Life, & Death, & Giants
By Ron Rindo ★★★★★★★★★☆ 9/10 ""I cannot make sense of my own confusion. I'd heard thousands of people cheering for my beloved grandson, saw them on their feet, as if in worship, singing his name. I swell with pride, of course. Who..."
By Ron Rindo
★★★★★★★★★☆ 9/10
321 pages
What’s it about?
This story takes place in the Amish community of Lakota, Wisconsin. The story is told through various narrators. When 17-year-old Jasper's unmarried Amish mother goes into labor he does his best to help. When she stays in labor way too long, he turns to the only doctor he trusts. It just so happens that doctor is the local veterinarian, Thomas Kennedy. When Dr. Kennedy delivers an eighteen-pound baby named Gabriel, he instantly feels a connection to him. The town of Lakota will watch Gabriel grow, and he will change the community forever.
What did it make me think about?
Where does faith end and fanaticism begin?
"If only we could instruct the selves we have left behind in time! What would I say to that young girl now? She would no doubt rail against these thoughts as blasphemy, but I would tell her this: all zealous belief, secular and spiritual, relies upon some blindness in the believers. Only in the brokenness of true humility can we see beyond the false borders we ourselves, saints and sinners alike, erect. Thomas, an agnostic who has done more for God's creatures than perhaps any random hundred believers together, puts it more simply. Life, he says, is complicated."
Should I read it?
This book reminded me so much of one of my all-time favorites- Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger. It has the same sweetness to it. The multiple narrators could be a little confusing at first. Maybe a cast of characters page at the beginning would have been helpful for some. If you stick with it, everyone becomes familiar. It is a novel that asks you to suspend your disbelief- so be ready for that. About two thirds of the way through I was not sure where the story was going. But it rallies! All in all, this is a favorite so far this year. This book will appeal to so many. It should be at the top of readers' gift lists.
A passage I marked
"I cannot make sense of my own confusion. I'd heard thousands of people cheering for my beloved grandson, saw them on their feet, as if in worship, singing his name. I swell with pride, of course. Who would not? All his life, Gabriel has been larger than the life he had inhabited, always eager to display the strength of the giant body he'd been given. And now it seemed that Gabriel's destiny had revealed itself at last. He has been gifted vast riches; he had sold them for useless dust."
