Finding Ruth

November 18, 2002
In her second book in the Coming Home to Brewster series, the author of After Anne
offers a well-told if predictable modern parable of the biblical prodigal for evangelical Christian readers. Brewster, N.Dak., is a quaint small town that Ruthie Hammond has spent almost two decades trying to escape. Through flashbacks, the reader learns that Ruthie's longings to get away caused her to refuse a proposal years ago from her high school sweetheart, Paul Bennett. Years later, she's still in Brewster, scrabbling to keep a small radio station afloat and wondering if she'll ever find her dream. Ruthie's live-in lover, deejay Jack Warner—"the Musicman"—shares a stake in the radio station, but his penchant for gambling and alcohol jeopardizes their relationship. When Ruthie's old boyfriend, Paul, now a widower, returns to Brewster to head up the town's small bank, the ending is a foregone conclusion. As she did in After Anne, Henke uses multiple points of view, and the reader is often fed portions of the same scene more than once. The themes include some clichés (e.g., smalltown life is better than city life), and a sermon inserted at the end of the novel hammers home the prodigal child connection. There's also a strained analogy to the biblical Ruth, even to the point of having Ruthie name her first child Naomi. But the strengths of the novel are Henke's engaging voice and competent prose—a combination that makes her a CBA novelist to watch.

March 1, 2003
At the senior prom, Ruth Hammond, of Henke's "Finding Ruth," turned down a marriage proposal from the love of her life, Paul. Ruth wanted to leave boring Brewster, North Dakota, and lead an exciting life. But like George in "It's a Wonderful Life, "Ruth can never get out of town. She moves in with fast-talking Jack, and they start a radio station in Brewster, but there's never enough ad money to pay the bills. When Ruth works up the nerve to kick Jack out, Paul conveniently returns to town as bank president. Henke casts this inevitable romance as made in Heaven, but it may seem to the reader like a middle-aged woman's last, manipulative stand. Even so, Henke turns in a portrait of little Brewster that is at least as vibrant as Vinita Wright's in "Grace of Bender "Springs (1999). (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2003, American Library Association.)