Recent reading...

1. Still: Notes on a Mid-Faith crisis by Lauren Winner

My personal thoughts; the book at some lovely poetic moments but in general i felt disconcerted to be taking spiritual counsel from someone who has not endured the test of time.  But rather than re-invent the wheel, I'm copying this review (there was another harsher review that I liked but thought might sound too cynical--- my dad is worried about my cynicism! :)

An Amazon Review by William T. Barto:
Lauren Winner is a talented writer and a provocative thinker, but I do not believe that this book is her best work. The subtitle says the book is "Notes on a Mid-Faith Crisis," and the author describes it as "an autobiographically inflected rumination on a focused spiritual theme -the theme of desolation and consolation," and acknowledges that it is "not really a narrative . . . the chapters are reflections." This is generally accurate, but to use the term "chapter" to describe many of these observations is a bit of overstatement: many are only a page or two in length, some only a few sentences. The author admits that "structuring this book was hard," and it shows - the book has the feel of a collection of blog or journal entries that have been bound between two covers in roughly chronological sequence. "Mid-Faith" is also a bit of a stretch, given that the author is in her thirties and is a relatively recent convert to Christianity from Orthodox Judaism (although Wikipedia tells us that she is now an ordained deacon in the Episcopal Church on her way to becoming a priest, notwithstanding her "mid-faith crisis").

I found the content of the book to be sometimes interesting, but usually when the author was quoting another thinker or writer. The author acknowledges at one point that her complaining "sounds tinny and childish," and that same tone is present in many of the chapters of the book. She mocks another post-divorce memoir (snarkily calling it "Masticate, Meditate, and Masturbate"), yet her style constantly - relentlessly - evokes that other work with its references to the type of food being eaten, the wine being drunk, the color of the dress she was wearing, the music that is playing, the piece of artwork being contemplated during the discussion with "my friend [fill in the blank - e.g., Ruth, Samuel, Molly, Hannah, Sarah, Phyllis - the list of names invoked by the author seems endless]" and yet none of these descriptions really seem to have anything to do with the substance of what it is the author is relating. The author's writing style was a distraction to my understanding of her content and it adversely affected my ability to benefit more fully from reading the book; all the effort spent to create a mood in the writing could have been profitably spent editing the book into a more coherent whole.

If what I have described still sounds irresistible to you, I encourage you to first read some of the other authors who have walked this trail before Winner and may have more profound insights on the topic. I especially recommend Darkness Is My Only Companion: A Christian Response to Mental Illness by Kathryn Greene-McCreight or Acedia & Me: A Marriage, Monks, and a Writer's Life by Kathleen Norris. McCreight tells the story of her struggle with mental illness in the context of her faith, while Norris shares the spiritual aftermath of her husband's death after a marriage of over 30 years. Another alternative story of one soul's dark nights can be found in Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light. These books offer substantial meditations on the crisis of faith and adversity, and also provide helpful perspective to Winner's predicaments.


2. Raising Global Nomads by Robin Williams

Again, I found this book pretty helpful though I don't think our life is as transient as the life of one who moves regularly.  Although I suspect she's a Christian, she writes for the larger audience and doesn't use religious justification for their choices and their struggles which I find a bit more generally applicable and perhaps cuts through the pretense that I can find among some Christians (none of my friends of course! :)

By 

Knowledge Omnivore (the Netherlands) 

Perhaps no life decision is so wrought with uncertainty and apprehension as the one to relocate your children overseas, whether temporarily for an overseas assignment, sabbatical or extended world travel or permanently as emigrants. Will we be damaging them? Will they hate us? Will they suffer academically, personally, emotionally, physically? These are big questions, and before Robin Pascoe's wonderful new book 'Raising Global Nomads', there were few answers.

Pascoe takes us on a wonderful, humourous and above all intensely informative journey with her family, and yours. Every overseas family will instantly see themselves in Pascoe's often moving description of her family's trials and tribulations in adapting to life abroad. Workaholic spouse caught in a pressure cooker? Insane academic standards -- in kindergarten? Worries about safety, hygiene, friends, family, communication -- for everybody? Pascoe has an answer, and a calming and reassuring word, for them all. She also takes a clear and accurate look at 'parenting abroad in an on-demand world', assessing the impact of digital and virtual living on expatriate life.

In her 25 years as a foreign service spouse, journalist Pascoe moved her family a dozen times to destinations as diverse as Bangkok and Seoul, New York and Beijing, and found the toughest move of all was 'back home' to her native Canada. Pascoe generously shares not only her own experiences, but also the results of her extensive research into parenting abroad, including interviews and contributions from psychologists, sociologists, academics, consultants and relocation specialists.

If you make only one pre-departure, or pre-repatriation, purchase, let it be this book. Make sure your teenagers read it, your children's teachers, your spouse, the family's employers and above all their HR department. And keep it under your pillow.....

3. The Education of a British-Protected Child by Chinua Achebe

I feel similar to this reader regarding the issues and the depth; but it is a good overview for the right type or reader or someone who has read his novels... a slightly more lecture style content.  Love the fact that the review-writer didn't know how to fix the stars... why do I think I'd do that!

Loves the View "Louise" (Hawaii) -

I very rarely find essays satisfying, but since this was Achebe and it was a library check out, I went for it. I was hoping to learn more about this author and something of Nigeria. There were a few interesting moments such as Achebe's meeting Richard Wright and Langston Hughes, his views on Conrad, travel in Africa in the early 1960's and his impressions on high level literary or policy gatherings, but on the whole this book validates my feeling.

Achebe is a master in developing themes. The essay forces a point and doesn't have the space for layering ideas. Essays work for news events, but there is not enough space to develop a theme.

These pieces cover colonialism, images of Africans in print and the historical record, the rape of Africa after "independence", etc. The book is OK, but Achebe's views are better expressed in his books.

Later - The 5 star rating does not match my review. I meant to give this 3 stars. My finger must have slipped. It does not appear that this can be edited.


4. Hannah Coulter by Wendell Berry

We use an article written by Berry and several others in the context of our students being here in Uganda, questioning the role of Christian Colleges assumed "upward mobility" in educating Christians away from their home communities.  This novel definitely fits with that same message of the people and quality of life that is lost when children move away from home... a loss for the homeplace and for the one who leaves.

By 

Bea Rawls "B. O'D Rawls" (Whidbey Island WA) 

While the lyrical prose of Hannah Coulter was a joy to read, the story was at times plodding and long. Berry did capture the sense of how the dreams of a parent for a child is a two edged blade. Hannah and Nathan wanted and provided the very human dream for their off-spring - education as a means to a better life, but the very thing they wanted for their children was the means for them to fledge the nest and move away to a life distant from their parents. It was a good read, but not a great read.




Last thoughts: Abby as an informal Amazon reviewer? When our children, our students, or really anyone in our life mentions being "bored", Mark and I are genuinely mystified... a vague memory of a time when we were young and perhaps bored but now it feels like it could take months alone in a room with books and a computer before I could enter into that real feeling of "boredom"!  So when that season comes, I'll take on Amazon book reviews, but for now I'll just read them. :)