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Burden of Faith
By Dean Magdal Thompson
ISBN-10: 1598586092
ISBN-13: 978-1598586091
Dean Magdal Thompson’s book Burden of Faith takes a very hard look at the hardships in life revolving around sexual violence and the question of abortion. The author leaves you pretty much no doubt about where he falls on this controversial issue as well.
Burden of Faith is well written. Personally when I am reading fiction, unless it is historical fiction, I don’t like to see chapter headers with quotes about the issues. It can give a good story the feeling of out and out propaganda which I sometimes felt when starting a chapter since Dean Thompson interspersed actual quotes that are generally anti-abortion throughout the book. This is not to say that I agree or disagree with the position of the author but it is to say that I would have pushed the point a bit more subtly and let the reader draw his or her own conclusion.
Nevertheless, the story was compelling, albeit violent in some places. We are shown how two young women of extremely differing backgrounds, one Mexican American from South Texas, Maria, and, Kat, an Oklahoma gal with a waspy background, meet at low points in their lives and help one another through. They help one another get through the nightmares of Maria’s violent rape and mutilation and her finding she was pregnant with the child of her rapist who also murdered the love of her life. This sad turn of events subsequently led to Maria fleeing to Mexico and giving herself an abortion and ultimately leaving her home.
But the tragedy was not all Maria’s.
Before Kat and Maria fatefully met and became friends Kat herself was the victim of a sexual assault. She also was not pleased to find that she had an unwanted pregnancy from her assailant, a man not only known to her, but who worked in the same office with her. A man who harbors not only ill intentions toward Kat and any other of his victims, but also keeps a deadly secret – a secret that destroys lives.
Much of the story is about the redemption that comes from Kat’s struggle with deciding to keep her baby and the troubles caused by the reckless life of the baby’s father, Tio. Dean Magdal Thompson makes no bones about what he thinks doing the right thing is. He doesn’t leave much room for the reader there. But he is extremely fair in showing the true complexity of the decisions and for that I can recommend this book.
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