Sometimes, it feels as if I read too many reviews. I could have sworn one of the readers who comments here on Thursdays mentioned this book. And, I still think she did, although I can’t find her comments on “What Are You Reading?” But, for some reason, I thought Michelle Huneven’s novel, Search, was actually nonfiction. I probably thought that because when I opened the book it says, “Search: A Memoir with Recipes by Dana Louise Potowski”. Dana Potowski is the narrator and protagonist in Huneven’s novel.

Dana is a restaurant critic, food writer and longtime member of a progressive Unitarian Universalist congregation in Arroyo, California. She’s fifty-four, a little dissatisfied at the moment with her professional career, although she recently published another book. She’s also dissatisfied with her church life. When she’s asked to join the church search committee for a new minister, she doesn’t jump at the opportunity. She hasn’t been to church in three months, and isn’t sure she wants to go back. “Almost everything in the Sunday worship had begun to annoy me.” But, at an earlier period in her life, Dana had studied for the ministry. When she realizes the committee will take a year of her life, she thinks she might have found the topic for her next book. And, because food and gathering is so essential to the committee, she can include recipes and food in that book. She just doesn’t want other committee members to know they may be included in her book.

Who would think that a novel about the search for a church’s minister could be so absorbing? The committee is an diverse group, all ages, and representing different segments in the church. Dana is right about the middle age-wise, but the younger members classify her as one of the oldsters. There’s a great deal of conflict in the group, and they are warned about that at a retreat. The eight members are supposed to come to a consensus as they screen and eventually interview the candidates who might be their next minister. But, it’s going to be difficult to come to a consensus when the younger members all side with an outspoken young woman who seems to have an agenda. And, they don’t seem to understand why the older members, who have been through a search before, insist on the protocol and procedures of a search.

Dana Potowski, the narrator and supposed writer of the memoir, brings the other committee members to life, with all their flaws. She admits she’s not perfect. At one point she says she “Didn’t want to seem like the avid gossip hound I am.” She’s not only searching for the church’s next minister. She’s searching for one person, a friend, “a co-conspirator to laugh and confide in.”

If you’re looking for something a little different, Search is an absorbing book as it follows the committee through it’s year. Dana’s voice is just perfect for this story as she realizes how much she cares about the task of selecting the perfect minister. It’s just too bad other people have their own agendas, too.

Michelle Huneven’s website is https://www.michellehuneven.com/

Search by Michelle Huneven. Penguin Press, 2022. ISBN 9780593300053 (hardcover), 400p.

FTC Full Disclosure – I read a galley I requested.