Richard Paul Evans created another one of his masterpieces when he authored
Finding Noel. Evans uses his main character, Mark Smart, not simply as a focal point around which to weave a good story, but also to reveal wise insights into life through his diary entries. Mark Smart, who has a very strained relationship with his father, finds himself in Utah when his beloved mother dies unexpectedly in Alabama. Word of her death reaches him after the funeral and burial. In his suicidal state of mind he has a chance encounter with a young woman named Macy who changes his life. Macy lost her mother while a young child. She subsequently spent her childhood raised in a very dysfunctional and unloving home separated from her younger sister Noel.
Shared experiences and an empathetic character are effective healing tools. Macy has them but also has her share of hurt. Her search for her sister allows Evans to fuse adventure with human insight. At one point in her search Macy encounters her drug addicted father who she had not seen for many years. Her father was filled with regret. Following the reunion, Mark Smart writes in his diary: "Oftentimes the greatest hurt of our lives come from running from the smaller ones."
1 How many addictive personalities could echo that theme?
Another theme of the book involves perfectionism. Not the perfectionism that keeps us from starting tasks we should undertake although that is a serious problem. The perfectionism artfully illustrated by Evans is relational. We all fall short of God's standards even when we love those with whom we interact and begin with good intentions. Mark Smart puts it more eloquently. "I've come to know that our families are a canvas on which we paint our greatest hopes- imperfect and sloppy, for we are all amateurs at life, but if we do not focus too much on our mistakes, a miraculous picture emerges. And we learn it's not the beauty of the image that warrants our gratitude- it's the chance to paint."
2 Finding Noel is published by Simon and Schuster. It is one of multiple books in Evans'
The Christmas Box series.
1.
Finding Noel by Richard Paul Evans, publisher Simon and Schuster, Copyright 2006, Page 164.
2.
Finding Noel by Richard Paul Evans, publisher Simon and Schuster, Copyright 2006, Page 301.
Labels: Book Review
