How to Know When It’s Time to Go Home

Recently, someone pointed out to me how frequently C.S. Lewis dipped into his childhood experiences, impressions, and memories in all his writing. I loved his spiritual autobiography (Surprised by Joy) because it gives the whole story in one place, but I realized it’s true—one reason Lewis’s writing is so plangent and impactful is that we all have lived through childhoods of one kind or another, and when Lewis shared his own stories, he was sharing part of the scaffolding of who he was.

In the midst of all this pondering about Lewis, I realized that I hardly ever write or talk about my early life. I can attribute this partly to my temperament, which is strongly oriented toward the future. There’s not much nostalgia running through my veins.

By temperament and by choice, I tend to “forget what lies behind and strain forward to what lies ahead,” mainly because I remember childhood as a time that was hard and limiting and unstable. Mental illness and alcoholism were the biggest things in the room, and they presented themselves as chaos, poverty, and dysfunction. I can remember telling my mother when I was in third grade that she mustn’t get too attached to me, because I was going to grow up and leave, and I was never coming back. (Heartless wretch of a child!)

And that’s what I did.

After graduating from college, I returned home for a few weeks before the start date of my new job. After that, I may have gone home for Christmas vacation a few times, but as my parents aged, more and more they came my way until finally, in 1996, my husband and I moved them to an apartment in a neighboring town so we could care for them as their health declined.

The house I grew up in has been torn down, and there’s very little to draw me back to my hometown. While I envy people who have strong ties to a point of origin, in many ways, I’ve created that connection right here on this country hill. Ragged branches and missing limbs on my family tree have been more than mended by God’s good gifts of marriage, children, grandchildren, and church family.

With this as background, you can understand that I read fictional stories about “coming home again” through a different lens than many people. In Chapter One Again, I saw my own twenty-something self mirrored in Jane’s reluctance to go home and her whole-hearted investment in the very independent and solitary life she was building in New York City.

One reason Lewis’s writing is so plangent and impactful is that we all lived through childhoods of one kind or another, and when Lewis shared his own childhood stories, he was sharing part of the scaffolding of who he was.

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Readers of Christian literature will enjoy frequent references to classic books and familiar characters. Lovers of cozy fiction, clean romance, and sweet, small-town settings populated with quirky but memorable characters will be enchanted by the world they find in Chapter One Again—and will be happy to know that there’s a sequel in the works!

Clarkson employs Christian themes such as God’s guidance and the role of prayer in the believer’s life without intruding on the plot. When Jane starts to question her way forward, she admits, “I needed all the solace I could get my hands on, but my mind steadily settled into the comforting notion that eventually the fog would clear. And that, perhaps, there was a God who was still at work. If I felt my life was in shambles, and nothing was going according to plan, maybe that was because it was going somewhere new. Somewhere I hadn’t thought of on my own. Maybe.”

I don’t read as much fiction as I would like to, so this book was a treat, a lovely companion on a flight from Maine to Minnesota. I’m well beyond the era of monumental career and lifestyle decisions Jane was facing. However, I have yet to live my way beyond the need to recall the words of Avila’s patron saint: “Let nothing disturb you, let nothing frighten you. All things pass away. God never changes.”

Lovers of cozy fiction, clean romance, and sweet, small-town settings populated with quirky but memorable characters will be enchanted by the world they find in Chapter One Again by Keelia Clarkson. @ivpress

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Holding You in the Light,

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Many thanks to InterVarsity Press for providing a copy of this book to facilitate my review, which is, of course, offered freely and with honesty.