Forgiveness doesn’t come easily, but Hill demonstrates its lasting effects on the path away from pain.
Hill (Forgiveness Versus the Covert Bondage of Unforgiveness, 2010) struggles to forgive as she graphically recounts the emotional and physical abuse she received as a child at the hands of her mother and her mother’s boyfriend.
As a child, Hill hoped to attend a carnival, but at the last minute, her mother told her no. Disappointed, Hill stood up for herself; she was savagely beaten by her mother’s boyfriend. Although some readers may suspect a more complicated, longer-lasting cycle of abuse, this slim volume tells of only that one childhood incident, then jumps to Hill’s adult struggle to let go of the anger and hate that have haunted her ever since. Such a large gap in the narrative leaves many questions unanswered, such as how this resentment affected her life; as such, the narrative might better lend itself to a speech or a discussion in a recovery group. Hill longs to live a life of integrity and leave behind the anger she now feels hurts only herself. By turning to her faith, she discovers a new perspective: Those who hurt her were themselves hurting on the inside. Through this insight, Hill finds herself able to forgive the man who beat her. Yet she finally overcomes her emotional cycle of anger and pain not through her own intervention but through her mother’s. In one sudden, heartrending conversation, Hill’s mother apologizes while expressing guilt and sadness. Their subsequent reconciliation seems to be no less satisfying than if Hill had initiated the healing discussion herself. That said, her mother’s enduring guilt indicates a shared burden that seems not to have been recognized until Hill was a grown woman. In the end, Hill successfully conveys the relief and joy now filling her life as a result of letting go of her anger. Although she finds her life radically changed by her new relationship with her mother, readers might need a deeper look at such a dramatic renewal.
Forgiveness doesn’t come easily, but Hill demonstrates its lasting effects on the path away from pain.Pub Date: Nov. 24, 2013
ISBN: 978-1492350460
Page Count: 46
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Feb. 18, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
In this highly learned yet accessible book, Robinson offers believers fresh insight into a well-studied text.
A deeply thoughtful exploration of the first book of the Bible.
In this illuminating work of biblical analysis, Pulitzer Prize–winning novelist Robinson, whose Gilead series contains a variety of Christian themes, takes readers on a dedicated layperson’s journey through the Book of Genesis. The author meanders delightfully through the text, ruminating on one tale after another while searching for themes and mining for universal truths. Robinson approaches Genesis with a reverence and level of faith uncommon to modern mainstream writers, yet she’s also equipped with the appropriate tools for cogent criticism. Throughout this luminous exegesis, which will appeal to all practicing Christians, the author discusses overarching themes in Genesis. First is the benevolence of God. Robinson points out that “to say that God is the good creator of a good creation” sets the God of Genesis in opposition to the gods of other ancient creation stories, who range from indifferent to evil. This goodness carries through the entirety of Genesis, demonstrated through grace. “Grace tempers judgment,” writes the author, noting that despite well-deserved instances of wrath or punishment, God relents time after time. Another overarching theme is the interplay between God’s providence and humanity’s independence. Across the Book of Genesis, otherwise ordinary people make decisions that will affect the future in significant ways, yet events are consistently steered by God’s omnipotence. For instance, Joseph is sold into slavery by his brothers, and that action has reverberated throughout the history of all Jewish people. Robinson indirectly asks readers to consider where the line is between the actions of God and the actions of creation. “He chose to let us be,” she concludes, “to let time yield what it will—within the vast latitude granted by providence.”
In this highly learned yet accessible book, Robinson offers believers fresh insight into a well-studied text.Pub Date: March 12, 2024
ISBN: 9780374299408
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Oct. 14, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2023
A very welcome instance of philosophy that can help readers live a good life.
A teacher and scholar of Buddhism offers a formally varied account of the available rewards of solitude.
“As Mother Ayahuasca takes me in her arms, I realize that last night I vomited up my attachment to Buddhism. In passing out, I died. In coming to, I was, so to speak, reborn. I no longer have to fight these battles, I repeat to myself. I am no longer a combatant in the dharma wars. It feels as if the course of my life has shifted onto another vector, like a train shunted off its familiar track onto a new trajectory.” Readers of Batchelor’s previous books (Secular Buddhism: Imagining the Dharma in an Uncertain World, 2017, etc.) will recognize in this passage the culmination of his decadeslong shift away from the religious commitments of Buddhism toward an ecumenical and homegrown philosophy of life. Writing in a variety of modes—memoir, history, collage, essay, biography, and meditation instruction—the author doesn’t argue for his approach to solitude as much as offer it for contemplation. Essentially, Batchelor implies that if you read what Buddha said here and what Montaigne said there, and if you consider something the author has noticed, and if you reflect on your own experience, you have the possibility to improve the quality of your life. For introspective readers, it’s easy to hear in this approach a direct response to Pascal’s claim that “all of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” Batchelor wants to relieve us of this inability by offering his example of how to do just that. “Solitude is an art. Mental training is needed to refine and stabilize it,” he writes. “When you practice solitude, you dedicate yourself to the care of the soul.” Whatever a soul is, the author goes a long way toward soothing it.
A very welcome instance of philosophy that can help readers live a good life.Pub Date: Feb. 18, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-300-25093-0
Page Count: 200
Publisher: Yale Univ.
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
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