Marriage And Other Acts Of Charity: A Memoir (2010) - Plot & Excerpts
I read this book after reading her first book, Here if You Need Me, which was a really amazing memoir and musings on her life as a chaplain for the Maine Game Warden Service. This book has a few good points to think about the idea of love and marriage -- the term "charity" used in the title refers to the Greek caritas -- but I wished she'd explored some of those themes a bit more. The anecdotes in this book didn't connect with me as much as her first. Kate Braestrup is a Unitarian Universalist chaplain with the Maine warden service. Widowed and left with three small children, her memoir considers commitment and marriage with humor and faith. Quick, enjoyable read.p.105: "So what was true for me and true for you remained true for Mary Magdalene, even after she learned how to love him, even after his resurrection from the dead: We can't have our dear dead ones back, not as they were, not as we loved them. It isn't the beloved that resurrects. It's love itself."p.137: "One hundred percent of marriages end. As long as we're being brutally realistic, however, why not admit the whole truth? One hundred percent of all relationships end: paternal, maternal, spousal, avuncular, friendly, or filial; one way or another, you will lose everyone you love, everyone you cannot bear to lose."p.199: "...I would question the common notion that happiness will be the inevitable result of compliance with nature's ideal, whatever that turns out to be. Neither the God of the Bible nor nature would seem to place an especially high priority on human contentment."
What do You think about Marriage And Other Acts Of Charity: A Memoir (2010)?
This is a great book about daily, nitty-gritty ways to keep a relationship healthy. I love it.
—anewragg
Not as good as Here if You Need Me, but had some good things to think about.
—Jonny_
Kate Braestrup is brilliant, but I liked her other book better.
—ben
It was not what I had expected but it was insightful
—shubhra
