Gary Chapman and Catherine Palmer coauthored It Happens Every Spring, the first of a series, in order to illustrate through fiction some of Chapman’s teachings about dealing with seasons of marriage. I don’t think I have read any of Chapman’s books, but I have enjoyed several of Palmer’s.
The group of ladies in different stages of marriage meet in the “Just As I Am” beauty salon (though I love the truth of the song by the same name, I thought it was kind of ironic for the name of a place where people go to change something about themselves) which also has a tea room where the ladies chat while waiting for their appointments. Though we see glimpses into all of the marriages, the main focus of this book is on Brenda and Steve, a middle-aged couple whose children are grown and gone, one to the mission field and two to college. Brenda’s dreams of spending their empty nest years doing things together are dimmed when Steve finds a second wind in a new career and is gone from the house most of the time, even taking clients out to eat most evenings a week. They both know that they have problems, but they both withdraw and inwardly blame the other, until the resulting vulnerability of Brenda brings the marriage to a crisis.
I thought the subject was handled well and the changes in point of view illustrated how each other’s behavior looked and was interpreted by the other. The conflicts and feelings were realistically expressed and handled. The other ladies show a great range in ages and personalities as well as seasons in relationships. Even though in some places it seemed obvious that the plot was fitted around Chapman’s teaching points, overall if flowed well and the book was a good read. I am looking forward to the next in the series.
This book review is being linked to Semicolon’s Saturday Review of Books.
6 Comments
August 16, 2008 at 8:31 am
This was a great series of books. I am anxiously awaiting the last in this series to be released later this year.
August 16, 2008 at 11:54 am
Huh. I hadn’t heard of this series before but I’m intrigued by the idea. You always point out great books so I’d be interesting in reading this. I will definitely be on the look out. Thanks again!
August 26, 2008 at 3:35 pm
[...] This month I also read It Happens Every Spring, coauthored by Gary Chapman and Catherine Palmer, the first of a series, in order to illustrate through fiction some of Chapman’s teachings about dealing with seasons of marriage. I didn’t realize that most of the series had already been published — I had thought this was a brand new book. So I will definitely be looking for the next ones. I picked it up because I had read and enjoyed many of Catherine Palmer’s other books. She’s quite a prolific author and covers a great variety of settings, but for some reason she’s not an author you hear about as much as some others. My review of this book is here. [...]
August 26, 2008 at 8:14 pm
I have heard about these books, and think that they are a great concept. Glad to hear that the story is good too.
October 25, 2008 at 1:51 am
[...] one’s own agenda. All in all this was a valuable book, and I enjoyed it even more than the first one. I am looking forward to the next [...]
January 23, 2009 at 11:35 pm
[...] teaching about seasons in marriage. I reviews the first in the series, It Happens Every Spring, here, and the second, Summer Breeze, [...]