The Prayers of Agnes Sparrow Book

2 sisters in a small town in Pennsylvania in the early 70's. Griselda spends most of her time caring for her older sister Agnes. Agnes is around 700 pounds, home bound, and spends her days praying for the town - maybe even a few miracles have occured due to her prayers.

I was hoping to find a charming small town story- maybe like the Mitford (Father Tim) books. This was not to be. Agnes is manipulative and demanding with her sister, basically expecting her to sacrifice any chance at a normal life to care for her. She demands more and more junk food - seriously, this poor woman would have been better off if someone told her no and quit feeding her all the junk. Griselda enables her.

The town wants to put up a sign welcoming people to Agnes's home - Agnes and her sister don't want the attention, the townspeople are condescending twits "we know better than you". A stranger arrives in town asking for prayers, but won't say exactly what he needs, the town embraces him, he kills someone and now it's Agnes's fault - what? Stupid.

Oh, and Agnes accidentally killed a boy who was tormenting her years ago, but let's not worry about that.

I really wanted to like this book, but I just found myself irritated with everyone in it.