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Title: Here If You Need Me: A True Story
ISBN: 0316066303
Author:
Kate Braestrup
Publicate Date: 2007-08-01
Publish: 2007-08-01
List Price: $23.99
Average Customer Rating: 4.5
Format: Hardcover
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $2.54
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $2.20
Amazon Merchant Price: $16.31
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| Customer Review: |
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1: If God Was a Maniac...
At its foundation, HERE IF YOU NEED ME asks the timeless question: Why? Why does God stand by indifferently while bad things happen to good people? Kate Braestrup brings the abstract musings to concrete reality as she chronicles her sometimes unenviable tasks as a chaplain to the Maine Warden Service. Is there any sense to the deaths she witnesses (after the fact) in the Maine woods, lakes, ponds, and streams? People from Maine are affectionately called "Mainiacs," but Braestrup defends the very God many others question in this book. That defense, along with the mix of upbeat and heartrending real-life stories she shares, make the book worth a trip upstream.
Braestrup doesn't kid herself. By the end of the book, she admits to many paradoxes, including her own. Only through the tragedy of losing her own husband, a state trooper with a dream of becoming a minister, does she herself follow that path and become a chaplain with the Warden Service (a vocation she comes to love). If nothing else, Life -- some might say God -- is ironic. Still, Braestrup would insist, He is love as well.
Perhaps less successful is her blending of abstract, theological questions with rather frank descriptions of the body human (both alive and dead). But there are those who would argue, with some degree of truth, that this is exactly her point -- humans make a fetish of the body at the expense of the soul. Her mission, then, is to bring the corporeal down to size. The trouble? If that sort of thing bothers you, the going may get rough despite all the philosophical smelling salts along the way.
Overall, a worthy effort. Fine writing and an honest voice overcome the sometimes disconcerting jumps of this episodic memoir to create a work that should please both fans of religion and fans of the outdoors. Recommended.
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2: nice try but..
the author tries to approach her subject with interest, but alas it is only hers, a disappointing read.
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3: Braestrup tells true stories of love the emerge from loss. tragedy and fear
Kate Braestrup decided to become an ordained Unitarian Universalist minister, after her husband suddenly died in a car accident. With humor, she portrays herself as "The Plucky Widow," as she completes her seminary training and accepts the position of chaplain to the Maine Warden Service. She is chaplain to game wardens, not prison wardens. Her role is assisting victims and families during search and rescue missions in Maine. She relates detailed stories of these missions, and the varying spiritual needs of families, game wardens, police officers and search victims. There are tales of lost children and found children, bereaved families and families that curse the newly dead. With vivid detail, empathy, and occasional wit, she examines loss, tragedy, hope and meaning especially through difficult times. Her stories are powerful testimony to ordinary people giving and receiving love during times of loss and tragedy.
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4: Complicated questions, answered with grace
I first read the excerpts from this book in Oprah magazine, and when I saw the book on the shelf I had to buy it. What a lovely, warm, compassionate person. She wrote about a lot of issues that I struggle with, and I felt better almost immediately after I read her thoughts and philosophy. What a lovely little book.
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5: No Depth - Reader's Digest
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.
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