| Amazon.com The House Where the Hardest Things Happened is the best kind of spiritual memoir. It tells a great story， has a reliable narrator， and teaches enormous lessons about Christianity and spirit without once faltering into preachy， "spiritual" language. When Kate Young Caley was a young child her family belonged to the First Church of God in Moultonboro， New Hampshire. "Back then the sounds of Sunday mornings were sounds that meant everything was all right，" she writes. "That we were all together. Cleaned and dressed up.... When we walked into the church everybody loved us."But when Caley's father is diagnosed with cancer and is hospitalized for months， Caley's 29-year-old mother needs to support the family by waitressing in town. Because the restaurant sells liquor， the mother is breaking the church's covenant， and the church community votes the family out of the church. This cruel banishment， when the family most needed a spiritual community， becomes the defining moment of Caley's childhood. More than a beautifully written personal story， this is a lifelong exposé of the hypocrisy inherent in many church communities. Ultimately， we see that the problem isn't Christianity， but the people who control and manipulate it. --Gail Hudson --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. From Publishers Weekly Beginning with a child's view of a church where "everybody loved us，" Caley relates her adult fixation on the day when this church ejected her mother for having "broken the covenant" by working in a restaurant that served alcohol. Caley's brothers wonder why she still thinks about this it occurred nearly 35 years ago and her mother feigns forgetfulness before finally admitting that she remembers the names of her ousters. The adult Caley seems shocked by the realization that these people weren't strangers， but women "I still meet sometimes at the post office or the October Fair. Women I know，" yet this information doesn't propel her to confront them to discuss the event and its effects. Caley doesn't explore the possibility that perhaps the reasons for her family's ejection from the smalltown New Hampshire church may have had more to do with her father's nervous breakdown or her brother's being gay. Her quest for answers is unsatisfyingly shallow， and her search for God leads her only as far as another Protestant church. Caley is admittedly concerned about hurting her mother by examining these old wounds， which may explain her investigation's superficiality. However， readers are left with more questions than the author addresses. What's missing is the perspective of an adult recalling distant childhood events， some revelation of new information， an epiphany of emotions about what happened or psychological insight. Instead， Caley's view seems stuck in the eyes of the six-year-old she once was， forever craving an imagined world of perfect adults and unconditional love. (On sale June 18)Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information， Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. See all Editorial Reviews |
内容加载中，请稍后...
商品评论（0条）