An Absence So Great

In her book, An Absence So Great, Jane Kirkpatrick examines some very weighty issues of the heart in a thoughtful and thought-provoking manner.  The second of her “Portrait of the Heart” series, An Absence So Great continues to follow, pioneer photographer, Jessie Gaebele as she leaves the safety of her family and home in Winona, MN and ventures to make her own way in the world and in photography because of her disgrace of falling in love with married man, FJ Bauer, for whom she worked in Winona.  One of the most interesting parts of this story, is that the premise, and many of the details, are true, as Jessie was the author’s grandmother.  I found this encouraging as Jessie was a real person who lived, made mistakes, and found forgiveness and ultimately love.  There is no perfect, fairy tale happy ending for Jessie, but she does find peace, love and safety and ultimately her identity in Christ alone.
There were times I was uncomfortable with the subject matter of unfaithfulness, divorce and remarriage, yet again, this was a true story, and so these people, like myself really lived.  I had to ask myself some deeply personal questions as I read. “Am I uncomfortable with what is happening, because I too have a deeply rooted propensity to sin and to be discontent in my roles as Jessie and FJ were?”  It is often said that the things we dislike in others are those character qualities we most despise in ourselves.  There were no pat answers in An Absence So Great, simply an unflinching, unapologetic look at real people who lived in a real place and time.  One quote from the book regarding divorce and remarriage that I believe Jessie did grasp in her lifetime was something her friend and employer, Virginia said to her, “There are no greener pastures on the other side of that legal fence, that’s what I think.  There will always be weeds masquerading as flowers.”
Some books can be taken alone, but An Absence So Great is one that must be read with the first book of the series, A Flickering Light.  I highly recommend the two books.  I particularly enjoyed the two books because they were mostly set in Winona, MN and the books included many of Jessie’s photographs, some of Winona at the turn of the century. I lived in Winona for the first 6 years of my marriage and two of my children were born there. So, when the author talked about Sugar Loaf and the Prairie-style architecture of Merchant’s National Bank, I knew exactly of what she was speaking. I truly enjoyed this book!

This book was provided for review by Waterbrook Multnomah

For more information on this book please visit http://www.waterbrookmultnomah.com/