Tim Farrington

War is hell, not just for the soldiers but also for their families back home. This point is driven home by Tim Farrington in his excellent 2005 novel “Lizzie’s War.”

Mike O’Reilly served first in the Korean War. Now a decade and a half later and promoted to captain, he’s in Vietnam fighting another hopeless Asian war. We get glimpses of him in action there, but Farrington’s focus falls mostly on his pregnant wife, Liz, who already has four children to raise alone. They are a good show more Catholic family, a fact that is key to the plot at several points, such as when a young priest falls in love with Liz.

Mike may place fighting a war ahead of his family and spend most of the novel on the opposite side of the world, yet this is essentially a love story. We read their tender letters to each other, although neither is candid about what they are going through, him with the full extent of his injuries, she with the difficulties of her pregnancy. Sometimes love means not telling the whole truth.

Farrington, as in his bestseller “The Monk Downstairs,” has a gift for writing sentences that one wants to reread, then reread again. Here’s a sample in a passage about the priest and a dying man: “He gave his wife a glance, lingering and tender, almost apologetic, then closed his eyes ad sank into his suffering.”

If you've read “The Monk Downstairs” and are looking for another novel with the same blend of spirituality and romance, give “Lizzie's War” a try. show less

This was an erudite, elegant book and I am glad I read it. As I read it, I found myself questioning decisions I have made about my own brain chemistry, and after reevaluation, I decided my impulse to simply leave my brain alone and let it be, treatable illness though I may have, was the correct decision. Reading Farrington’s journey, his spiritual outlook on life and the chemicals in his brain, served for me, a decidedly non-spiritual person, as a fresh and very nearly inspiring look into show more how it is all people with depressive tendencies can interpret their disease and their lives without recrimination or guilt. Farrington recounted his life with phrases that all but hit me in the head with meaning, and I had “aha!” moments constantly in this book. There is very little in common between Farrington in me aside from wonky chemical reactions that affect our minds, so the ability of his words to affect me and touch me seem almost miraculous. Read my entire review here: http://ireadeverything.com/a-hell-of-mercy-by-tim-farrington/ show less

This is a book about the midlife crises of two people: a single mother, Rebecca, who rents her basement apartment to the 2nd, a man named Mike who has left the monastery after many years. Though the shape of the story is predictable, the writing and content made it a quick & moving read for me.

The book explores the interior landscapes of both characters as they struggle to come to terms with the failures and heartaches of their lives. It speaks to the centrality of love in human experience, show more and says some things about prayer and God that make sense to me.

My favorite quote from this book:

I suppose that I pictured an eternal rest by a heavenly poolside, with umbrella drinks served in the unimpeded sunlight. But we do not serve that larger Love by renouncing our particlar loves for some mystical lounge chair; we serve by being faithful to those loves,by suffering them wholly. We are born to love as we are born to die, and between the heartbeats of these two great mystweies lies all the tangled undergrowth of our tiny lives. There is nowhere to go but through. And so we walk on, lost, and lost again, in the mapless wilderness of love. show less

Can you imagine a tearful love story filled with as much spirituality as romance? Well, Tim Farrington could, and the result is his well-received 2002 novel “The Monk Downstairs.”

Rebecca is a 38-year-old divorced woman with a little girl and a devoted boyfriend whom she doesn't love but who won't stop asking her to marry him. Her ex-husband, who gets Mary Martha on weekends, spends his days surfing and smoking pot. To help make ends meet, Rebecca decides to rent out her small garage show more apartment.

The first person who inquires about it is Michael Christopher, who has spent virtually his entire adult life in a monastery. After differences with his superior, who thought Michael emphasized contemplation over work (as in the gospel story about Mary and Martha), he is now on his own in the real world. He carries all his possessions in a small bag. He gets the apartment, and soon like so many others gets his first job at McDonalds.

While the romantic relationship that builds gradually between Rebecca and Michael may seem predictable, the path Farrington takes the couple down is full of surprises. A lapsed Catholic, she doesn't think much of her tenant's contemplative nature either. That is, until his spiritual insights, combined with a gift of servanthood unrecognized at the monastery, help pull her through the crises that soon overwhelm her.

An intriguing cast of supporting characters, including Rebecca's irrepressible mother and her playboy boss, add substantially to the story.

Farrington, like Rebecca, was a Catholic who lost his way before finding it again. He actually spent part of his boyhood in a convent, where his aunt was a nun. So he knows the territory, and he makes the most of it in this intriguing novel. show less