A Fragile Hope

by Cynthia Ructi
Hennepin County Library paperback 315 pages
genre: Christian realistic fiction
published: 2011

This was good, not great. We had a delightful book club conversation about it. Basically, Josiah Chamberlain is an author and "marriage expert" who mostly takes his wife for granted. When she lands in the hospital in a coma after a car accident, he struggles with some major confusion and misunderstanding. From the back cover, "Feeling betrayed, confused, and ill-equiped for a crisis this crippling, he reexamines everything he knows about the fragility of hope and the strength of his faith and love."

For not liking it that much, I sure marked a lot of pages. I'll try to be brief.

Page 43 - Made me laugh!
"Son, we'll get through this. Gum?"
Gum? Stan's answer? Your life is falling apart? Here, have a piece of gum. "No thanks."

Page 76 - There are times I wish I could wash my mind out with soap!
Josiah pounded his temples with his fists. Leah's husband died in that accident! And Josiah felt relief? Relief! Was there a way he could wash his mind out with soap?

Page 110 - I'm thankful that I don't often feel this kind of ambivalence, but I recognize this.
Why can't I have one genuine, unadulterated emotion? I can't feel either joy or pain without interference from its opposite. I can't rejoice over a contract without the cement block of guilt and almost laughable inadequacy pulling me under. 

 Page 132 - This is just sad . . .
"His mind scrolled through page after page of text he'd written, tips he'd outlined with memorable titles, sessions with couples he'd felt sorry for, faces of those who'd appeared starved for his wisdom. His pathetic wisdom. . . . . It's not about finding someone to blame.

Page 134 - The whole infertility / adoption conversation! Ouch for any woman who has been in that situation like the character Karin.

Page 138 - This scene wasn't unexpected, but still made me cry. Both Catherine and Stan were amazing characters. And I love this line:
"Josiah sensed his soul would look pale, anemic, if it stood side by side with Stan's."

Page 176 - Another line that jumped out at me.
"Could he wipe out several hundred backed-up emails? He held the current title in destructive tendencies. World-class master at despair, depression, disillusionment, disgust, defeat, delete."
Upon reflection, I probably just like the alliteration. I didn't especially like the character of Josiah or his negative attitude.

Page 197 - Interesting . . .
"Josiah formed the words, 'Can I pray for you?' but swallowed them. It wasn't the kind of thing he had to announce in order for it to work."
I wish we'd talked about this at book club . . . when you ask that question, isn't it partly about inviting the person to open their heart to God's will for them?

Page 216 - Ugh! This part just rang TOO true for anyone who has spent time in an ICU environment. The author nailed it!
"After this long, he knew all the words, could distinguish the variety of beeps and wheezes from the equipment, felt at ease pronouncing the Latin labels for Karin's broken bones, the pharma-cute names of her medicines. He knew which nurses worked casual, which phlebotomists knew what they were doing, which fluorescent light tubes in the hall ceiling had bad baffles. He knew how far the maintenance crew had gotten in converting to LED."

Page 261 - I love Dr. Moore!!!!
"Don't you trust me. Don't trust the surgical team in there." She pointed upward. "You trust the only One who can make a difference for your family. He can pull off rescues beyond our abilities. You hear me?"
And I love the follow-up line:
"Five foot nothing, and she could talk him into believing hope hadn't exhausted itself yet."

Page 265 - Stan is an absolutely amazing man! Josiah clearly had a less than stellar father himself; good thing his father-in-law was a stronger role model.
Where did you go to school to be a father, Stanley Vortman? You graduated with honors, didn't you? 

Page 312 - We had a great discussion about this major plot point in our book club. . . but I don't want to put any spoilers out here. Let's just say that most major relationships miscommunications have TWO participants.