My Mother's Wish

Ellee sets out to distinguish herself from everyone else in her small town. She does not want to settle for the proper life her mother envisions for her. She rebels in small ways: the backwards direction she writes in her diary, the way she writes across the lines, and shortening her name to Ellee from Eleanor. All of it fits the best word she knows, “contrariwise.”

In My Mother’s Wish her father accepts her the way she is yet her mother is disappointed in Ellee’s constant need to be different. Strife ensues and we find Ellee taking off for parts unknown. I felt like there were pages missing because in one chapter she is leaving Missouri in July and in the next we find her at a truck stop diner in Nebraska just before Christmas. She misses home. A waitress shows concern, a truck driver offers her a ride which she readily accepts, and lo and behold, drops her off at her home without her revealing any details about herself. She returns to find her mother accepts her at last, as demonstrated by the fact that she has written Ellee instead of Eleanor on the Christmas list tagged to the refrigerator, and her mother’s lone wish is to have her back.

A very quick read, I found this little book too cute. There was no meat to it. Assuming the author is using this short narrative to get across the idea of unconditional love that God gives to each of us, this does not cut it for me. Give me the real Christmas story any day.

Published by WaterBrook Press and written by Jerry Camery-Hoggatt.
If you are curious, I have three books to give away.

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