A Morning Like This: A Novel [Paperback] Review

David and Abby Treasure (niiiiiice fake last name), along with their son Braden, are the perfect Christian family. Until, that is, David's affair from 9 years ago comes back to haunt them. Turns out his mistress gave birth to his child and never told him. Oops. And of course, now the illegitimate daughter is dying of cancer and needs a bone marrow transplant, and he has to tell his wife and bring all sorts of loverly turmoil into his family. Yada yada yada, we've all heard this story a zillion times before.

I was pretty irritated by this book. Abby gets angry at David, rightly so, and he acts like a creep toward her. He doesn't get that because he went out acting like a manwhore, he's to blame. But what grossed me out was when Abby tells him that the affair was partly HER fault, that she pushed him away, even though he cheated on her while she was not only pregnant, but just after giving birth to their son. Nice guy there. She forgives him (this is a Christian novel, and the author seems set on the fact that divorce is never an option, even if your significant other goes around acting like a workaholic prostitute), and of course, everyone lives happily ever after.

I don't agree. I think that she was making faith out to be the only remedy for a marriage that was in desperate need of a lot of therapy (faith never hurts, of course, but God helps those who help themselves). I felt almost as though the author looked down on anyone who would dare divorce over something so little as infidelity. This made me feel small. Didn't care for that.

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Red Sky at Morning: A Novel (Perennial Classics) [Bargain Price] [Paperback] Review

It's funny; I've read this book at least 10 times and I see from the reviews here that lots of people have seen fit to revisit Red Sky at Morning.
I, too, grew up in the "real" Sagrado. In fact, Bradford's son and I were briefly acquainted as teenagers. I think the book is more autobiographical than Bradford would like to admit; my aunt has said that almost all of the teenaged characters were recognizable as actual people at the local high school at that time--especially Chango.
Any time I'm homesick, all I have to do is reread the book and I'm right back home again. I'm glad that so many people from so many walks of life have enjoyed it as much as I have. It totally captures, very affectionately, all of the GOOD things about Northern New Mexico--things you wish would stay the same forever.
It's like Catcher in the Rye, but it's warmer. It lovingly represents the wholly unique people of Northern New Mexico, who are unlike people anywhere else in the world. But it also reflects human nature and adaptation through scenes of humor, pain, the clashing and meshing of cultures, and the inevitable unwelcome changes that come with the passage of time. Red Sky at Morning bears witness to the coming of age of Joshua Arnold--the futile battle to remain young and untouched by the uglier side of the world, the bittersweet and inevitable transformation of boy to man. It was originally an allegory, I believe, parelleling Josh's growing pains with those of a post-war America. Ironically, it is now an allegory for what has become of the "real" Corazon, Sagrado--full of bittersweet memories--the end of an old road and the beginning of newer, less innocent one.
Just beware: you won't be able to put it down and you WILL read it again and again. It really is that good.

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