Leota's Garden

Leota's Garden
by Francine Rivers

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Book Summary Information

Author: Francine Rivers
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2004-01-10
ISBN: 084233498X
Number of pages: 448
Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

Book Reviews of Leota's Garden

Book Review: A mixed bag
Summary: 3 Stars

What did I love about this book? I loved that Leota was so real--an elderly woman with a heart, soul and backbone. I loved that she had a granddaughter that came and administered to her at a lonely time--without resentment. She truly rejoiced in serving her grandmother. Infact, I was inspired to do more to reach out to my family after reflecting on some of the tender passages of sacrifice and selflessness on the part of Anne-Lynn toward her grandmother. However...

There were also some troubling issues for me. First of all, Anne Lynn came across as synthetic and shallow--way too "glory hallelujah" all the time. She lacked substance and it was difficult to care for her as much as I came to care for Leota, Corbin and even Eleanor. Furthermore, as one who believes that God is a big proponent of marriage, I had a hard time swallowing Anne-Lynn's being, basically, "married to Jesus." God heartily endorses marriage and family.

The time frame was also problematic for me... Okay, so Eleanor was, what, 46? The book seemingly took place in the 90s--with cell phones and computers--but Eleanor could remember living through WWII... She should have been atleast 60. Also, Leota was apparently 38 when Nora was born... I inferred from some passages that she was a very young mother during the war years... Yet she was apparently already well into her 40s (considering how old Nora was at that point). My logical side kept interrupting my reading with nagging questions about what the heck year it was supposed to be... The author didn't work out the timeline in a way that made sense, so focused did she seem to be on her religious message. In the end, there was more message than story here.

What's more, I did feel that Rivers used this novel as a soapbox time and again, filling her story with way too many of our society's issues... Somehow, the religious messages seemed to be more gently woven into her Mark of the Lion series. The last couple of her books that I've read (Atonement Child and this one) lacked that subtlety and left me understanding why so many in our culture today think of us Christians as narrow-minded zealots. Even when she's preaching in favor of views I hold near and dear, I find that I'm uncomfortable with her "Bible-thumping" approach to complex issues.

That said, I do carry away from this book a desire to be kinder to my friends and family. So it was not a wasted effort.

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Summary of Leota's Garden

Now available in softcover!

Award-winning author Francine Rivers opens a world full of vibrant characters with a powerful story of hope. In this stunning novel, Francine explores the new life that love can bring to a decaying garden of broken relationships. Through the lives of 84-year-old Leota, her granddaughter, and a college student with all the answers, Francine leads readers to ponder the value of life and truth in a way that only she can.

Acclaimed Christian fiction writer Francine Rivers's (The Atonement Child) Leota's Garden uses the image of the garden as a metaphor for the cycles of life that the characters experience. While the story revolves around a number of lives, they are all connected through Leota--an 84-year-old grandmother--and her garden, which was once a place of beauty and hope but has in recent years gone to ruin. Beginning in desolation--Leota has been neglected by her self-centered daughter, whose obsession with getting her own daughter into the best college has driven them apart--the novel slowly shows the weaving together of lives in the mysterious ways of grace: a proud and narrow-minded college student ends up learning more from Leota than he'd bargained for, and the granddaughter Leota had never been allowed to know shows up looking for some answers, and even more, looking for Leota herself. A garden blooms, the novel suggests, by getting one's hands a little dirty doing the hard work of love. --Doug Thorpe

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