Review: Het land van melk en honing, Grace McCleen

Het land van melk en honing Grace McCleen cover
Judith and her father don't have much -- their house is full of dusty relics, reminders of the mother she's never known. But Judith sees the world with the clear Eyes of Faith, and where others might see rubbish, Judith sees possibility. Bullied at school, she finds solace in making a model of the Promised Land -- little people made from pipe cleaners, a sliver of moon, luminous stars and a mirror sea -- a world of wonder that Judith calls The Land of Decoration. Perhaps, she thinks, if she makes it snow indoors (using shaving foam and cotton wool and cellophane) there will be no school on Monday...
Sure enough, when Judith opens her curtains the next day, the world beyond her window has turned white. She has performed her first miracle. And that's when her troubles begin.

Grace McCleen was born in Wales and grew up in a fundamentalist religion where she did not have much contact with non-believers. Her family moved to Ireland when she was ten, where she was schooled at home. When Grace and her family moved back to Britain she went back to school and her English teacher suggested she apply to Oxford.
She studied English Literature at Oxford University and The University of York before becoming a full-time writer and musician. She lives in London.

This book has been shelved on Goodreads on various shelves. One is religion. This book holds a lot of religion it is clear that religion is a very important part of Judith's life. Still the book does not get preachy. The way Judith lives and believes are matter of fact for her. The second shelf is magical realism. I had to laugh first when seeing this but while reading the book I was like yes, this is a correct shelf for most what happens to Judith and it was sad. It is clear that Judith's wish is a real simple one. Nothing really bad has to happen but she simply wants the bullying to stop and it is obvious that she was never able to grasp the idea how out of hand it was going to go. Though all the things happening make sense in a way I did feel it was always the worst scenario going on. I really wanted Judith and her dad to have a break at some point from all the bad and have something good happening to them but that was not really in the recipe.
I would have loved to know more about the dad, what was going on in his head and why he came to do what he did. Though some indicators are obviously there still was so much left open. I had a lot of problems with his attitude towards Judith and did not really feel that the motives given were enough to explain it.

Het land van melk en honing
Author: Grace McCleen
Publisher: Uitgeverij Contact
Pages: 299
Format: Hardcover
ISBN-13: 9789025437954
Original title: The Land of Decoration
Het land van melk en honing

3 star review

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Melinda
AUTHOR
15 October, 2013 delete

I just hate when a book does that - leave you with too many questions. Unless it's a series, I am really put off with that.

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