Review of Mary E. DeMuth's "Thin Places: A Memoir"

Some troubled souls search a lifetime for empathy, desperately needing to be understood. Of those "some," some will hope for healing as well. Mary DeMuth's memoir, Thin Places, succeeds in meeting a need toward that end. Its pages are lined with tragic memories, but laced even more so with healing faith and grace.

I expected to understand Mary's "story" when I read this book, but that description does not go far enough. I feel like I know her heart. It's that real. I love the fact that it is written in the present tense, because it is as if I'm experiencing each captured moment with her, asking the same questions, coming to the same hope-filled conclusions. My book is dog-eared to death, highlighted throughout with statements I know I'll read over and over again. Statements such as these:

"At times I get stuck in that crib, wallowing in my rightness to be angry. I wear the word victim like a badge of honor—my own purple heart...Age grants me a surprise blessing: I understand true life doesn’t happen when I constantly gaze backwards, mulling over all the injustices others have done or I have done to others. Life is a tiptoeing anticipating of the future.”

“I am no longer fifteen years old, penning death poetry, grieving fathers. I’m blessedly alive to feel the wind on my face, to experience the achingly beautiful words of my children, to see Jesus in the cracks and fissures of my life. At one time I want to die; but with my Savior inside me, today I want to live.”

“We chase dead ends. We try to piece together the picture of our past like master puzzle doers. But some pieces are forever missing, and the remaining picture stares back at us, jagged, unfinished...The older I get, the more I see that Jesus wants me to trust Him for the missing pieces...He is more than capable of handling all my questions, and someday He will make things right.”

Yes, I cried. I swallowed hard. I put the book down at certain points and prayed through parts of my own tragic past. It wasn't a quick read for me. But it was therapy. In almost every chapter, the Lord took Mary's pen and scribbled truths to ponder on my heart and mind.

When I closed the back cover, I took a deep breath and praised God for such a magnificent work of ministry. Thank you, Mary DeMuth, for your transparency, gut honesty and humility, thus delivering "glimpses of eternity" into the thin places of your past...and mine too.

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Update: Congratulations to Margaret from The Silly Goose Society for winning the giveaway! Thanks to all who entered.

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