Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Insightful, authentic, and native view of Mother Teresa, April 12, 1998
If, like Goldilocks in the children's fable, you're looking for the book about Mother Teresa that is "just right", you found it. If you want to buy only one book, the one that will give you the true to life picture of the physically diminutive and otherwise bigger than life nun, Chawla's biography is for you.Authors too close to the subject give unnecessary details that distract from the main points. Such is the case in "Mother Teresa, Her Life, Her Work Her Message". But that book, written by a Missionary of Charity Co-Worker, redeems itself with valuable anecdotes and useful explanations. Authors too distant from the subject see Mother Teresa mainly in her administrative actions and miss the powerful personal charisma, the driving force. Kathryn Spink's complete authorized biography, "Mother Teresa", falls on that end of the scale. It includes a complete appendix listing the place and date of opening of every Missionary of Charity Foundation outside of India, plus Mother's unabridged acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize. The exhaustive research makes Spink's work an essential resource for the serious investigator of Mother Teresa's work, but not necessarily the book to introduce you to Mother Teresa, the person. The source that is just right is the author who has a native understanding of India, coupled with a professional knowledge of the many factors required to work with lepers. Add the objectivity of someone not Catholic, but with an inquiring mind and a university education and you have Navin Chawla. Chawla spent five years preparing this work, making sure he understood the inner person, and then delivering his insights. For example, from the Prologue "As a Hindu, it took me longer than most to understand that Mother Teresa is with Christ each concious hour, whether at Mass or with each of those to whom she tends. It is not a different Christ on her crucifix and a different one which lies dying at Kalighat....For Mother Teresa, to love one's ! neighbor is to love God....This is what is essential to her..." Chawla's book is powerful because his understanding is powerful. He takes nothing for granted. He focuses on the heart of the matter before him: how to explain this unique individual. The complexity of roles that Mother Teresa mastered are all in Chawla's book. He presents the Teresa that stands up to angry mobs, cajoles resources out of ministers of state, bandages lepers, rules an order numbering thousands of young women, croons a song to an orphan, and much more. How does she do this and maintain integrity with her mission, fidelity to her doctrine and obedience to her religious advisors? What is different about this particular nun? These are some of the questions anyone hoping to write about Mother Teresa must answer. Chawla, the "just right" biographer, gives answers that are neither analytical and dry, nor sentimental and trivial. He carefully balances interviews, research, and his personal experiences with Mother Teresa. The result is a picture of Mother Teresa that is both informative and compelling. A biography must make me smile, and feel along with the writer. It must make me involved enough in the subject to be there, or it's only a reference book. Mother Teresa never took time to read anything written about her. I have a feeling that, if she had, Mother Teresa may have preferred this book, written by one from her adopted country. Written by one who, like herself, had an interest in helping lepers. But that is just my personal guess. Read it and see if you think so too.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Portrait of a Remarkable Life, August 4, 2000
What makes this hagiography stand out from the many other profiles of Mother Teresa is Navin Chawla's unprecedented access to the Saint of the Gutters. In addition to knowing Mother Teresa for over twenty years, she asked her sisters, associates, and volunteers to cooperate with him in compiling her life story. As a result, readers are privy to Mother Teresa's private one on one meeting with Queen Elizabeth, her phone call from Sadam Hussain, and a hodgepodge of other historical tidbits that provide nearly unfathomable contrasts.Like any accurate biography of Mother Teresa, the book discusses her tremendous respect for non-Christian religions. One of her lifelong goals was to make people better at their religion-better Buddhists, better Muslims, better Jews, or better Christians. The author subtly portrays that as just one of the many ironies to Mother Teresa. With the possible exception of the Pope, nobody stood as a more widely know avatar of the Catholic Church; yet, millions of the people she aided were not Christians. An unflinching defender of Catholic dogma, she unquestionably reached out to those whose problems were the direct result of what she considered sinful behavior. From the many hospices she established to care for AIDS victims to the Missionaries of Charity's loving worldwide support for unwed mothers, Mother Teresa's devotion knew no bounds. With its publication about five years before her death, Navin has produced a felicitous tribute to a woman whose eleemosynary life will serve as an inspiring example for the remainder of humanity's existence.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
If you want to become a better person read this book, January 28, 2005
I am not a brilliant reviewer, and probably don't have anything scholarly or outstanding to say about this book. I don't know if saying that I know it has and will change my life is the truth and I hope that is enough to make you want to read this book.
I was home sick with the flu. Getting out of bed was a task seeminly unaccomplishable. I had this book in my pile to be donated to the library. I was struck to read it, although it had been too long in the donation pile I had never been struck to read it before.
"The superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions". Confucious (551-479). This quote, no, is not in the book but makes me think of Mother Teresa. This book, Written by a dear friend of hers in such an easily readable style, we are not bombarded by profound literary thought, or brilliant quotes, but the true to life story of a living saint. I had always known Mother Teresa was a wonderful person, but I did not know what a miracle worker this woman was! This Godly woman set foot with three saris a few pennies into the slums of India, hoping to give love and hope where none existed. With no money, little education and having left the security of the confines of the Convent where she did her missionary work for years in India as teacher and Principle of a school for both Young Nuns and the poor children of India. I believe the year was 1942 that Mother Teresa had a vision that she was to go amongst the poor and serve them in the streets where it is needed most. With much meditation and consultation with her spiritual advisor father van exem it took much time for her dream to come to realization. She wanted to remain faithful to her catholic faith and not be seen as a "secular" that had abandoned her role as Mother. Years later with nothing more than three Saris and pennies she was on her way into the streets. She was offered money by the Catholic Church, but refused all, saying that God would be her provider. And God was.
This is a European woman that stepped out into the poorest of the poor streets of India with no money, no home and no guarantees. She has been ridiculed, starved had stones thrown at her been threatened and persecuted. Rejected and lacking in support from the Catholic Church. This is a woman who started her first school in India with a twig that she drew out the Bengali alphabet in under a tree. She didn't believe in saving, as she always believed that God would provide. She never asked for donations, but sometimes would resort to begging as the poor did. Never for herself always for others. The amazement of this woman was that she did it all on faith. today there are homes created by mother Theresa in over 130 countries including the U.S. Her Missionary Services called Missionaries of Charity continues to grow even after her death. There are Sisters and Brothers that serve and have all taken the poverty vow.They live exactly like the poor. No possesions, sometimes starving and always depending on God. I cried the whole time I read the book, because it became so evident to me how one humble little heart could change the world. She always refered to herself as a mere instrument of God and all the work was done by God. This amazing woman has services that take care of almost every need. no one is left out. From the dying, the homeless, leprosy victims, to drug and alcohol rehab services. Everything created without a bank account. This amazing book changed me. I hope it will change all.
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