Fall On Your Knees Is A Must-read

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I've just finished reading Fall On Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald and highly recommend it. MacDonald has written a very long yarn (556 pages), but once you get into it, you won't be able to put it down. The story begins in New Waterford, Nova Scotia in the late 1900s. MacDonald opens by relating much about the town, from its scenery on the Atlantic coast, to personal pictures of members of one family who lived there. Then she digs a little further back in time to set the stage for the telling of a story about the Piper family from Cape Breton Island. There is no such thing as proper writing style in this book. Often, there are whole paragraphs of snippet after snippet of information or descriptions that really tell in a most unusual way things that might otherwise have been just plain dull, endless sentences. What I really like about this books how MacDonald provides the historical perspective of life and times of that era as she spins her tale of family trials, love, hate, religious fervor, life and even death. As the story moves along, she also brings in the politics of the day, union struggles, the Great War and later on, the Great Depression. It is also a very personal tale. By midpoint in the book, two main characters have already died - and not in any gentile manner either. In fact, it is rather shocking. Just when you think things are looking up for the Piper clan, something truly devastating occurs. I won't reveal any specifics, in case you get your hands on a copy. There is one particular character that I just love in this book. She is only six years old at one point and MacDonald makes her a real diamond in the rough. Her name is Frances and on quite a few pages, she left me laughing out loud. Though so young, MacDonald has given her a sense of humor that any comedian would die for. For instance, she refers to her teacher at the Catholic school, whose name is Sister Saint Eustace as "Sister Saint Useless!" Frances is a pint-sized rebel, who often skips school, has no use for learning and loves to tell tall tales, especially to her younger sister Lily. While they play, she makes up fanciful stories about things that happened within the family in the past to make Lily feel good, rather than relating the awful things that really went on. While reading a book to Lily called My Gift To Jesus, Lily innocently asks what "viaticum" means. "It's a holy word for clean underwear," Frances proclaims. "When you're about to die and the priest comes and gives you extreme unction, he takes a set of clean underwear out of your drawer and blesses them. Then he puts them on you. Or if it's an emergency and there's no priest, anyone can bless the underwear. That's where Fruit of the Loom underwear comes from. It comes from the Hail Mary when you say, 'blessed is the fruit of thy loom, Jesus." That one had me howling with laughter! Frances is quite simply a refreshing delight and such a relief from all the grief that the family faces throught the book. This book is in Oprah's Book Club and I highly recommend it - not that I have any influence but trust me, you won't be disappointed.