Mary Rakow

This is Mary Rakow's second book and like her first one she doesn't disappoint. Rakow has once again managed to get the readers' interest and keep it from virtually the first page. The style of writing is very personal and easy to follow. The stories are challenging in that they challenge our understanding of these familiar childhood tales.

I found that whilst I was reading the stories contained in this book that I needed to remind myself they were the reflections of a fictional character and not necessarily real. This wasn't easy due to the fact that so many of them were my favourites. This distancing from the Biblical stories as I know them was necessary so that I could engage with the woman that this story was focussed on - the lady who had chosen to go back to church after a 30 year absence.

One of the stories that I found most challenging of all was the story of Legion. This story challenged my belief that God could love a demon/s. Yet the question that came to mind was "Why wouldn't he?" In spite of all this though God "...forgave all of..." mankind's "...cruelty, arrogance, pride, and greed."

This book is a really worthwhile read. Whilst I read it as one would a novel, this book would really lend itself to study of each story or group of stories. Therefore doing your own reflection on the reflections.

… (mere)

This is one amazing book. It's surprising, sensitive, mysterious, confusing, makes no sense but yet it does.
Its writing style is everything I hate in a book - the premise of the book is not stated up front, it's like a murder mystery, and it's poetic.
However, all these contradictions and contrasts are what make this such a great book.

The story is about a woman called Barbara who was the victim of horrendous abuse as a child at the hands of her father. This story is about her journey,
with the help of a counsellor, from a life of isolation and terror to one of healing towards her eventual successful assimilation back into society.

The chapters are short. The early chapters are consistently short which gives the reader a sense of Barbara's difficulty in dealing with the world around her.
Toward the end of the book there are more longer chapters which show a distinct growth in Barbara's healing process.

This book tugged at my heart strings very strongly. I think the reason for this was that Mary Rakow masterfully only gave the reader snippets of what Barbara's
childhood involved which encouraged the reader to keep reading to see what happens next. I found myself both rooting for Barbara to get well as well as hoping
she would take her time - I didn't want to say goodbye to this strong yet fragile woman whom I had come to know and love as closely as though she was my own
friend or family.

This book will forever have a special place in my heart. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to read a book with a difference and lots of
great twists and turns.

5 stars.… (mere)