I Thought there was a Road There...
 Lynn Assimacopoulos
 (Reviewed by The Editor - Rebecca Brown)
 2001 Pine Hill Press, Sioux Falls, SD
  ISBN: 1575792060

God is always on stand-by waiting for our call to come with a Spiritual Tow Truck, to pull us out. He Probably shakes His head, keeps calm as He pulls us out, smiles & hope we can muster up enough sense to go in the right direction next time.

I Thought there was a Road There... and Other Lessons in Life from God contains stories & meditations from a woman's life about her children & the misadventures they get into & how her Faith sees her through. This author envisions a caring God who neither corrects in an angry voice nor puts us down.

The story that became the title for Lynn Assimacopoulos' book is a typical teenager's winter blunder which turned his family upside-down until rescue was made. That is when you first meet Lynn's sense of humor, faith & unflappability.

Each story from, The Ride of My Life when a summer vacation goes awry through Surprise, Surprise in which a mother discovers hidden jewels; to unearthing Midwestern Sharks in an ancient creek bed to The Homeless Man and the Brainless Woman in which this woman faces her judgments & sets about doing the right thing -- except she makes a huge production of it, is written in quietly amusing, plain talk with meditations on human behavior at the end.

When I Lost the Need to Know has this mother remembering when she lost credibility with her children; Stuck Where I Did Not Belong is all about getting pushed & shoved where we really do not want to be. My Mother, God and President Truman is a study in the self-induced stress of “sandwich generation” children. A Shiny Secret Place had her musing on that place where we can quickly pop the secret button & get in to be alone.

In Taking It From the Top...like “Tigger” Lynn Assimacopoulos reminisces about her life & times in California enlivened by the family dog named Tigger & in Ducks, Ducks, Everywhere we learn that this author was a writer for her high school paper & went along on a duck hunt to “write about it from a female perspective.” That was only her first mistake, the rest are almost slapstick!

Messages I Did Not Want to Get are those on her answering machine from her sons away at college. It's not so much what they say as what they leave out!

This simple & pleasing writer brings chintz & charm, danger & durability, humility & humor to her stories of everyday problems solved in unlikely, often serendipitous ways, all with the help of her friendly Spiritual Tow Trucker!

Definitely a keeper & a great idea for a gift!

Do check out my Interview with this enlightened & funny grandmother from America's Midwest.

Proceeds from I Thought There Was A Road There...will be donated to the Evangelical Lutheran Good Samaritan Society which cares about making a difference in the lives of the aged & the infirm.
(09/30/01)

Rebecca