Random Book

I picked up a book Thursday while thrift shopping. It cost me a dollar. I was first attracted to the cover, because I am shallow like that. And, I liked the title. "The Happy Room".

I found this book disturbing, but in a good way. I would not recommend it as literature, although the author has many many books to her name. I'd never heard of her, but then she writes 'christian' romance novels, and I do not read those.

But for the subject matter, this book is a long time coming.

"The Happy Room" tells the story of three missionary children (now adults) who were left months at a time at a boarding school in Africa for all of their school years. Their struggles with issues of abandonment is the main theme. But mostly, it's a book about family communication and doesn't take lightly how difficult that can be.

Although it didn't touch on the topic of sexual abuse at all, I have never gotten over my shock at hearing stories from the mouths of missionary children who attended boarding schools overseas and the awful abuse they suffered at the hands of those thought to be protecting them. And they had NO ONE to tell. They tried, but no one listened. More care was given to protecting the supposed integrity of the institution than protecting the child.

The saddest story I heard was from a woman who shared with a group that she had been sexually abused repeatedly by a houseparent in her overseas boarding school. Another member of the group asked her, "Why didn't you tell your mother?" Her response was, "I hardly knew my mother". These things should not be.

Since hearing those stories shared, I've often hoped to come across a book that would bring this problem to light.

Now, back to the book...I am no author, nor critic, but I do know that I am not a fan of books that rely mainly on dialog. This books does that. It works in some spots, but in others, not so much.

What it it excels at is bringing out in the open a painful subject for many people I know well. What to do when 'God told me to' or 'It is God's will' is the answer to everything the adults say or do.

This traps the child, and leaves them in a neverland of feeling that their needs are less important than the unknown masses of people 'out there'. That other people need your parents more than you do.

I know from experience so little about this subject, but it interests me immensely due to many painfilled conversations on the subject.

Even THGGM, whose mother is no missionary, knows that when she said "I'm so glad I have the Lord!" that what it really meant was "Shut the dam up!"

The author is Catherine Palmer. Look it up if this subject is of interest to you.