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Jan. 7, 2008
Two Book Reviews - the second
The second book I was given is called Through Every Storm by Sharlene MacLaren. My big concern with reading this book is that it's a novel and I'm not much in the habit of reading novels. Second, it was a Christian Love Story.. and I'm not much into mushy love stuff.. But recently my friend Susan was raving about the novel she was reading, saying about how the format of STORY really inspires and is all part of the creative stuff of life. So, I thought I'd give it a try.
I don't think I've ever read a book before that actually caused such a strong emotional response. There were 4 scenes in which I actually cried, the first one, I was bawling and had to blow my nose. I can only say that this is a well crafted story to have elicited such an overwhelming response from me.
The story is one of a broken marriage, and the catalyst to which the marriage begins to repair is the infusion of a 7 year old boy into their household. Now this 7 year old character is a genius, so his intuition and assessment of the broken marriage is very astute, however, though he's very mature and bright, the broken couple still respect his innocence and do not treat him as their "counselor". I loved this! I was so worried that they would spill their guts to this boy and expect the boy to be the one to "fix" them.
What I didn't like - what I saw as a failure of this book - is that there's one scene where the wife - who is a new Christian - "hears" from God "Love him as I love you". She realizes she has to be Jesus in his life, she has to love her husband FOR Jesus. YES, YES, YES, this is the call on all our lives - and this is how "I" became a Christian, because of the love of a friend who loved us (Stuart and I) for Jesus. Sadly though, both the wife and the husband.. both of their conversion scenes are as a result of attending a church service. So rarely is a person tuned into God - turned on to Salvation - because of a message from the pulpit. God works through relationships. Just prior to the husband going to this church service, his father in law comes to speak to him.. WHY didn't Mrs. MacLaren use the father in law to be the one to lead his son in law to the Lord, why was he instead told to go to church in the morning. This one issue is the only thing I'd change in this whole book.
And of course the happy ending. I guess this is why people read novels, for the happy endings. I think I cried twice in the last 50-60 pages - the ending was just - perfect. I so wanted ... Oh I can't tell you the ending, but what he did, I so wanted him to do.. and he didn't disappoint me!
This book too I plan on passing on to a friend, one whom I know will enjoy it. |
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