Review
"James Schaap knows the gravity of common things." --
Walter Wangerin, pastor and professor of literature at Valparaiso University"James Schaap's vivid and sharp-edged storytelling is propelled by his unflinching gaze at the truth of ourselves." --
Jean Janzen, a National Foundation for the Arts recipient for her work, is professor of poetry, Fresno Pacific University and Eastern Mennonite University."Jim Schaap's characters are so real you can reach out and touch them." --
Joey Earl Horstman teaches English at Bethel College.“James Schaap’s vivid and sharp-edged storytelling is propelled by his unflinching gaze at the truth of ourselves." --
Jean Janzen professor of poetry at Fresno Pacific University and Eastern Mennonite University“Jim Schaap’s characters are so real you can reach out and touch them... " --
Joey Earl Horstman teaches English at Bethel College
From the Publisher
The quality of recognizing the extraordinary in the ordinary; of being fully alive to the moment; of stripping down to plain thought all the confusions that layer us, that muffle the heart-cry within – this is the gift of the writer as prophet, the artist as writer.
Jim Schaap is much more than a courageous and compelling storyteller; he is a truth-teller. He creates life on the pages before us, cuts to the heart of it, and offers us, over and over, an old-new understanding of the varied ways of humanity . . . and of God. Not a “good plot” . . . not religion, but Truth.
This is a book for the young, and the not-so-young, for parents and those who struggle with them – for those who inhabit either side of the age-old chasm between fathers (and mothers) and their offspring. It is for those of us who wonder about this “foreigner” we thought we knew. Jim’s people live it out – sometimes muddle it through. But always we walk along with them, cheering them on. And that is the secret weapon of a master storyteller.
Wherever you are in life, you are in these stories -- or you know these people well. Now you will know yourself, or them, just a little better. And love them better.
