Take Church Of The Dog Presented By Kaya McLaren Expressed As E-Text

read this book on the heels of Alice Sebold's 'The Lovely Bones', Without any real intention, I managed to pick two books about dealing with grief, with some spirituality thrown in, Must be that spiritual realm trying to tell me something, In this book, we find a newage, itinerant artist named Mara trying to find a home, She ends up in Oregon on a ranch in a small town that is full of people who are loving and helpful, Her freespirit lifestyle I mean free spirit literally as she drifts from her body in dreams to travel across the world brings a certain rejuvination to the lives of Earl and Edith McRae.
They have their own truth to tell though, and everyone learns from each other, Daniel is grandchild of the McRaes and he rounds out the narrators of this book, He is a wounded, closedoff character who realizes that coming home might be hard, but is the most therapeutic thing, The book is exactly what you would deduce from these details: a lot of new age spirituality with stereoptypical descriptions of country life, Despite this, it works, at least better than Sebold, As the book continues, it loses its character as some narrators exit, I felt like I was left with the least interesting characters to read about, Still, the messages are important, if wellworn, and the writing can be lovely at times, Some books bring tears to your eyes when you finish them, Some bring tears because you finish them, The rare books bring tears for both reasons, Church of the Dog is one of the rare books,

Told from multiple perspectives, this is a story of wonder and mystery, wonder over the events of life, mystery because events have a way of producing unintended consequences.
Deep in Oregon farm country lies a farm owned by Earl and Edith, Cattle and sadness are the two main "crops, " Earl and Edith face another sad anniversary when a young art teacher Mara shows up and asks if she can rent one of their outbuildings, They agree, and vegetarian Mara moves in with a pig she's rescued from a local fair, Mara agrees to help around the ranch in return for a place to live and a pen for her pig,

Earl and Edith become friendly with this free spirit who creates art from metal junk, who paints a stained glass window on the side of the outbuilding and who dances in the moonlight.
When Earl and Edith's grandson, also broken in spirit, comes for a visit, Mara realizes she needs to heal him too,

This literary novel reads with a fluency of language unusual in a debut writer, It's beautiful, lyrical and painfully true, I enjoyed the beginning of the book and the relationship that developed between Mara and Edith, I found Daniel's character and his narrator's voice of this audiobook irritating, The last part of the book was so unbelievable and farfetched that it ruined the story for me, Interesting. This is a wonderful read, . . it was for me anyway, . . a very tender story about relationships amp beliefs, . . which are presented openly amp honestly throughout the book, . . none of them are what you usually hear or 'are supposed to hear' but instead are real genuine emotions from real amp honest people,

It is Kaya's first book so I guess I am after 'the story' rather that Pulitzer material, . . i felt that she conveyed her story well, . . sure there might be a couple of holes or seemingly unbelievable parts but i have found those in acclaimed author's books as well, . .

that is the plus that Kaya has here, . . for me she made it all believable regardless of how far fetched some ideas might have been, at least to some anyway, . .

personally, i don't find any ideas in the book 'hard to believe' nor 'farfetched' but rather very plausible amp real, Kaya made it seem as though the characters knew someone was 'listening' almost as if they knew that I was there, . . it made the story very real, . . very believable and very profound

Mara, a physically gifted art teacher, lives in the old employee quarters behind the McRae House in exchange for helping Earl McRae fix his fences.
Earl, an old rancher set in his ways, is intent upon spending his last days putting his affairs in order and waltzing the hours by with his beloved wife, Edith.
Eager to live adventurously at every age, Edith continues to entice Earl with fresh roses in her hair and sneak into the night with Mara on Lady Godiva Runs.
Edith and Earl's grandson, Daniel leaves his eccentric roommates and comes to visit the ranch, armed with his camera that keeps him safely distant behind a lens, having little idea where it is he's really going.
With compassion and wit, Kaya McLaren leads us into a world of astonishing possibility through the distinctive perspectives of four memorable characters, Church of the Dog the McRae's name for Mara's artistically remolded house is an exceptional novel of love, friendship, healing and hope, Set in a small town in northeastern Oregon, this book zestfully captures the exquisite complexity of simple lives, It may be considered a tribute to the human spirit and a reminder of how, without always knowing it, we all act as Angels for each other, Imagine if Pollyanna grew up, became an

art teacher an moved to a ranch run by an elderly couple, That's the gist of Church of the Dog by Kaya McLaren,

Set in Oregon farm country, Church of the Dog follows the lives of Edith, Earl, their grandson Daniel and their mysterious guest Mara O'Shaunnessey who can astral project herself into dreams and sometimes heaven.
The novel is told in the voices of the four main characters, though it later settles on just Daniel and Mara,

The chapters are divided up by season and the book covers a year and a bit of Mara's stay on the ranch and the way in which she changes it.
Although the ranch is the central setting of the novel, Mara's classroom, Daniel's home the "ugliest house on the street" page, the church and the Grand Canyon also have important roles in this unusual and sometimes hard to follow story.


With such potentially different narrators, I was surprised at the sameness of their voices, Earl and Edith make sense for their sixty year marriage but Daniel and Mara should have sounded more different than they do, I found it difficult at times to distinguish who had taken over telling the story and would have to flip back to see which names was listed,

Fans of Can't Wait to Get to Heaven by Fannie Flagg and The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom will enjoy Church of the Dog.
I really liked this book mostly because I related a lot to the main character but either way, its well written and easy to follow along, Some aspects of the story line were lacking but I still recommend it, Church of the Dog by Kaya McLaren is a very precious emotional read, This would be a book that would be fantastic for a readers group to read, discuss and delve into all the emotional, cultural and spiritual aspects of our lives.
Make sure to have a very large box of tissues as you will most certainly need them,

Earl and Edith McRae are the perfect example of commitment, love, family, friendship and all the wonderful and not so wonderful things that come with a life long relationship and marriage.
Unfortunately they have had some dramatic events in their lives that have cost them dearly but yet they have survived, But, is only surviving really enough

Daniel McRae is the grandson of Earl and Edith and he just doesn't seem to realize just how much his grandparents truly love him.
His parents died when he was just a boy leaving him to be raised by them, Now as an adult he still has walls around him but can he let them down in time Will his fear of emotional pain keep him from being where he needs to be

Mara O'Shaunnessey is a beautiful free spirited redhead.
Vegetarian by choice she is about to come face to face with death and dying on a larger scale, Her profession as an art teacher takes her to the town that the McRae's live in and she ultimately ends up living in a building on their property, helping with the ranch and helping each of the McRae's in different ways that can carry them through the life changing events that are about to take place.


The story starts us out with the elder McRae's and giving us the image of a married couple of sixty years and how they have survived after the death of their children and the abandonment of their grandson.
It shows us that just surviving is not really living and what we take for granted during our sorrow just might not be there tomorrow,

Earl finds a lump on his neck one morning while combing his hair but decides to keep it a secret, His hope is to protect Edith from worry and he really doesn't want to do anything about it as he feels at the age of seventy nine, his time is almost at an end anyway.


Daniel continues to get letters from his grandpa to come home he doesn't believe that there is real feeling in the letters, Daniel thinks that his grandpa is only asking him to come home out of obligation because they are family, It's not until Daniel has this strange dream that he gets a deep gut feeling that he really should go home to Earl and Edith,

There is a strangeness about Mara as we go through the story that seems to have positive but questionable effects on the McRae's, Is she their Heavenly Angel come to guide them through a difficult period Will her action's speak louder than words What is it about this woman that is so comforting

This author has given us a very emotionally charged novel.
I for one will not forget this anytime soon as the events that have happened in my life in this last year are so very close to this storyline that I cried, questioned, thought and listened and I truly feel that through this novel I can finally put some of the pieces of the puzzle in order.
I thank this author from the bottom of my heart for her wonderful insight in the development of this wonderful novel,
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