption.
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