Falling To Earth by Kate Southwood ✔✔✔✔

In March 1925, probably the worst tornado ever to hit the U.S. Killed over 700 people over three states. This novel's setting is Marah, Illinois, where everyone in this rural town loses something – a child, a house, a business – except the Graves family, who are miraculously spared. The children are at home with chicken pox, being looked after by their mother and grandmother. Paul is at work at his lumber business. Those at home find refuge in their storm cellar, while Paul hangs onto a telegraph pole. Their only mishap is that their car, parked in the driveway, is turned completely around. But the Graves family suffers irreparable damage, as the entire town, including Paul's best friend, turns against them – the children are bullied, those who buy lumber from Paul to re-build their homes, burn the lumber, Mae is ostracized by her friends, and is haunted by a woman who stands across the street from their home, simply staring at the house.  The Graves' have assisted in any way they can with those who have suffered, from allowing their front porch to be used as a temporary morgue, cleaning up the after-effects of the storm, making coffins, etc, but the townspeople cannot get past the fact that the Graves' lost nothing; they somehow think the family arranged this somehow, and are profiting from the losses of others.

This novel shows how people deal with these monumental disasters, and how the best of us can succumb to envy and bitterness. It makes one wonder, in this day and age, what happens to these very ordinary people after the cameras and the world's attention leaves. Would we act the same way?

Putting Away Childish Things - Marcus Borg

This has been on my shelf for at least two years, and I pulled this off as a possibility for our Study Group to discuss next year.  It's called a "didactic novel" because the novel form is merely a vehicle for teaching and discussing what the title suggests - looking at our faith and religion in a new light - an adult approach.  It's been very well done - Borg chooses  his setting in a liberal arts college where Kate is teaching the Enlightenment in a Religious Studies course, and his theme is different understandings of what it means to be a Christian today - how to understand Christianity in an Enlightenment and non-Enlightenment world.  Lots of room for discussion here.