Beautiful and sad and almost (not quite) great family story

As Bright as Heaven
by Susan Meissner

I can see how this book might be a bestseller. Very touching--very sad--very Christian but not so much so that a non-believer can't enjoy it. Terrible things happen but no one's really mean--the closest thing to cruelty is when a pair of emotionally introverted people are unable to get over their anger at their daughter leaving. It's refreshing to read about a world peopled with individuals who love each other and care for them.

Of course all that loving and caring doesn't stop the war or the Spanish influenza. That dragged on for far too long. Poor folks.

It's as if the body is a candle and the soul is its flame. When the flame is snuffed out, all that is left to proved that there had been a flame is the candle, and even that we only have for a little while. Even the candle is not ours to keep. 

And yet how we care for that candle for that stretch of time that it is still ours! How we want to remember the shape and fragrance of the little flame it held.

So clearly I recommend this. My only complaints are about the piling up of agony toward the end and the totally flat male characters. There were four female characters with fully exposed interior lives interacting with five males who were as shallow as shells. I wish she'd taken a stab at giving the men feelings or at least thoughts--I think she could have done a good job of it.