The Happy Room (Paperback)

~ (Author) "Julia Chappell dreaded the phone call she'd been waiting for all morning..." (more)
Key Phrases: glue lady, antbear hole, safari ants, Land Rover, Happy Room, Mau Mau (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this important but disturbing novel for the Christian market, an award-winning romance writer switches genres to expose what happens when parents neglect their families in the name of God. As three "missionary kids" hit middle age, they find that their parents' prolonged absences while they were children have kept them from functioning normally as adults. Julia Chappell is the seemingly perfect wife of a youth minister, but she is unhappily pregnant again with twins after her husband's failed vasectomy. Julia's brother, Peter Mossman, is on the brink of divorce because of his outbursts of anger. When their sister, Debbie Mossman, lies near death with anorexia, Julia and Peter rush to her hospital bed. Together they unpack the bitter memories of their childhood abandonment, beginning with the "Happy Room" day care on board a ship bound for Africa. Palmer uses journal-like entries to flash back to episodes as seen through the eyes of each sibling. When confronted, their mother can't understand her children's anguish over the past, since she and her husband were only following "God's will." The novel is a thinly disguised roman clef Palmer grew up the daughter of missionary parents in Africa, and the story rings with authenticity. It isn't flawless; there's a needlessly repetitive section where Debbie discusses her childhood bout with malaria, and Peter's return to faith is wrapped up too neatly. But Palmer deserves kudos for plowing new ground for CBA readers, who are used to having their missionaries portrayed with polished halos.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Palmer, daughter of missionaries to Kenya, turns in a frankly autobiographical work with The Happy Room, about siblings Julia, Peter, and Debbie Mossman who gather at Debbie's bedside when her anorexia brings her near death. Childhood neglect is in part responsible for Debbie's condition, as it is for Julia's "doormat" psychology and Peter's self-destructive rebelliousness. The siblings begin to come to terms with it all in their reminiscences of a Christian boarding school where their parents sent them nine months of the year. They grew up with shattered identities, not Kenyan, not really American. Was it the fault of their parents, who could not be dedicated missionaries and good parents as well? Maybe, maybe not, Palmer suggests, in this deeply felt and personal novel, her best in a string of increasingly accomplished efforts. John Mort
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers; 1st Thus. edition (December 31, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0842354220
• ISBN-13: 978-0842354226
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #672,368 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars familiar, but very different, July 6, 2005

By	Donia "fivefishsticks" (Virginia, USA) - See all my reviews

Having graduated from the same missionary boarding school as Palmer, but over a decade later (I think), our experiences were quite different. Although we still ate from metal trays in the 1980's, there were neither metal fragments or worms in our cafeteria meals. This barely fictional account vividly describes the wonder and beauty some of us found as children in Africa, while candidly portraying the inner conflict felt by many missionaries and their children as a balance is sought between "God's work" and what is best for the family.

Perhaps in part because I entered boarding school as a teenager and not a small child, I never felt the abandonment the characters in this book describe, but I had friends and siblings whose memories are not as warm as mine and who struggled for years to come to terms with being "sent away".

This book will touch raw nerves for many involved with missions and that will be a good thing if it opens eyes and hearts to the often unspoken needs and hidden pain of missionary children. As a public school teacher in the U.S., I see many children in pain and with difficult or even awful lives, but missionary children are sometimes the last ones to show their pain because it's so important to put on a happy face.

I could go on and on...obviously this book moved me deeply. The only reason I did not give 5 stars was that I hope people don't think that the school represented by "KCA" in the book is the way Palmer describes it. If it ever was that bad, it changed long ago. For a thorough history of the school, Rift Valley Academy, see "School in the Clouds," by Phil Dow, another alumnus.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wow! Finally!, September 11, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: The Happy Room (Hardcover)

The Happy Room captures the contradictions and confusions which children of missionaries often, if not usually, experience both as children and adults. As the daughter, granddaughter and sister of missionaries, I am thrilled to see this material dealt with in a novel. Often more truth can be told in fiction than in straight biography. This cogent work hits the issues, from abandonment to spiritualization of feelings, with honesty, insight, grace and balance.
A few years ago I read The Poisonwood Bible with hope that it would deal with the psychological effects of the Missionary Kid (MK) experience. But it was written by an observer, not one who lived it, and while it was a fascinating novel, it seemed to me to be a distortion of missionary life. The Happy Room is an accurate portrate. The Happy Room will be on the psychologist's, counselor's, pastor's, and hopefully even the missions professor's bookshelf, not to mention that of every MK who is fortunate enough to include it in his or her journey.
I recommend this book to young people feeling "called" to the mission field, and to their mentors, professors, and pastors. I recommend it to any frined, spouse, or grown child of a "Third Culture Kid." I recommend it to all TCK's with one foot in each of two cultures and at home in neither; to all ACM's (Adult Children of Missionaries) especially when the reason given was "doing God's will." I recommend it for discussion in support groups, 12 step groups, and Bible Studies. I recommend it to ponder, laugh and cry over in private.
Thank you, Catherine, thank you for telling our story!

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars WOW! A moving and thought-provoking book., February 23, 2002

By	Greg Markway (JEFFERSON CITY, MO United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Happy Room (Hardcover)

This book is inspired. Catherine Palmer wrote this book from the heart. It is quite different from much Christian fiction in that it offers no simple answers other than showing the human need for faith in the divine. The main characters in this book are the adult children of missionary parents. The children struggle with the concept that they felt abandoned by their parents while the parents were following their own 'calling from God.' The children grow up with a mixture of faith, anger, and resentment, trying to make their own way in the adult world of the US that is so foreign to the Africa where they grew up. In the end, the children and parents come to some understanding of each other, but there are significant difficulties that remain. They learn to accept the human failings of each other. They grow in their faith, but their faith does not protect them from earthly struggles. I am a clinical psychologist and my patients frequently discuss spiritual crises. I am frequently recommending this book because of its honesty.