This book captures a number of stories, centered in love, detailing work related events Braestrup experiences after losing her husband in a sudden accident and after becoming a minister. I do not know if that description could be briefer?
This book happens to be extra special to me. Maybe even life changing. OK, maybe it did not change my life, but it helped to make me consider of life in a different light. So I suppose you could call that life changing. It is in my “top five” most important books that I have read. Maybe even number one. Kate Braestrup describes herself, in this book, as the type of person I want to resemble in life. But, I do not want to go through the things she went through to become that person. Unfortunately, I do not think she could be who she is without having the experiences she has had. From this book, I gather, that she seems to have been a damned insightful person all along though. I would love to know her.
The insight Kate has developed, in her life, pertaining to death and spirituality are absolutely calming to someone like me. Death sickens and angers me, and to top it all off, I am not sure that there is anyone or anything to blame for that. In this book, Braestrup does not try to provide any explanation for what happens after we die, but somehow through her words she makes it more acceptable.
There are a few lines in this book that put a smile on my face. The kind of lines you want to memorize and cannot wait to recite to other people. Here are a couple of my favorite such lines from this book:
“She liked me, after all, and it bothered her that I was going to spend eternity being stir-fried in the Devil’s wok.”
“What if I ended up going to heaven with all these teens for Christ, instead of to hell with Mom where I belonged?”
I also laughed out loud in chapter three when Braestrup writes about “transitional love objects” or “objets d’amour.” I also thought it was hilarious that her daughter named her doll Jesus!
I recommend this book to anyone who has ever been born, and also to anyone who is not yet dead.