Book Review: Shelter Me

(Note: For those of you who choose to read Christian fiction, this book is a secular fiction book.)

I picked "shelter me" by Juliette Fay up while browsing for some light "end-of-summer" reading a few weeks ago. I think the cover is what first attracted me. It just screamed "warmth" and "read me" right at me! When I read the back cover blurb, I was further attracted by these words:
Four months after her husband's death, Janie LaMarche remains undone by grief and anger. Her mourning is disrupted, however, by the unexpected arrival of a builder with a contract to add a porch onto her house. Stunned, Janie realizes the porch was meant to be a surprise from her husband—now his last gift to her. ... As the porch takes shape, Janie discovers that the unknowable terrain of the future is best navigated with the help of others—even those we least expect to call on, much less learn to love.

The entire story is woven around this porch being built right in the middle of Janie's struggle to put her life back together. It is a beautiful story with raw emotion woven throughout. Janie seems to go through the steps that most grieving people do. She is at times angry and other times completely down. But she continues to try to make her way back to some sense of normalcy for herself and her children.

Little does she know that the porch, and the porch builder, are going to be so pivotal to her restoration. She also receives help from some other unlikely places: her priest befriends her and helps her start to get in touch with her response to her circumstances, her busy-body Aunt Jude forces her to come work in a homeless shelter/soup kitchen and Janie finds herself receiving when she's giving to these needy people, and the person that drove the car that hit her husband also contributes to Janie's road to healing.

At one point, she ends up alone with Tug (the porch builder) and she's quite miffed that her family was part of the plot to send them out alone after Thanksgiving dinner. I love the way the author describes the moment they leave the family gathering:

Out on Route 27, Tug inhaled and heaved a great sigh. The sound of his relief pulled her out of herself and away from stewing about the humiliation she'd suffered. Or might have suffered. Maybe. "Anger is so easy," she realized. "It's being scared that's hard." And if she were to heave her own great big sigh of relief, she knew it would be fear she exhaled, not rage.

Another picture I love is when Janie finds herself talking with Malcolm, a homeless man from the shelter. He is withdrawn and despondent one day and Janie goes to speak with him. She finds out that he has lost his sister. Here's a snippet of their exchange:

"Oh Malcolm," said Janie. "I am so sorry."
He handed her the cigarette and she took another puff. "Yeah," he said, "All's I keep thinking is, 'Now what?' Isn't that stupidest thing? I can't figure out what to do next. Like there is something, but I just don't know what."

Janie nodded. She stared out across the parking lot. He smelled like booze and pee and smoke and the most incredibly rancid body odor. But she didn't even care. "Now what?" she thought. "What other question is there?"

Janie's character is real and raw. The author captures this emotion again and again throughout the story. Janie is also forced to deal with the concept of forgiveness. While journaling one night she notes:

The more I think about it....the more I'm not even sure I really know what forgiveness is. Is it some big cosmic do-over? Like no harm, no foul? But there was harm--big hairy, serious harm. Robby doesn't get a do-over, and neither do I or the kids. Things are broken now that can't be fixed. How come the other guy gets a Get Out of Jail Free card?

As I said, this book primarily shows a very human response to a horrible tragedy. While there are snippets of faith throughout the book, it's not central. Janie has quite the language sometimes. The love story also gets somewhat graphic at points--but no more so than a PG-13 movie might. I kind of like that.

Of course, the faith side of me is saddened that this element is mostly missing from Janie's life. Hers is more an obligatory attendance at her family's Catholic church. But that's real life for so many people.

I like the fact that Fay is able to tell a story that is warm and inviting and emotion-packed without going too far or too explicity for my reading enjoyment. I appreciate the way she seems to use the character to figure out her own thoughts and beliefs on love, justice, mercy, and forgiveness. I found the book enjoyable and one I'd pass along.