It is a wonderful tale, all the more so for being based on real people. Normally, I quickly decide I don't want to read novels based on "religion," but I didn't realize what the content was when I brought it home from the library. I scanned the back cover and found Gail Godwin saying that this narrative "is full of light, even at its darkest moments." Or Jay Parini who says, "Bo Caldwell has...conjured a miraculous story, one full of passion, historical interest, and spiritual questing."
The main characters are Will and Katherine Kiehn and they arrive in China in 1906. They are not married or even acquaintances but have traveled together with a group who are to become missionaries in China. But soon they fall in love and marry. The book alternates between their voices and is a compelling, warm memoir with details of what happens in China through their years in Kuang P'ing Ch'eng, the city of tranquil light. They endure many, many hardships but are totally committed to their mission. Bandits, drought, soldiers and wars, illness and death of loved ones...overwhelmed at times with all that needs attention, they persevere always with their faith ultimately intact, even if it wavers at times.
They grow to love China; it is their home and they are true servants. For the Chinese who watch these foreigners and who are initially reluctant and suspicious, the actions of Will and Katherine, as they unconditionally ease the miseries of body and spirit of those in need, working through the years selflessly and without flagging and always with the love of God in their hearts, break down cultural barriers, and they and their message are accepted. Yet, they are always also strangers, foreign-born, and when the Communists come to power, they know there may soon come a time when they must leave, to protect, not themselves, but their friends, parishioners and neighbors.
They do eventually return to the US, reluctantly, partly because of the political situation and partly because of Katherine's declining health. As they wait to board the ship in 1933 that will take them to Seattle, Will looks at Katherine:
"I looked at her. She was my own sweet wife....with Mo Yun's silver clasp holding her [bun] in place....In her hand she held our extravagant purchase for the journey: A Sunkist navel orange from California, which we planned to share when we boarded the ship. Then I took in the rest of her: the shapeless gray hat I did not recognize, the nondescript tweed coat I remembered buying on furlough twenty years ago, the flat black hand-me-down shoes I knew were too big. I looked down at myself: brown shoes with holes in the soles, patched woolen trousers sent from home a dozen years ago, a worn gray overcoat that had been given to by an American doctor who had been passing through years earlier. We had tried to dress up for our journey , butI saw how shabby we looked, and how bereft, and what a contrast our appearances were to the rich lives we had led in Kuang P'ing Ch'eng....People often spoke of the sacrifice Katherine and I had made in going to China. This had always sounded odd to me, for I had never thought of it a sacrifice...."
The idea of a missionary will now always be enriched in my mind, not glamorized or idealized, but better understood.
No comments:
Post a Comment