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Reinventing Leona (2000)

by Lynne Gentry(Favorite Author)

3.39 of 5 Votes: 5

languge

English

genre

review 1: My book club read this book and our assessment of it made for a rather tense meeting. In a group of Christians I am a Secular Humanist. I think that having a sort of outsider's view gave me a very objective perspective. I went in to the meeting thinking that someone would likely agree with me. I was very wrong. Understand that I am not an angry Atheist by any stretch of the imagination but I felt that there was SO much potential for this novel to show the evolution of the main character, a logical and realistic reuniting of family, and the opportunity to show true Christian grace of family, friends, and community reuniting and finding a better path to the future. The rawness of the characters throughout was disconcerting but I expected them to grow and change. Unfortunatel... morey, I was pretty much appalled by the behavior of the characters at the end. Nothing was really "reinvented".It seemed to me that the author may have felt rushed near the end of the book and didn't give the story or the characters a chance to choose a better course of action [ in her writing process ]. I found the snarky and superior tone of the ending did the story a tremendous disservice. It was also disappointing to see the weight given to how HANDSOME the pastor was and how everyone was drawn to him for the most superficial aspects [ yes I understand that this is how the world works, there was just no spiritual BALANCE to that prevalent mind-set ].
review 2: A nice story of Leona, a pastor's wife. Her husband drops dead as he starts his sermon one Sunday morning. This causes her children to come back home to face their mom and all her expectations. Leona has to reinvent herself after being a stay-at-home mom for all those years, because she needs to get a job and start supporting herself. She has the help of her best friend, Roxie. A great book and an easy read. less

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