Then Came Heaven by LaVyrle Spencer

An old friend, high school classmate, recommended this book to me because of the Minnesota setting and the Catholic Polish church, characters, and era.  It happens to be the last book that this author wrote, published in 1997.  It is set in the fictitious MN town of Browerville, MN in the 1950's.. So I found it at our library book sale and will be redonating it back to them.  I read it end of May and early June and really struggled to continue reading it.  The story is ok, but trite, this is not a genre for me, but apparently this author is very popular among women here because the sale shelf had many of her books.  If this women's type story is appealing, the reader would enjoy it.  I found it too simple.  

Author LaVyrle Spencer

Eddie Olczack is the church custodian and maintenance man and lives near with his wife, Krystyna,  and two daughters, Anne and Lucy. They are both from traditional Polish Catholic families.  As it opens, the wife is killed in an auto accident  and everyone mourns.  The daughters attend the church Catholic school and sister  Regina is their teacher.  Before the tragedy. the sister is questioning her suitability to continue life in the convent and ultimately leaves.  She has been groomed from her earliest days to become a nun by her grandmother, so the family is disappointed. Sister Regina has developed an attachment to the girls and also to Eddie, who is himself a devout Catholic and questions his own feelings. Meantime Krystyna's surviving sister, Irene, who has never married and lives at home has always had a crush on Eddie.  Besides mourning for her sister, she wants to help this widower and her nieces and sets out to help them daily. Ultimately Eddie will reject Irene.  

The writing is not bad, Pages 30-31 describe some of Eddie's horrid feelings  in grief,  "But it wasn't all right.  Krystyna was dead and it would never be all right again.  ......So much easier to think of common everyday responsibilities than of this huge and stultifying thing he was being forced to accept.  ...."

Page 46, Sister Regina realizes being a nun might not be right for her. " She'd thought Benedictine communal life would mean strength and support and constant peace within.  A strifeless valley of serenity whose sacrifice and prayer and hard work would bring an inner happiness leaving nothing more wanting.  Instead it meant silence when communication was called for, withdrawal when it was sympathy that was needed and a Litany for the Faithful Departed when it was tears that were needed."

Pages 49 and 50 describe the Polish antidote, bring food,"Where the cake came from so fast, Eddie couldn't guess but he wasn't surprised, these women thought food was the antidote to any crisis." 

 This tragic tale and love story continues over 331 pages.  . As I commented, not my genre and not an author whom I would read again, but for  very light romantic reading this might suit some.  I give this 2 ** because I do not enjoy this type. 

.
  

The Bootleg Buggy: Stories of my Polish Family by Tina Lonski

About 1:30AM one morning  when I awoke and could not get back to sleep, I  wandered out to the living room , picked up this delightful small paperback that I'd bought at Legs Inn, MI on our last trip.  30 minutes passed quickly and I was nearly halfway through this mere 85 paged book but my eyelids said, time to get back to bed.  However the next day, I carved out some  time to finish the book.  It is just the kind of short interlude that I appreciate and for me also from a full Polish family I could relate to all her tales. While her family and Polish ancestors settled in Michigan and mine in Pennsylvania, the attitudes, the behaviors are clearly recognizable to me, the huge family gatherings, the music, the dances, the Catholic masses,Christmas Eve,  the Easter baskets and more.  While my granpap did not make bootleg booze, that I know of, hers did and true to Polish ingenuity delivered locally during prohibition having built a secret compartment below the baby in the buggy.  Besides the wonderful tales of growing up in that heritage, she writes  about visiting Poland where she sees people who could have been her relatives and recognizes  all the foods, their smells and so many traditions, feeling at home though she'd never been there before.  Perhaps a trip to Poland will work its way into my travels at some time, it is low on my bucket list but something I think of more and more as time goes on.

 There is a section of the Polish alphabet, pronunciations and words and terms and like me she admits to learning those Polish swear words by hearing them as a child and that is what we recall, probably because her grandparents as did mine said, "never say that."  I'm glad I bought this book which has reference to a few others that may be useful in my Polish research.  I was pleased that she mentioned James Michener's  "Poland" one of my all time favorites of my all time favorite author.  It was through that book that something I knew was in our nature, a fierce independence, a cautious wariness of others, an almost trigger finger if criticized  is inherent to being Polish and is attributable to the history of Poland, a land that historically was invaded over the ancient times  an occupied to modern day communism.  It's our nature, it's who we are.  I long ago accepted that but I remember my granpap saying, "that's who we are...." that's why we fight when we have to and maybe when we don"t have to.  He well knew, as he came to this country a penniless young boy and worked in the coal mines.  This was a very quick read and one I will treasure. It is a very fast read and a 5 star rating *****