ABIDE WITH ME by ELIZABETH STROUT

ABIDE WITH ME

BY ELIZABETH STROUT

THE BLURB:-

Katherine is only five years old. Struck dumb with grief at her mother's death, it is down to her heartbroken father, the minister Tyler Caskey, to draw his daughter out of the silence she has observed in the wake of the family's tragedy.

But Tyler Caskey is barely surviving himself. His cold, church-assigned home is colder still since Lauren's death, and he struggles to find the right words for his sermons; struggles to be a leader when he himself is lost.

When Katherine's schoolteacher calls to discuss his daughter's anti-social behaviour, it sparks a chain of events that begins to tear down Tyler's defences. The small-town rumour mill has much to make of Katherine's odd behaviour, and even more to say about Tyler's relationship with his housekeeper, Connie Hatch. And in Tyler's darkest hour, a startling discovery will test his congregation's humanity- and his own will to endure the kinds of trials that sooner or later test us all.

THE REALITY:-

This was a novel which burned with a gentle melancholy; easy to read, put down and re-visit, which didn't initially set the soul alight but which, conversely, gripped me from the first page.

I bought this as the author came recommended by one of the tutors at my university, and I chose this particular book as it depicts what life is like for a minister, and my current novel-in-progress is about a vicar's daughter. So, in a way, it was a research book.

In that respect, I could have been let down, as the book is set in the USA, and they do things differently there! But, as I progressed, I found out that the sentiment of the lifestyle is the same, and I enjoyed the way the state of Maine came together on the page. I totally got oddball Katherine (really, I was a similar child myself and, like Katherine, questioned whether there was a God and, if so, was he any good.) Katherine is grieving for her mother, and I like the way this forthright child didn't seem to want to court favoritism, and I laughed at the stupid way over-dramatic teachers seemed to read too much into her behaviour and drawings. This resonated- I had trouble with these old cows at school, too! I also developed a hatred for the gossipy, bitchy women in the small town.  Oh yes- I've had experience of this as well, both in the small town I grew up in, and also in the fashion industry. I call these kind of nasty pieces of two-faced (they're the kind of women who gossip about someone then, straight afterwards, put down the phone then call up someone else to gossip about the person they've just been speaking to) work 'harpies'.  Uurrgghh.

I enjoyed the way the sanctity of marriage was shown on the page, through the ups and downs of several imperfect (and really, aren't they all?) relationships, including Tyler and Lauren's and really felt for Tyler as he broke down, and was gladdened to see his community laying aside its bitchiness and standing up for him.

I had to google an unfamiliar American term- apparently, a rube is someone who's hick and uneducated, and picked up on the nastiness of Tyler's in-laws through their actions (and was Mr. Slatin some kind of paedophile?- it was implied rather than clarified- but the writing still worked.)

A good, superior story.