An endearing but anguished account of grief, faith, and remembrance.
An elegiac remembrance of loved ones lost.
Debut author Adams experienced two of the worst horrors that a person can face: the losses of a spouse and a child. In 1994, his wife, Teresa, was pregnant with their first child, a daughter they’d named Emily, but experienced complications that led to considerable internal bleeding. As a result, she lost the baby. Despite that harrowing trauma, Teresa went on to have three more children over the next six years—two girls and a boy. A little more than a decade after the birth of the last child, Teresa became seriously ill and was diagnosed with a bacterial infection that had aggressively spread throughout her entire body. She died in 2014, and much of Adams’ memoir touchingly recalls the wife he adored and the precious time they had together. The remainder of the book is a tale of grief and adjustment, which wasn’t an easy task for a man who was suddenly charged with raising three kids as a single parent. The author’s pain is palpable, particularly when he describes the solitude that resulted from it—the reflexive hermitage induced by mourning. He discusses the sorrow that accompanied days that were previously celebratory: birthdays, holidays, and anniversaries. Overcoming his instinct toward privacy, he also relates what he considers “minor miracles”—ways in which his Christian faith was reaffirmed in small, quotidian, but marvelous ways. Some readers won’t be persuaded by his accounts of divine intervention, which he candidly recognizes: “Believers will see this series of events as miracles. Nonbelievers will chalk them up to a series of unrelated and random events that are explainable by other means.” For example, in one anecdote, the author tells of finding an unfamiliar silver cross dangling from a box of medical supplies, which he believes miraculously appeared there. From an evidentiary perspective, such conclusions fall short of persuasive. However, the story’s power doesn’t hinge at all on such persuasiveness, but rather on the author’s graceful grappling with heartache. Readers who’ve suffered similar tragedies will find particular beauty in this love letter to relatives gone too soon.
An endearing but anguished account of grief, faith, and remembrance.Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5127-5872-6
Page Count: 140
Publisher: Westbow Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 4, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.
A compendium of charts, time lines, lists and illustrations to accompany study of the Bible.
This visually appealing resource provides a wide array of illustrative and textually concise references, beginning with three sets of charts covering the Bible as a whole, the Old Testament and the New Testament. These charts cover such topics as biblical weights and measures, feasts and holidays and the 12 disciples. Most of the charts use a variety of illustrative techniques to convey lessons and provide visual interest. A worthwhile example is “How We Got the Bible,” which provides a time line of translation history, comparisons of canons among faiths and portraits of important figures in biblical translation, such as Jerome and John Wycliffe. The book then presents a section of maps, followed by diagrams to conceptualize such structures as Noah’s Ark and Solomon’s Temple. Finally, a section on Christianity, cults and other religions describes key aspects of history and doctrine for certain Christian sects and other faith traditions. Overall, the authors take a traditionalist, conservative approach. For instance, they list Moses as the author of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) without making mention of claims to the contrary. When comparing various Christian sects and world religions, the emphasis is on doctrine and orthodox theology. Some chapters, however, may not completely align with the needs of Catholic and Orthodox churches. But the authors’ leanings are muted enough and do not detract from the work’s usefulness. As a resource, it’s well organized, inviting and visually stimulating. Even the most seasoned reader will learn something while browsing.
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2005
ISBN: 978-1-5963-6022-8
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This a book of earlier, philosophical essays concerned with the essential "absurdity" of life and the concept that- to overcome the strong tendency to suicide in every thoughtful man-one must accept life on its own terms with its values of revolt, liberty and passion. A dreary thesis- derived from and distorting the beliefs of the founders of existentialism, Jaspers, Heldegger and Kierkegaard, etc., the point of view seems peculiarly outmoded. It is based on the experience of war and the resistance, liberally laced with Andre Gide's excessive intellectualism. The younger existentialists such as Sartre and Camus, with their gift for the terse novel or intense drama, seem to have omitted from their philosophy all the deep religiosity which permeates the work of the great existentialist thinkers. This contributes to a basic lack of vitality in themselves, in these essays, and ten years after the war Camus seems unaware that the life force has healed old wounds... Largely for avant garde aesthetes and his special coterie.
Pub Date: Sept. 26, 1955
ISBN: 0679733736
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1955
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