Earthlight Magazine / Books / Home
Copyright © 1997 by Anna Deborah Ackner
All rights reserved. Inquiries should be addressed to
Twelve Star Publishing, P.O. Box 123, Jefferson, MD 21755
Earthlight Magazine / Books
/ Home
Copyright © 1997 by Anna Deborah Ackner
All rights reserved. Inquiries should be addressed to
Twelve Star Publishing, P.O. Box 123, Jefferson, MD 21755
Some books touch the heart, stirring our emotions. Some touch
the intellect, asking the reader to think in ways he or she has
never considered. Some books touch the soul, bringing the reader
intimations of the ineffable.
Sometimes, and all too rarely, a book comes along that touches
the heart, the intellect and the soul, and brings new light to
everything in us we consider "human." Such a book is
Kim Chernin's In My Father's Garden.
In this small, slender, gemlike book, Chernin - best known for
her books examining the relationship between eating disorders,
women's self-image and society -- turns her attention to a different
sort of relationship. It is more personal, and more universal:
her awakening spirituality.
Raised as an enlightened, intellectual, humanist, atheist by her
socialist parents, (something with which I immediately identified,
as I was a "Red Diaper Baby" myself), Chernin had never
considered spirituality in a positive light. Certainly it did
not pertain to herself, or help advance the social causes with
which she was so passionately involved. At grudging best it was
a diversion, a useless waste of time.
And then, comfortably settled in middle age, a series of small,
almost unnoticeable events awakens the spirituality Chernin has
repressed or denied. Her search for the roots of this spirituality
leads back to her childhood, where she had always identified with
her radical, firebrand, activist mother, and changing the world
through revolution eclipsed the value of any other activity.
In this new, softer light she begins to realize the quiet power
of her gentle, socialist father, who would have laughed at and
scorned the idea of being thought spiritual. Yet, in his patient
tending of the flowers of his beloved garden, and the equally
patient nurturing of human relationships, Chernin finds a practical
spirituality. She comes to appreciate the unseen web of relationship,
which connects one being to another, and eventually the entire
world. This comforts Chernin, as she seeks to reconcile spirituality
to the larger, material world, in which injustice and abuse still
require redress.
As a series of three, interconnected biographical stories, In
My Father's Garden is a love poem dedicated to the small,
beautiful things of life: to family, to friendship, to all relationships.
It also challenges the mind with questions for which there may
not be answers, but which must be asked. That Chernin can evoke
such a variety of thoughts and emotions in such economical prose
is a miracle in itself.
My only regret about In My Father's Garden is that you
won't read this review until after the winter gift-giving season
is over, because it is a book that I believe you will want to
share with everyone you love. But never mind about that -- gifts
of joy can be given at any time of the year, and this book is,
indisputably, a gift of joy. Get it for yourself, for the parents
you felt you did not understand, for the children you feel do
not understand you, for the friends you cherish, or the people
in your world with whom you have difficulties. Give it, or lend
it, or talk about it to everyone who matters to you in any way.
It is a treasure to be shared, and, like love and goodness and
spirituality themselves, the more you give it away, the more of
it you have.
Read In My Father's Garden. I promise you it is an experience
you will never forget.
Anna Deborah Ackner is a writer and poet from Reading,
PA.
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