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#Post#: 3225-------------------------------------------------- |
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Elizabeth Strout, ABIDE WITH ME (2019) |
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By: agate Date: March 26, 2021, 12:36 am |
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Elizabeth Strout, ABIDE WITH ME (2019) |
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It is rare to come across a book about a member of the clergy |
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that does not disclose the author's religious stance, but this |
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may be one such book. At its center is a Congregationalist |
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minister, Tyler Caskey, who has had the bad luck to have married |
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an enchanting woman who was perhaps too headstrong and |
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opinionated to have been the best choice for the spiritual |
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leader of a small Maine town's flock. Then the wife died, |
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leaving him with two young daughters. The younger child is |
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chiefly in the care of Tyler's mother, and Catherine, who is 5, |
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is beginning to present some worrisome problems in her |
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kindergarten. |
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Or at least they are worrisome problems in the eyes of the |
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kindergarten teacher, the school psychologist, and the school |
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principal--the three of whom summon Tyler to a conference at one |
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point, and the scene is one of the best in the book in its |
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gentle parody of a particular type of pseudo-psychology that was |
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being promoted at the time (1959). |
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The character of Tyler is a bit of a puzzle. In many ways he is |
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the quintessential Protestant clergyman--perhaps too trusting |
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and naive for this world, overly scholarly, but well schooled |
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apparently in the art of saying tactful, soothing things to the |
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people he deals with. |
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I wonder at the d�nouement, though. After Tyler has stood in |
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front of his congregation, unable to deliver his sermon and with |
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tears streaming down his face, we are asked to believe that he |
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will find comfort in the response and care shown for him by some |
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of the church members and be reabsorbed into their community, |
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just after a vicious campaign of gossip has been waged against |
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him. |
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I'm not sure that the author has made this remarkable |
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turn-around entirely believable, but the story is well told and |
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absorbing, and the dialogue between Tyler and Catherine |
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sometimes poses difficult questions about the God whose Word |
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Tyler is preaching. |
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