Comments on: “Jacob Have I Loved” by Katherine Paterson

By: hopeinbrazil

hopeinbrazil — Sat, 14 Jul 2012 17:25:05 +0000

I just read a book of Katherine Paterson’s essays/lectures on reading and writing and wanted to read one of her books. Thanks for highlighting this one.

By: girldetective

girldetective — Sun, 08 Jul 2012 14:48:25 +0000

I think it’s impossible to not have that passage engraved on the soul after one reads it.

By: Patricia

Patricia — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 12:53:33 +0000

Not sadness .. just disappointment that I didn’t read these earlier. So happy that you have helped me make time for them now so I can share some of them with my boys.

By: carolyn

carolyn — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 21:38:22 +0000

coincidentally I JUST underlined that same Didion passage in the creative writing guide we are using with the kids at my summer job.

By: girldetective

girldetective — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 15:17:37 +0000

Oh, Patricia, it sounds as if this reading project is bringing as much sadness as pleasure. But, as I felt when I finally read Pride and Prejudice and Jane Eyre–better late than never, right?

By: Patricia

Patricia — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 01:55:35 +0000

Even more upset with my school and small town librarians. It was bad enough that they never sent me in the direction of Cormier and that they kept some of Blume’s best books away from me. But to be the young girl I was and to have been denied this book is a tragedy. I loved this book now on my first reading of it and I know I would have loved it then. I was reminded of myself so many times, that I think it would have been a comfort in my self-doubt plagued youth. My favorite line was when Sara Louise’s husband says “God in heaven’s been raising you for this valley from the day you were born.” Sometimes I feel like that … although I don’t have a place because we move so often, I feel like I “have been raised” for this life. It would have been nice to have thought - back then - that I had a destiny.