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Feb. 2nd, 2009 07:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
verity83Book Twelve: Christy, Catherine Marshall - 496pp
I can't believe I read this whole book...
in.
one.
day.
Still, I manage to garner great pleasure out of that fact. Mr Baldwin was suitably impressed.
This was a book several of my peers were Into when we were teenagers, after the Anne of Green Gables phase had passed. I must have borrowed it from somebody at some point, because I had an idle curiosity regarding it and I remember paging through it, reading the rape scene, and promptly losing interest thereafter. I was a little surprised at the attitude these girls had about the book, making such borderline-smug statements as "NOT a book for boys to read", as if by reading it girls could be put on some higher plane of knowledge.
Now that I have read it myself, I look back and am honestly rather surprised this was even a book permitted among my group of friends, considering some of the subject matter.
However, I found that I really enjoyed and appreciated the story now in a way that I know I couldn't have as a teenager. There's really a lot of depth in it - in the characters, in the descriptions of scenery and emotions. Coming after a tsunami of BJ Hoff, it was a refreshing experience. Everything was so understated and laced with a realistic simplicity, and even the more dramatic parts were presented in a way so as not to emphasise sensationalism. I can understand a lot of how Christy felt and what drove her. I particularly liked this quote:
"...I discovered that my attention was not so hard to get after all. Now I guessed that somewhere—out there—there was something exciting about religion which had not come through to me in my church back home. And I sensed that I could ave sat in the Huddleston family pew every Sunday until I was an old lady, and it would not have been any different. That was why I had had to leave, explore for myself."
That's a pretty good description of the sense of stagnation that can so easily happen. It was reading "Patriarchs and Prophets" in 2004 that made me realise there was a depth to Christianity I'd never dreamed possible, and it was a freeing and exhilarating experience.
It was a fast-paced, well-developed plot, with good strong characters that I cared about, although I did find David a little strange. I liked him in a way, but I didn't like his attitude about the Bible and his approach to Christianity at all. I also found it a little unbelievable that he never tried to get more than kisses out of Christy considering that his only real interest in her was physical.
The Doctor I can't say I cared much for, either, until more towards the end. The final scene was a thing of real beauty and very touching.
I did find it a little troublesome that so little emphasis was put on the importance of the Scriptures, aside from Miss Alice's recommendations. The answers can always be found in the Scriptures, yet instead of going there to get them, everyone just became angry at God. It seemed a little silly. But maybe that's the way it is for a lot of people - I don't know. I guess must confess I never used to read the Bible much for the purpose of finding answers as I enjoy doing now.
Anyway, overall a grand read, and I'm sure this is one I'll return and read again.
And, Fairlight is a really, really lovely name. I'm tempted to give our daughter a third name now. *cackle*
I can't believe I read this whole book...
in.
one.
day.
Still, I manage to garner great pleasure out of that fact. Mr Baldwin was suitably impressed.
This was a book several of my peers were Into when we were teenagers, after the Anne of Green Gables phase had passed. I must have borrowed it from somebody at some point, because I had an idle curiosity regarding it and I remember paging through it, reading the rape scene, and promptly losing interest thereafter. I was a little surprised at the attitude these girls had about the book, making such borderline-smug statements as "NOT a book for boys to read", as if by reading it girls could be put on some higher plane of knowledge.
Now that I have read it myself, I look back and am honestly rather surprised this was even a book permitted among my group of friends, considering some of the subject matter.
However, I found that I really enjoyed and appreciated the story now in a way that I know I couldn't have as a teenager. There's really a lot of depth in it - in the characters, in the descriptions of scenery and emotions. Coming after a tsunami of BJ Hoff, it was a refreshing experience. Everything was so understated and laced with a realistic simplicity, and even the more dramatic parts were presented in a way so as not to emphasise sensationalism. I can understand a lot of how Christy felt and what drove her. I particularly liked this quote:
"...I discovered that my attention was not so hard to get after all. Now I guessed that somewhere—out there—there was something exciting about religion which had not come through to me in my church back home. And I sensed that I could ave sat in the Huddleston family pew every Sunday until I was an old lady, and it would not have been any different. That was why I had had to leave, explore for myself."
That's a pretty good description of the sense of stagnation that can so easily happen. It was reading "Patriarchs and Prophets" in 2004 that made me realise there was a depth to Christianity I'd never dreamed possible, and it was a freeing and exhilarating experience.
It was a fast-paced, well-developed plot, with good strong characters that I cared about, although I did find David a little strange. I liked him in a way, but I didn't like his attitude about the Bible and his approach to Christianity at all. I also found it a little unbelievable that he never tried to get more than kisses out of Christy considering that his only real interest in her was physical.
The Doctor I can't say I cared much for, either, until more towards the end. The final scene was a thing of real beauty and very touching.
I did find it a little troublesome that so little emphasis was put on the importance of the Scriptures, aside from Miss Alice's recommendations. The answers can always be found in the Scriptures, yet instead of going there to get them, everyone just became angry at God. It seemed a little silly. But maybe that's the way it is for a lot of people - I don't know. I guess must confess I never used to read the Bible much for the purpose of finding answers as I enjoy doing now.
Anyway, overall a grand read, and I'm sure this is one I'll return and read again.
And, Fairlight is a really, really lovely name. I'm tempted to give our daughter a third name now. *cackle*
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no subject
Date: 2009-02-03 05:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-03 05:09 am (UTC)There's almost nothing, to me, that is more gut-wrenching than a man who will let himself cry. It's almost impossible to handle it when they do, because they don't usually let themselves go that way!
I heart your icon.
no subject
Date: 2009-02-04 04:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-04 04:24 am (UTC)Have you read "Julie" by Catherine Marshall? I'm reading mixed reviews, mostly negative, about it and wondering if it's worth pursuing.
no subject
Date: 2009-02-04 04:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-04 04:28 am (UTC)