Lynn Austin. Wonderland Creek. Minneapolis: Bethany House Publishers, 2011. See here to buy the book.
Wonderland Creek won a Christy Award, which is an award for
evangelical Christian fiction. I really enjoyed other Christy
Award-winning Lynn Austin novels that I read, specifically Candle in the Darkness and Fire by Night, both of which are about the American Civil War. For a while, I had a difficult time getting into Wonderland Creek,
which is set during the Great Depression. But, somewhere near the
middle of the book, it grew on me, and the ending left me with a sweet
feeling.
Wonderland Creek is about Alice Grace Ripley, a minister’s
daughter who is in her 20s, and whose nose is always in a book. She
enjoys her job at the local library, considering it a perfect fit for
her after she failed at teaching. But her boyfriend breaks up with her
because her nose is always in a book, and she loses her library job due
to cutbacks. She decides to deliver donated books to a little library
in a small Kentucky town, expecting to volunteer there. Her uncle and
aunt drive her there on their way to a spa, and Alice meets a wooly man
in the library named Mack. Her uncle and aunt drive away, and Mack
chases them because he was not expecting for Alice to stay!
Mack gets shot, and he tells Alice to get Lillie, who is in her 100s
and was a slave before the American Civil War. Lillie is the healer of
the town and is a devout Christian. Lillie and Mack decide to fake
Mack’s death so that Mack can investigate, and also so that the person
who shot him will not return and finish him off!
There are tedious parts of the book, such as the part in which Alice
was learning how to ride a horse so she could deliver books as part of a
WPA program. For a while, I was enjoying Lillie’s spiritual wisdom,
even though Lillie did get on my nerves a bit because she could be
snarky, opinionated, judgmental, and occasionally scatter-brained. I
was also intrigued by Maggie, a warm, pleasant, and refined woman from
Boston who married someone in Kentucky. Lillie warns Alice about
Maggie, I was wondering why, and that kept me reading!
For me, the turning point in the book—-the point where I really
started to feel something—-occurred in the middle. Alice is waiting for
her uncle and aunt to come and pick her up so that she can go back to
Illinois, where she can read all day and enjoy her warm bed,
electricity, and hot water. Lillie keeps telling Alice that she will
keep a look out for them while Alice is out delivering books. Alice
keeps waiting, wondering if they will ever show up. Lillie then tells
her that they already showed up, but that Lillie told them that they can
move on, for Alice is helping out there and is having an adventure of
her own. Alice is shocked to hear this! The reason that this part
stood out to me was that Alice got to the point where she was wanted and
needed in that small Kentucky town. She may not have been enthusiastic
about being there, but she had a service to perform. People were
depending on her, and she needed to think beyond her own comfort.
Bethany House is often considered to be a conservative Christian
publishing house, so it was refreshing to read a book from it that was
largely positive about the New Deal, unions, and the need for safety
rules for coal mines.
The book was also good because it conveyed that there may be more to
people than meets the eye. Mack looks like a wooly mountain man, but he
is actually an educated person who came back to the area to help it
out. Maggie is a good woman, yet she is harboring a lot of bitterness.
Alice’s aunt is a bit ditzy, but she has wisdom about romance and
living life to the full.
In terms of spiritual lessons, the book talked about a variety of
themes: the problem of evil, forgiveness, the perseverance of the
saints, and how the love of money is the root of all evil. Lynn Austin
talks about some of these themes in other books of hers that I have
read, but this book did have a unique twist on them (which I say based
on my reading of Austin’s books so far, and I have not read all of
them). Lillie says that Jesus commands us to pray “Forgive us our debts
as we forgive our debtors” because, otherwise, we would not forgive our
debtors! Jesus is being pretty practical there and is giving us a
command to help us out spiritually! When Lillie says that God sent
Alice to help out, Alice wonders why God allowed Mack to be shot in the
first place. Lillie says that God never promised a smooth road, yet
prays for things to go smoothly at times. On the issue of perseverance
of the saints, Lillie predicts that Maggie will return to God,
notwithstanding her anger with him, for Jesus said that nobody can
snatch the saints from his Father’s hand (John 10:28).
The book is largely about Alice’s growth—-how she became less selfish
and decided to experience real life more, as opposed to just reading
(which she still did). I could identify with her in areas, even though I
sometimes found her rather immature. In the end, Alice reflected that
she came to see church as a place where she could gather with others who
serve God and allow God to tell her what he expects from her. That
does not entirely resonate with me, for I see church as a place where I
can learn about God and experience God’s love—-I don’t just see God as
my boss, but as a loving friend and Father. Still, I do appreciate how
Alice learned the value of serving others and thinking about their
needs.