⇒ Libro Gratis The Happy Room Catherine Palmer 9780842354226 Books

The Happy Room Catherine Palmer 9780842354226 Books

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The Happy Room Catherine Palmer 9780842354226 Books

Palmer's story of three grown missionary kids confronting their past and their parents is at its best when telling their childhood stories of Africa and the missionary subculture in which they were raised. The story has trouble in the narrative present, in America, as the same children struggle with finding their own places in the world. Perhaps the story is not long enough to deal with this amount of complexity -- or perhaps we are not meeting the characters at the right point in their lives. Though the ending is not tidy, it does come cross as though the characters themselves believe that their problems, and their respective solutions, are simpler than they are. When reading this book, I found myself comparing it to The Last Year of the War, another work of fiction which describes the evangelical Christian subculture with more particular detail and depth.

Despite its flaws, though, this book's inside view of the missionary subculture is more accurate than the one given in, for example, The Poisonwood Bible. As a missionary kid myself, I know and recognize people like those in The Happy Room; I don't recognize the ones in Kingsolver's book, whom I suspect represent an outsider's projections.


Tags : The Happy Room [Catherine Palmer] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Drawn together by their sister's tragic illness, each of the Mossman siblings must face the truth of their past. As they reminisce about both good and bad memories of their childhood in Africa,Catherine Palmer,The Happy Room,Tyndale House Publishers,0842354220,Religious - General,Anorexia nervosa;Fiction.,Brothers and sisters;Fiction.,Children of missionaries;Fiction.,Anorexia nervosa,Brothers and sisters,Children of missionaries,Christian - General,Fiction,Fiction - Religious,Fiction Christian General,Fiction Religious,Juvenile Nonfiction Religion Christianity,Christian fiction

The Happy Room Catherine Palmer 9780842354226 Books Reviews

This a very good story which brought me to laughter and tears and I thank Catherine Palmer for writing it. (I was not an M.K., but there was enough done to the kids in the church I grew up in "in the name of God" so that I did run away when I was 15). There are millions of us out there and we all could get some comfort and joy and healing out of this book. (There's none so deaf as he who will not hear; nor none so blind as he who will not see. If any of the reviewers here scorn this book, perhaps they fall into that category?) Many, many children (and sometimes their mothers as well) have been neglected and abused all "in the name of God." (Not necessarily intentionally...the men who commanded that kind of obedience honestly believed they were doing God's will.) I did not find God after that... I'd been taught that I would die and go to hell if I didn't belong to that church. I was a kid. I believed it. But God found ME. He did not abandon me. I've given a lot of thought to writing about what people do to kids "in the name of God", but I never have, and was gratified to find this book. Thank you, Catherine. I agree with Francine Rivers.
Good book, I had to read it for a class. I'm a third culture kid myself, and could definitely relate to what these kids were feeling.
I used to think there were two types of people in the world 1) those who were raised in a single culture their entire lives and are therefore well adjusted within that society but clueless outside of it and 2) others like myself who melded their personal cultures from the many they experienced as children and, as a consequence, appear dysfunctional or at least ill-at-ease in all cultures. Now, of course, I realize that the world is more complex than this; being born of second-generation missionary parents, growing up on three continents, speaking four languages, having good friends in far corners of the world, and never quite at home anywhere but among other MKs is neither a recipe for disaster nor a guarantee of socio-cultural equanimity.

Not sure if Catherine Palmer is a good writer, but if she is, her efforts at developmental psychology in "The Happy Room" gave her little chance of showing her skills. Although the book has a clear message, it has basically no plot. Her characters had little nuance and dialogue was often awkward. Worse of all, its blatant "Evangelical" Christian message that Jesus can turn all our mistakes (and our parent's missteps) into Godly victory will proselytize no-one but the most simple-minded and cause intelligent potential-believers to head for the exits. If Protestant Christianity, as practiced in the North American Bible Belt, is simply a cover-up for poor parenting or offspring who blame personal missteps on a distant past, who needs it?

As for the Rift Valley Academy boarding school, the boogey-bear of Palmer's three siblings, in the 70's when I was there it was a secure paradise compared to the post-colonial African civil wars and political maelstroms outside its confines. Try traveling internationally with two younger sisters in tow, no cash, and perennially incomplete health and immigration papers if you want to whine about abandonment at a tender age.

My fellow students at RVA would have been maladjusted or social pillars regardless of where they grew up. My parents were also "God's work before family" faith-based (no Southern Baptist salaries and retirement funds for them) missionaries but from within that household today my siblings encompass a New Testament Evangelical, a mainstream Protestant, an agnostic and, finally, an atheist. Try blaming THAT personal belief cacophony on RVA teachers who, as a whole, prepared us spiritually, academically and socially far beyond what 8-to-3, five-days-a-week public schools in the USA can claim.

Okay, I admit to choking up on occasion while reading "The Happy Room" and feeling sorry for myself in a family that should be much more than it is. Palmer succeeded in making me think and feel what I have long since thought buried. But she could have done it SO much more effectively if she had made an effort to truly tell the missionary kid story. That story is still out there, waiting to be told. For that reminder, at least, I am thankful to Catherine Palmer's book.
This book is an honest reminder of how serving God should not become an excuse to be an absentee parent. Looks at some hard issues.
I have enjoyed several of Ms. Palmer's books. This story portrays life's struggles with humor, love & forgiveness. Worth the read.
Love it
One of my favorite books, particularly in regard to selective memory and childhood trauma. A story of the struggles of growing up in a third-culture environment in Africa, and how three children, raised in the same family, can choose to remember things from a differing perspective. Cross-cultural and inter-cultural communication issues are addressed; a refreshing look at the power of perspective.
Palmer's story of three grown missionary kids confronting their past and their parents is at its best when telling their childhood stories of Africa and the missionary subculture in which they were raised. The story has trouble in the narrative present, in America, as the same children struggle with finding their own places in the world. Perhaps the story is not long enough to deal with this amount of complexity -- or perhaps we are not meeting the characters at the right point in their lives. Though the ending is not tidy, it does come cross as though the characters themselves believe that their problems, and their respective solutions, are simpler than they are. When reading this book, I found myself comparing it to The Last Year of the War, another work of fiction which describes the evangelical Christian subculture with more particular detail and depth.

Despite its flaws, though, this book's inside view of the missionary subculture is more accurate than the one given in, for example, The Poisonwood Bible. As a missionary kid myself, I know and recognize people like those in The Happy Room; I don't recognize the ones in Kingsolver's book, whom I suspect represent an outsider's projections.