The Mammoth Cheese

Written by Sheri Holman

Narrated by Laural Merlington

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 audiobook opens, the town is joyously celebrating the birth of the Frank Eleven: eleven babies simultaneously born to Manda and James Frank after fertility treatments. 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.

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.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio
• Release date: May 16, 2017
• ISBN: 9781543613155

Sheri Holman

Sheri Holman is the author of A Stolen Tongue; Th e Dress Lodger, a New York Times Notable Book; and Th e Mammoth Cheese, short-listed for the Orange Prize for Fiction and a San Francisco Chronicle and Publishers Weekly Book of the Year.

Reviews for The Mammoth Cheese

[charon07 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Sheri Holman is a new favorite author. She writes about her characters with great compassion, empathy, and humanity, even the most evil ones.

Sheri Holman is a master at creating memorable characters that will stay with you long after you finish the last page. She portrays even her villains with such humanity and compassion that they are always understandable and even sympathetic.

This is a departure from her previous two historical fiction novels, but she paints the community of Three Chimneys, Virginia, in as much detail and vividness as her historical settings.

[maryreinert · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Normally books about people trying to "find themselves" do not appeal to me. I'm a reader of historical fiction - thus I discovered Rose Tremain through Music & Silence (Excellent) and Restoration (wonderful read). I purchased this book simply because of the author. When I got it and read the covers, I thought "I've been gipped, this isn't what I wanted" - However, after just a few pages, I was pulled in. Mary/Martin's struggle with gender reflects every individual's struggle to become who they think they are meant to be. Gender identity is only a tool here; it is not the focus of the book. The English farm, the repressed family, the country music scene in Nashville are a perfect backdrop for the inner struggles of characters such as Mary and Walter. The author paints such a realistic picture: Struggles are hard and probably never ending. The book also demonstrates the importance of the "one person" in someone's life who can make such a difference -- in small and often unknowing ways. I can't say I loved this book, but I can say that I am so glad I read it. The world is filled with Marys and Walters, and there is a bit of them in each of us as well. The perspective this book brings is right on target. Rose Tremain is truly a great writer.

[kaionvin · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The Mammoth Cheese is a good illustration of an ambitious mess being more interesting than a safe success. Say what I will about the somewhat long and meandering narrative, Sheri Holman, at the very least, never bores me!In the backdrop of rural Three Chimneys, Virginia, Sheri Holman tackles no less than (and in no particular order): politics and media, the value and drawbacks of tradition and community, and the meaning of "rebellion" in everyday contemporary American life. These themes emerge from a many plot threads concerning various residents of the town, involving, at various points: fertility-drug-induced multiple births, Jefferson impersonators, the Civil War legacy of the South, the 'organic' movement, and cows. Lots of cows. This is a good thing, actually, as Holman's got a great sense of place and fitting her characters to their place. I definitely felt like I knew intimately the ins and outs of independent dairy farming and small-town pastor brownnosing and-- and more simply summarized the burdens of living in a community where tradition is so fatalistic. Her many characters are excellently drawn individually (and I note a particular skill with developing insidiously repellant villains), though she struggles somewhat when they interact.As in The Dress Lodger, Holman's most obvious weakness is the jarring tonal clashes that result when her plot threads finally collide. At these moments of conflict, her authorial voice often slips--here, Margaret's ideals of clean living sometimes become tract rather than commentary-- or the drama of the moment overwhelms logical plot progression (especially noticeable away from the Dickensenian sensibility of Dress Lodger). Yet despite these flaws, the ambition of Holman's undertaking is at times breathlessly exciting, and her patience pace yields moments of real dividends. I'll definitely by following what Holman writes next.

[marianv_39 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

What attracted me to this book was its title. A book about Cheese? i thumbed thru a few paages & found the writing was great. The introduction, where a woman gives birth to 11 babies seemed a bit much, but once the main characters appeared, Margaret, whoe husband has left her but she is still struggling to run their dairy farm the traditional way, Polly, her teen-age daughter who wants to save the farm, but discovers first love with someone completely unsuitable, & August, the only son of a family of preachers who main pleasure in life is to pose as Thomas Jefferson all of whom live in a small town just outside the political whirl of Washington DC. The story is set in the present, as another reviewer pointed out - it could hardly be more present day, and all of our hopes, pleasures & foibles are present with all their consequences, some unintended but all entertaining.

[lizzied_11 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I was thoroughly entertained by this book, a conglomeration of daily grind, humor, horror - a lot like life. It's a coming-of-age story about eighth grader Polly Marvel in love with her history teacher. It's also a coming-of-age for her mother Margaret, divorced and desperately trying to hold on to her family dairy farm. It is the story of Leland Vaughn, the local Episcopal priest, a most persuasive man who finds himself appalled by the outcomes of his persuasion. Their lives intertwine with others in their small town as everybody in the novel sees what he has given his life to and learns what is ultimately important.

[mbergman_15 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The cover made it sound like a wonderfully goofy story, but in fact it's a pretty conventional--and largely disappointing--domestic drama. The characters--particularly the divorced mother, her 13-year-old daughter, and her farmhand (a Thomas Jefferson reenactor)--are appealing, but she puts them in some awkwardly drawn settings, and I didn't understand the function of the secondary story about the birth of 11 babies to a neighbor of the main characters.

[thinkpinkdana · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I picked this book up based in the recommendation of a trusted fellow bibliophile. Then it sat on my shelf. For. a. very. long. time. Finally I got kickstarted into gear with the TBR challenge, and commenced reading. To begin with, I loved it. The characters were delightfully eccentric, and the funny details made me smile, and then laugh outloud. Soon though, I began to be dismayed. Things were not going as I hoped. Not only were they not going as I hoped, they were going disastrously wrong. I began to despair. I planned hate mail for my bibliophile friend who had led me so astray to make me read a book that would force me to love it and then end in disaster.... I won't say more because the ending must be experienced, but I will say this..Thomas Jefferson and pastor's wives really know how to save the day.

[coffeesucker · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Can't get through this book even after two tries. This one's going on eBay.