Salvation on Sand Mountain: Snake Handling and Redemption in Southern Appalachia

Summary (from the publisher): For New York Times reporter Dennis Covington, what began as a journalistic assignment covering the trial of an Alabama pastor convicted of attempting to murder his wife with poisonous snakes would evolve into a headlong plunge into a bizarre, mysterious, and ultimately irresistible world of unshakable faith; the world of holiness snake handling.

Set in the heart of Appalachia, Salvation on Sand Mountain is Covington's unsurpassed and chillingly captivating exploration of the nature, power, and extremity of faith; an exploration that gradually turns inward, until Covington finds himself taking up the snakes.

Review:  Dennis Covington's book covers his time spent exploring the spiritual practice of snake handling in Appalachia following his assignment to investigate the trial of Glendel Buford Summerford. In Scottsboro, Alabama in the fall of 1991, Glenn Summerford, a snake-handling preacher, tried to murder his wife Darlene by snakebite. At gunpoint, he forces her to stick her arm in a box of rattlesnakes. After she is bitten twice and nearly dies, he is convicted of attempted murder and sentenced to ninety-nine years in prison. This case sparks interest in the members of Glenn's church and the beliefs beyond the particular practice of snake-handling.

The practice of picking up and handling snakes during a religious experience is a curiosity in itself and the great appeal of this book to readers. From the outside, its difficult to understand why anyone would risk picking up poisonous snakes, especially knowing that others have died from that very practice. Although Covington does describe the spiritual experience of handling snakes, I do wish he would have grounded the book in a more in-depth discussion of pentecostal beliefs and the beliefs behind snake handling in particular. However, I did appreciate Covington's understanding of the seemingly callous approach to the danger of these snakes and others who have died due to snakebite; "It doesn't mean the storyteller hasn't experienced or felt deeply what happened. On the contrary, the understatement and the gallows humor is a dead giveaway that something mysterious and wrenching has occurred, is occurring all around us in this case. For this is warfare, spiritual warfare. The tragedy is not the death of a particular snake handler, but the failure of the world to accept the gospel that the handler risked his life to confirm." 

Over the course of the book, the divide between subject and writer narrows until Covington immerses himself completely, taking up snakes and preaching. Following his experience holding a rattlesnake during a service, Covington says he "felt no fear. The snake seemed to be an extension of myself. And suddenly there seemed to be nothing in the room but me and the snake [...] And I could not hear the earsplitting music. The air was silent and still and filled with that strong, even light. And I realized that I, too, was fading into the white. [...] I knew then why the handlers took up serpents." On the one hand, this experience gives credence to the belief of this particular religion - that it can suck anyone in, including the writer investigating it. Yet on the other hand, it taints Covington's account of what he has witnessed because he has become one of the group; he is no longer an observer standing outside of the religion.

This book appears to be composed of several articles that Covington compiled and expanded upon. Because of this, the structure and flow of the book felt mildly chaotic and Covington will introduce characters he's already described in earlier chapters. I also felt like Covington chooses odd times in the book to introduce new information. For example, describing himself and his interest in the topic, which is given much later in the book.

I was also surprised by how dispassionately the author describes his own life, casually saying he was on his second marriage and drank too much. It surprised me to find out that he had personal interest in the topic of snake handling, but that it did not emerge until after he began researching the topic. After following the followers of this practice for months, it strikes Covington that he may be descended from a similar geographical location. He discovers that his Covington ancestors did preach and two Covington brothers were fined in 1953 for "disturbing religious worship by carrying a rattlesnake into a rural church." Covington's "journey with the snake handlers had become not so much a linear progression through time as a falling through levels of platitutde toward some hard understanding of who I was. I did not know where or when I would arrive at my destination. All I knew for certain was that snakes would be waiting for me there." It's little wonder and no surprise that Covington later handles snakes - it's in his blood and part of his search to find his own identity.

Ultimately, Covington is forced out of the snake handling group of worshipers, rebuked for the content of his speech when preaching in front of them and subtly driven out. Covington himself admits his immersion into his subject matter and his personal attachment saying "I had found my people. But I had also discovered that I couldn't be one of them, after all. Knowing where you come from is one thing, but it's suicide to stay there." 

Stars: 3.5