Here If You Need Me: A True Story by Kate Braestrup
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Book Reviews of Here If You Need Me: A True Story
Book Review: Dealing With Loss Through a Unique Occupation
Summary: 4 Stars
By way of revealing and often-humorous anecdotes, Kate tells how her job as a Maine Game Warden Chaplain helps her adjust to widowhood.
This was a very good and thought-provoking narrative. It seemed choppy at first, but all the pieces came together later on and really made sense.
Book Review: No Depth - Reader's Digest
Summary: 3 Stars
Well written. Prose was warm, welcoming, open... like a chaplain. The author strikes me as thoughtful, introspective - a seeker. I liked her voice, her sensibility, her intelligence, her pragmatism, her joy and her sense of humor. Being a widower myself, I was especially interested in her book - though I rarely read spiritual (i.e. inspirational) stories. And I learned a few things. For example, I never considered the discrimination chaplains endure (regarded as part cop, part clown) or the intangible authority they posses (collar, prayer). But though sometimes engaging, the book left me flat. Sense the author intended to write about a spiritual quest, yet her story read more like a sermon (complete with parables featuring Samaritans and villains, triumphs and tragedies, morals and psalms). And like most sermons, there was insight - even wisdom - but no soul searching, no epiphany. In short, the author did not get personal. I was left feeling I did not really know anyone - not her family, friends, old husband, new husband, or even the game wardens. She mentions, but does not explore, why so many of her fellow students in seminary school had just suffered personal loss like her. Nor does she explore how or when she decided to start dating... the awkwardness of being a middle-aged mother & widow looking for a partner, sleeping with another man, and having to tell her kids about her new friend -- excruciating moments for most single parents. Finally it would have been interesting to delve deeper into the paradox of her new life. The author freely admits she would not be a chaplain if not for her husband's death. What if going back in time and saving her husband's life meant she would must go back to her old life and remain a full-time mom (no seminary, no new friends, no new relationships, no new husband) - would she give it all up? Or what if her husband suffered a coma (instead of death), then made a full recovery and insisted she go back to being a full-time Mom? Or what if the future was revealed and the author secretly learned her job would lead to an early death (e.g. accident)? Would she condemn her kids to face yet another tragedy? Or would she opt for a safer (and less fulfilling) job? I suspect the author would remain a chaplain in all of these scenarios. Is that righteous? Or selfish? What does that say her? And all of us?
Don't get me wrong, it's a decent book. But it could have been much more. The author quips she likes being a chaplain since it allows her to be interested in her ministry, but not invested. That's how she seems to have approached her book. She's interesting... but not invested.
Book Review: Not quite what I thought
Summary: 3 Stars
This book turned out totally different than what I expected, but there were many bright points. I guess I thought there would be more specific stories about her work as a chaplain, but as it turned out, there were only a couple of examples. The author spent more time talking about, well, I guess, how she is just there should someone need her. She makes several astute observations about the necessity of this, and her religious/spiritual point of view is interesting, which, in my opinion, saved the story.Book Review: Frustrating Theology
Summary: 2 Stars
Because the author's husband was killed in a car accident, Kate Braestrup decides to pursue her husband's dream of becoming a minister (not a great reason or calling). Kate Braestrup's stories about her work as a game warden chaplain in Maine are interesting. HOWEVER, Kate Braestrup's theology is extremely frustrating. As a Unitarian Universalist minister, she readily tells people who had lost loved ones that their loved ones are in heaven (she claims because this is what Unitarian Univeralists believe she can provide this assurance). Later in the book, she admits to not believing in heaven at all. She believes when people die, there is nothing more. She attended Bangor Seminary yet suggested erroneously that Christians believe Jesus was the reincarnated Elijah. With such weak theology, I found her role as a chaplain very disconcerting. I threw the book away after reading it because I did not feel it was worth passing along to others.Book Review: nice try but..
Summary: 2 Stars
the author tries to approach her subject with interest, but alas it is only hers, a disappointing read.