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CURRENTLY IN BOOKS
Keeping the story straight

Barbara Armstrong

Leota’s Garden
Francine Rivers. Tyndale House Publishers, 1999. 423 pp.

This book is billed as being a “masterful blend of realistic characters, compelling relationships and unfolding family secrets”, and the author is said to have written it with “her usual skill and sensitivity”. I disagree. I cannot recall ever having read such a sloppily written and poorly edited book.

The breakdown begins with the timeline of the story. From clues within the book, such as a reference to the Clinton hearings on a television program, the story is dated in 1998 or 1999. Leota, the grandmother, is said to be 84, her daughter Eleanor 45, and her granddaughter Annie 18. There are many problems with these ages. One arises when Leota tells the story of her marriage at age 20, before or during the early years of World War II, and the births of her two children. She is depicted as being in her early 20s when Eleanor was born, yet there is a 39-year gap between their ages. Furthermore, Eleanor gives her age as 45 at the time of the story, but if she had been born around the beginning of World War II, she would have been between 58 and 60 at the time of the story. The book is filled with such anomalies. On different occasions, Annie is said to have been five, six and eight years old at the time of her parents’ divorce.

This was the first Rivers’ book I had read. Thinking these dating problems may only have been a slip of the pen and not a trend, I chose to read a few more of her titles. Atonement Child (Tyndale, 1997) was almost as bad as Leota’s Garden, with numerous major inconsistencies in ages and dates. Redeeming Love (Multnomah, 1997) also had errors in dates and ages, but, since the timeline of the story was less identifiable, it was not as obvious. It was not until I ventured back to the 1993 publication of A Voice in the Wind (Tyndale) that I found consistency in the timeline of Rivers’s stories.

As far as content, the gospel is presented in Rivers’s stories, and most of the characters are believable, but I would hesitate to recommend the more recent books, especially to non-Christian readers. Discriminating readers would notice the errors in the storyline, which might also cause them to call into question the gospel truths presented.

A Christian is called to “do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed” (2 Timothy 2:15). It is important to call all Christian workers, be they writers, engineers, plumbers or teachers, to a high standard. A writer and her editor should strive to ensure accuracy, even in works of fiction.

Barbara Armstrong lives in Delta, B.C.

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Last modified September 19, 2000.

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