Kelly Irvin has quickly become one of my favorite Christian fiction
writers. Until I started reading her
novels, I hadn’t read too many Amish theme books. I was excited at the opportunity to read Kelly’s
newest book A Long Bridge Home, the second book in the Amish
of Big Sky Country, which takes place during the same timeframe as the
first book, Mountains of Grace.
Wildfires are burning in the mountains near the community of West
Kootenai, Montana.
Christine and the Mast family
evacuate but do not intend to return to West Kootenai. Her mother and father have decided it’s time
for their family to return to Kansas where her father’s parents live and need
help in their older years. Christine is
desperate to stay because of her special friend Andy Lambright. While they are not engaged, they’ve talked
about marriage and seem to be heading in that direction. Andy is evacuating too, but he’s returning to
his family’s home so he can deal with some unfinished business. Andy and Christine persuade her parents to
let her stay a little bit closer in St. Ignatius, Montana.
Christine will be staying
with family, but she will be experiencing a whole new world than what she’s
used to. Andy returns home and finds old
wounds still haven’t healed and the best remedy is forgiveness, even though he
was one who was wronged. Will his lack
of honesty drive Christine away? Will
Christine remain faithful to her special friend? Or will she be lured away by the excitement of
her new friend Raymond Old Fox and a culture that is foreign to her?
I really liked the
characters in A Long Bridge Home. My
favorite was Andy, he was an honest and vulnerable and was growing and
maturing. I liked Christine but found
her secrecy about her relationship with Raymond betrayed her conscience. Raymond Old Fox was an interesting character
and I liked him. I wondered what
attracted him to pursue a friendship with Christine. I found it interesting to learn about the
Native Indian history and culture and to see some of the similarities to the
Amish culture and the contrasts.
Where I ran into some
discomfort with this book was how Christine wrestled with the differences in
her Christian faith and spirituality from Raymond’s Native Indian culture. It is interesting to learn of other cultures
and what they believe but, as a Christian, we cannot forget that the Bible is
the plumbline of truth and of right and wrong, heaven and hell, sin, rebellion,
truth, righteousness, forgiveness, repentance, and salvation through Jesus
Christ alone.
Christine hesitated to
share her faith, in part, because of the mistreatment of Raymond’s Native
Indian ancestors at the hands of people who said they were Christians.
I tried to let Christine
wrestle through what she was learning and how that differed from what she knew
of the Bible. I struggled with her
trying to see her Christian faith and Raymond’s spirituality as equivalent. Christine seemed to think that Raymond’s belief
in a Creator was the same as her belief in the God of the Bible. At one point she said, “He’s your God too.” I wanted to tell Christine, “No He’s not…not
at this point.” But I did appreciate
that Christine wanted to pray for Raymond and she felt the need to tell him
about Jesus Christ even though that was not done in her Amish culture. I appreciated Andy’s trust in Christine and his
more mature understanding of the differences between the Amish and Indian religious
beliefs.
Christine had some wrong theology
and I highlighted a number of statements and made many notes. I tried to let the character wrestle with her
thoughts and theological understanding. Ideally,
I would like to have wrong theology corrected in the novel, perhaps by another character
or by a character’s growing understanding.
Is the right theology
important in a fiction novel by a Christian author? Yes, because that book may influence a reader
for right or wrong.
There was much that I
liked about A Long Bridge Home, the characters and storyline. But I struggled with some of the wrong
theology the main character expressed.
I would like to thank Zondervan
Publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to read A Long Bridge Home
by Kelly Irvin. I was
under no obligation to give a favorable review.
