'The Journey of Marie-Jeanne' is the true story of a woman of great courage. Despite her many trials, some devastating, she moves steadily forward with indomitable strength, to her final statement.
"The Journey of Marie-Jeanne" is a work of significant, literary dimensions. Drawn from two interviews with the subject, it is a remarkable achievement for the author, as a male, to create a realistic first - person narrative by a poor, uneducated woman . One feels, very deeply, the personal emotions and the presence of Marie-Jeanne.
Excerpt
I have tried, always, to bring poetry into my life, but maybe I have been wrong to do so. Perhaps poetry was not meant for people such as me, or perhaps there is no poetry in life.
I am not an extraordinary person. I am not a well-educated person. You must forgive my mistakes.
Professional Reviews
A perceptive masterpiece
Review: “The Journey of Marie Jeanne”
Author Roger W. Harrington
Publisher: Publish America
Reviewer: Kevin James, Author.
This is likely the most difficult review I’ve written. Not because I didn’t enjoy the book, on the contrary, it is so well written I fear any words I might express, would not do justice to the author.
“The Journey of Marie-Jeanne” is unlike any fiction I’ve had the pleasure to experience. This is a thoroughly enjoyable read and is nothing short of literary excellence.
An entire life summed up in 259 pages. Living in Canada, Marie-Jeanne tells of her simple and unremarkable life with its trials and tribulations.
The telling of this woman’s ‘unremarkable’ life touched emotions I have not felt in a number of years.
Throughout the text one will find dispersed plain and poignant life lessons as Marie-Jeanne questions the existence and purpose of a God that seems to care little about her life. Every reader will identify with the truths Marie-Jeanne words so simply. The reader will drift from the pages in self reflection inspired by the words of the character.
Author, Roger Harrington has mastered the unwavering voice of his character Marie-Jeanne as she tells her tale of poverty, her troubled relationships with her first marriage and with her sons. I found myself glued to the pages in hopes she would find happiness in her second marriage and with her son that she finally found a strong bond with.
“The Journey of Marie-Jeanne” brings to reality the inevitability of the circle of life no matter how hard one attempts to avoid it, or how much one feels one deserves better.
This book goes beyond a good read and into an experience of life. I very much look forward to reading other works by this author.
I began reading the book Saturday morning, and was determined to read it all in one day. However, as I reached page 190 or so, I decided I wanted to stop, just to let it all sink in and I didn't want to miss anything important at the end!
Picked it up again Sunday morning, and sat in stunned silence for quite some time after finishing; just taking in all I'd read of this masterpiece.
This is a superb book, Roger. I was extremely impressed.
Kevin James
The Journey of Marie-Jeanne
A Review:
The Journey of Marie-Jeanne
Publish America, LLLP.
ISBN 1-4137-1151-0
by: Roger W. Harrington
The author of "The Journey of Marie-Jeanne", Roger W. Harrington, would have you believe that his book is a protest against the Diety and its message the cause in the loss of one of Catholicism’s faithful, Marie -Jeanne Leduc.
Do not believe it.
This story is as powerful a spiritual prayer as Saint Augustine's book "The Confessions of Saint Augustine" is a philosophy for living in perilous times. There is brilliantly portrayed here a triumph of a soul overcoming life's tribulations as patiently and purposefully as Job does sitting under a dark cloud of God's testing of his human love.
"The Journey of Marie-Jeanne" is a story of the life of a French Canadian Catholic girl growing up in the severity and strictness of a French - Canadian home. Marie -Jeanne' s parents were of such traditional conformity to family values and Catholic morality that it impelled her father to force her to marry the rapist who gave her a child. The "family" honor, for Marie -Jeanne's father, was everything and the daughter's suffering humiliation and pain was to be borne at all costs to her and her life. Marie -Jeanne recounts her life in her own words.
It is from that point in her life that Marie -Jeanne tells us that God and her family have abandoned her. It is also from that point, that her whole beautiful early childhood had eroded and that her adulthood begins its descent into her hell on earth. It is at that point, that this woman finally tells us that her Faith and her Church must have a parting of the ways.
In my degree studies of life and its people, I have often wondered how individuals on the lowest socio-economic scale, as Marie-Jeanne and her family was, can seem to maintain their ego strength and joy of living under dire living circumstances. Marie -Jeanne experienced life through situations that appear to be overwhelming and unsolvable. Mr. Harrington skilfully weaves the message of his character's indomitable strength into the episodes of her life that would shatter most individuals on higher intellectual and economic levels. What Harrington has done is to create a blueprint for living that goes beyond prayer and belief in God; he shows us, through Marie -Jeanne, that the human spirit can survive almost any of life's injurious torments. He demonstrates that Marie-Jeanne can serve us as a model for living through misfortune, no matter how difficult those misfortunes may be.
If one believes that life is intolerable and that misfortune is discovered at every turn, "The Journey of Marie -Jeanne" is a primer for you. Even if one has no such difficulty in life, this book will help you to understand another side of life that can only make your life richer. Through this humble woman you will find that life can be beautiful despite the odds that seem to tell you that living is impossible.
Marie-Jeanne will be in your heart and very real, even though she is a creation of the author. This novel is truly a literary masterpiece.
I highly recommend "The Journey of Marie -Jeanne" by Roger W. Harrington to become part of your reading library and part of your own perspective on life.
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