Book: The Fall of Alice K. by Jim Heynen

I got this from the Herrick Library in Holland.

For all of us who grew up in the Dutch Reformed Calvinist culture, this book brings us home....somewhat. The setting is Dutch Center, Iowa. The Krayenbraak family is on the cusp of losing their farm. The mother is not a cheerful person; she is cold, stern and judgmental as she awaits the advent of the the new millennium by stockpiling Spam in the basement. She and her daughter, Alice (a senior in high school), are increasingly at odds. Alice's father is a gentle, stoic, hardworking man, a victim of modern agricultural practices.

Alice is smart and obedient, for the most part. She has followed the expected and prescribed path through her childhood and adolescence, going to church on Sundays and her parochial school during the week. She is soon to begin college.

But, a Hmong family moves to Church Center....a foreign element...a "not our kind" element, and the Krayenbraak family is challenged.

The story is well-told, capturing those moments when the precepts of brotherly love and kindness and compassion preached by Jesus are tested. It explores a mother-daughter relationship and the value of one brilliant, inspiring and perceptive teacher. There is the Alice's developmentally-delayed sister and the disparate plans and ideas as the family tries to prepare for her future. There is the friendship of Lydia and Alice, best friends spending their last year together as only high-school seniors do.  These themes, however, are lesser threads woven into the fabric of the finished piece which is Alice's first love...

There is more grace and subtlety in this story than I thought would be there, which is always good.

(Excuse me, but isn't naming the minister Rev. Prunesma a bit too much????)