Unending Devotion by JODY HEDLUND(BETHANY HOUSE)

In Michigan during the time when men worked hard in the lumber camps to make money for their families three girls lived through horrible days of emotional and physical abuse. Two girls, Daisy and Lily, were sisters. Frankie is not a relative or a close friend. Of the girls only Lily has enough freedom to try and rescue Daisy. The novel Unending Devotion caused me to think about power. When power is in the wrong hands, all sorts of atrocious situations can happen in society. James Carr is a man with a magnificent amount of power. He is fully aware of the fact that people fear him. He is also aware of the fact that his power can reach as far as the tentacles of an octopus. He's a cruel man. I found it hard to believe that a man could live without a conscience and without a shred of kindness in him. What makes a person so heartless? I didn't have time or concern to worry about what made Carr tick psychologically. Like Lily I just wanted his senseless evil to end.

I liked Lily's character. Her whole heart is about removing evil from Michigan. She wants to see reform for young women who are being misused in the most ugliest of ways. Lily isn't afraid to put her life on the line. Even when she falls in love with Connell her heart doesn't settle because she is loved and safe. She still wants to see all the women set free who live in the stockade with James Carr. Sometimes a strong woman can help a man see the light and become stronger. This is one of those instances. Lily empowers Connell to fight for change in the lumber yards. Shanty men don't have to live in saloons for their relief from work and stress. Shanty men don't have to live in fear of one man like James Carr, a cheater and a thief.

Jody Hedlund writes about activism with a photographic eye. It is no wonder that Oren is a photographer and Lily acts as his assistant. The novel reminded me that when one of God's sheep are hurting. All of us must hurt until change happens in a whole society or to one or two people. I also thought about the fact that God doesn't allow evil to last forever. He loves us too much to allow pain to continue on and on and on. He is a God of Love.jodyhedlund

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Catherine E. Mckinley had a deep desire to know about Indigo. It became her purpose.

Image
"We watched the woman disappear into the bend of the road. It was unsettling. She seemed possessed, driven by some mimetic force. I was afraid that that force was also a part of me. I was also a worshiper, set wandering in an unfamiliar land."   It seems this week I have been driven to write about my mother. It has happened more than once. Here she is again. Tapping my shoulder a reminder that she loved blue. There is the one and only photo of her where she wears a dress of blue. The photo was taken years and years ago. In the photo are my two nephews, my mother and myself.. The photo was taken in West Philadelphia. She sewed it. A light blue that now I wish to call "Indigo." I have much to learn about Indigo. It is easy to pick up on the author, Catherine E. Mckinley's, fervent love for the color. One day my son asked me my favorite color. I said, "I don't have one." I don't. Perhaps, I choose colors by mood. Today red  and tomorrow green,
Read more

First Chapter First Paragraph

Image
http://www.bibliophilebythesea.blogspot.com Closed until June 13     "Michael Hunter stared at the hand-lettered sign on the Gull Motel office, expelled a breath, and raked his fingers through his hair. Not the welcome he'd been expecting after a mind-rumbling thirty-six-hour cross-country drive to the Oregon coast. And where was he supposed to stay for the next three weeks, until the place opened again?"
Read more

Are these the types of lives we are seeing and reading about in the news today?

Image
"The difference between life and death was information:..the greatest danger was not the river, but the desert beyond. There the temperatures were so hellish they melted stones, there was no water, and they could be preyed upon by scorpions, wildcats, and hungry real coyotes...Rattlesnakes, as well as coral, moccasin, and darting indigo snakes, came out to hunt at night, the time when the migrants set off, because the daytime heat was lethal." isabelallende
Read more