WHERE SHEEP MAY SAFELY GRAZE

A newly married couple suffer severe, unexpected setbacks in this Christian novel from Campbell (Who Will Hear Them Cry, 2012).

Jim Miller is the pastor of Grace Church in wealthy Adamsville, Virginia. He’s just become engaged to the church’s organist, Amy Brandt, and the two are madly in love. However, when the U.S. invades Iraq, Jim’s military reserve unit is called up, forcing the couple to move up their wedding date. Jim goes to war and soon ends up in a hospital in Germany; however, his mother is still listed as his next of kin, and she won’t tell Amy details of what happened. When Jim is shipped back home, Amy rushes to meet him but, on the way, sustains a concussion and a broken leg in a car accident. Later, she learns that Jim has been permanently blinded as a result of a head wound. “Oh, my darling,” Amy tells him when she finally sees him, “you’ll never know how I’ve wished I could give you my sight and take your blindness.” To make matters worse, after they get back to Adamsville, the congregation votes to remove Jim as pastor, believing that he’ll be unable to fulfill his duties. As the Millers’ faith, and marriage, is stretched to its limits, they hear of a job opening in the tiny town of Pleasantville, and what they find there may be just what they need to get back on track. Campbell effectively manages to fashion a modern Job story of sorts, and Christian readers may enjoy watching the Millers rise to the occasion as they face various obstacles. The book is a bit overly sentimental, however; the prose style is often treacly, as when Amy sees Jim for the very first time: “She had been so absorbed by those eyes that she hadn’t noticed anything else. His skin was deeply tanned, and he had the kind of mouth that seemed made for smiling.” Overall, neither the plot nor the characters ever feels very realistic, and as such, the conclusion of this faith parable doesn’t feel particularly revelatory.

An unsatisfying novel that hits expected genre notes but fails to challenge its readers.