Eve's Daughters

I just finished a VERY good book by Lynn Austin.  Eve's Daughters is about four generations of women whose decisions effected each other through time.  Although the base of the book is set in 1980, the book travels back to Germany in the years before WWI.  The story chronicles the decisions of Louise as her husband decides to move to America in order to avoid being drafted into the German army.

After that, the novel bounces back to 1980, and then to the story of Louise's daughter, Emma.  Although Emma tells her story in some detail, her daughter and granddaughter are sure part of the story must be missing.  The two set out to Emma's home town to try to find out more.  Along the way, they share there own stories -- Grace's story of living through the depression in an Irish section of town, and Suzanne's story of dating and marrying a hippie.  She also explains the events that led up to her pending divorce, which is still looming in the future of 1980.

If that doesn't make much sense (which it probably doesn't), then I encourage you to read the book.  It was amazingly complex and rich in culture and language.  The book had a strong foundation in God, and how the decisions we make affect those around us.  The underlying verse in Eve's Daughters was "The LORD is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation."  (Numbers 14:18)  What one woman did changed the course of her daughter, her daughter's daughter, her granddaughter's daughter...

One quote from the book caught my attention -- "We're supposed to learn from our mother's mistakes, not react to them.  That's the pattern you have to change." (pg 112)  Instead of becoming bitter to the choices of those around us, we're supposed to see what they've done and learn not to do the same things. 

-Aylin