Even The Angels

Name: Even The Angels
Rating: 2 (1 reviews)

Patricia Kelly Santelmann

2010年4月 · Xlibris Corporation

2.0

1 条评价

电子书

163

页

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关于此电子书

In this recollection of a family tragedy, the author has created a book brimming with life. This skillfully written memoir begins with the report of a car crash that causes the death of the author’s mother, brother, sister, and aunt, but moves quickly to recount the lives of these vibrant people. Their stories are the heart of this book. In Aunt Leona’s chapter, we learn what happens to this timid, conscientious woman when she makes her third confession within ten minutes. In Michael’s chapter, we see mischievous Michael’s eighth grade report card with its forest of demerits, and we watch him grow to become a sensitive, witty, law student. We laugh over tomboy Sharon, who becomes a Franciscan nun and sets the convent abuzz with her impulsive ways. The spirit of the book, however, resides in the story of Agnes, the author’s mother. After Agnes’s mother died, Agnes was separated from her father and raised by an aunt. Agnes grew up to be an outgoing and optimistic woman. At the age of twenty-one, she married Lloyd Kelly and together they raised eleven children. Unlike many memoirs that tell of a dysfunctional family, this is a story of a husband and wife who worked together to raise seven sons and four daughters. Both mother and father were shrewd observers of each child’s personality and character, and they used their insights to treat each child as an individual. Raising one child to be a successful adult is not easy; raising eleven is a monumental task. The Kellies approached that task with energy and zest. Even the Angels is a story larger than the family itself. It is the story of how families can live together, work together, play together, and struggle together to make a living and to maintain themselves against the threat of loss and separation. In its essence, this is a book about the ability to appreciate the sweet times of life yet meet adversity with courage and grace.

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2.0

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作者简介

Patricia Kelly Santelman is the third-oldest of the eleven children of Lloyd and Agnes Kelly. As the oldest daughter, her memory reaches back into the earliest years of her family's life in southern Minnesota. She received a Master's degree in writing and a PhD in English from the University of Minnesota, and has worked as writing consultant and a teacher of writing. Her articles have appeared in The Catholic Digest, Seventeen, Sign, and Twentieth Century Literary Criticism. She is the author of a curriculum guide for teaching technical writing. She lives in Bloomington, Minnesota, with her husband Lyle Santelman.