When I first saw the movie, “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape,” I sat and wept quietly at its conclusion. My brother, a fan of the film, questioned my tears. “It has a happy ending,” he argued. But I could not bear the relentless burden of caretaking and parenting of a parent that Gilbert was called on to carry.
I feel the same crushing weight for Amy in Patti Hill’s story, “The Queen of Sleepy Eye. “ The mother is relentless in her dependence on Amy. No 17-year-old should be called on to raise a parent. This type of dependence demands boundaries, but it is a bit ticklish for an underage child to set them and still remain respectful to the parent. But here’s the rub; Amy herself is not perfect. She scolds. Some of her actions are scoldable. She judges and her pride goes before a fall. Been there, done that. I’ve also made promises with the best of good will and self-control and then broken them.
This is a book every Christian should read. Using your children for your own glory or sustenance is a theme oft repeated in life. Manipulation is a tool frequently employed by many parents, but not often acknowledged in Christian fiction – which this is.
The first third of this book reads like a textbook psychology case study. The later portions are for Christians only. Were you raised steeped in the same type of Christianity as I was? A few decades ago, we would have grieved for every last character as they fell from Grace. With tears in our eyes, we would have shaken the dust off our feet and moved on just like some of the church people in Hill’s book. But the ending Patti Hill crafts is an ending where, with the reader’s sympathy and understanding, the characters fell into Grace.
And oh, how I loved the hippies, and Patti’s portrayal of Paonia. Wait, that was Paonia, wasn’t it? And I know these church people, which, unfortunately, is why I shy away from Christian fiction these days.
Are you a baby-boomer? Do yourself a favor and read this book. It will resonate like “Forrest Gump,” or “Gilbert Grape,” or “One Tin Soldier.”