Abide
with Me:
a Novel
by Elizabeth Strout
Random House, 2006
review
by Cindy Crosby
Elizabeth
Strout's sophomore novel, Abide With Me, fearlessly plunges
into deep waters. What does it mean to be a person of faith? How
do we reconcile loss and suffering if we believe in God? And how
do we find courage to live with integrity and grit, instead of living
as if we are performing for an audience?
For
Tyler Caskey, the pastor of a Congregationalist church in West Annett,
Maine, these are immediate questions. His litany of troubles seems
almost too much to bear. His beloved but unconventional wife, Lauren,
has suddenly succumbed to cancer, leaving him bewildered and bereft.
A secret he carries surrounding her death also haunts him, and reminds
him of his own failures and shortcomings. Unsure of where to turn,
he allows his domineering mother to take his youngest daughter,
Jeannie, home to raise while he copes as best he can with the more
troublesome five-year-old Katherine.
Things
are no better outside his home. Tyler’s congregation of rather
cold, small-town men and women have grown tired of his rambling
sermons and emotional distance, and begin to turn on him. Gossip,
unsavory rumors, and politics may result in his dismissal. Everything
Tyler has believed about himself and his world is changing.
For
years, Tyler has idolized theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and marveled
at his courage in the face of suffering. Now, called on to travel
his own dark night of the soul, Tyler begins to question: Where
is “The Feeling” of God’s presence?
Woven
through the turmoil of Tyler’s life and emotions are the lyrics
of the beloved hymn “Abide With Me:”
I
need Thy presence every passing hour.
What but Thy grace can foil the tempter’s power?
Who, like Thyself, my guide and stay can be?
Through cloud and sunshine, Lord, abide with me.*
They
help in lending perspective to the reader as Tyler’s world
falls apart. But it is Strout’s ability to help us empathize
with the characters that takes us from a stance of observation to
that of participation, compelling us to look at our own fears, failings,
and faith.
For
example, the author crafts a poignant, yet realistic relationship
between Tyler and five-year-old Katherine that recalls the work
of Gail Godwin in Eventide. Strout invites her readers
to see Katherine’s world through the eyes of a child frightened
by the loss of her mother, and thus builds compassion for her seemingly
psychotic misdeeds.
Even
secondary characters are used to pull readers in. Through an effective
use of flashback surrounding a specific and graphic sexual affair
carried on by a married man in Tyler’s congregation, Strout
depicts the depth of our failings, and how our own shortcomings
sometimes generate intolerance for the failings of others.
The characters, no matter what their gender, age, or sins, are multifaceted
souls who command our sympathy and our interest.
Abide
with me; fast falls the eventide;
The darkness deepens; Lord with me abide.
When other helpers fail and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless, O abide with me.*
This
lovely, compassionate book calls us to reexamine our own life and
our empathy for others’ faults and failings. At the same time,
it urges us to resist compromising or capitulating to anyone else’s
vision, encouraging us to live according to our own deeply held
conviction of what our life should be.
*Abide With Me
text by Henry Francis Lyte (1793-1847)
Copyright
©2006 Cindy Crosby
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