Stories of My Life (Katherine Paterson) - A Review



STORIES OF MY LIFE. By Katherine Paterson. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2022. Xvii + 331 pages.

As I've grown older, I've gained a greater appreciation and enjoyment from reading memoirs. Perhaps that's because memoirs often encourage the reader to reflect on one's own life story. The memoir could be written by someone whose story you know fairly well. Perhaps you’ve read their books or even met them. There are other times when you encounter a book written by someone whose name sounds familiar, but you’ve had few if any encounters. Reading their stories can also be enlightening and intriguing.  Since I am a book reviewer who receives books from publishers who believe I might have an interest in the book, I occasionally receive memoirs of persons with whom I’ve had little interaction. That is true here with Katherine Paterson’s Stories of My Life.

                For those who might be unfamiliar with Katherine Paterson, she is an award-winning children's author. Having won both the Newberry Medal, the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award, and the National Book Award. Her books include Bridge to Terabithia, The Great Gilly Hopkins, and Jacob Have I Loved. As her books appeared after my childhood and were written for children who already can read for themselves, I did not have the occasion to read them (my son may have read them on my own). While I might not know her books or her life story from previous encounters, I did find reading her memoir fascinating. Part of that is because she is an award-winning storyteller, but it’s also because Katherine Paterson has lived a very full life.

As Paterson notes in her introduction, this book began as she attempted to write down what she calls her "kitchen sink" stories. These are the kinds of stories she remembers her mother telling Paterson about her own childhood while standing at the kitchen sink. As Paterson began to lay out the anecdotal stories from her childhood, other stories came into view. Therefore, "the thing just got out of hand and grew, not into a proper memoir, but beyond the simple collection of stories I'd first intended" (p. xvi). As a result, what we have here in this book is a collection of stories that takes us from Paterson's childhood as the daughter of Presbyterian missionaries in China before WWII to her present life. Her starting point is pre-World War II China, which is where she was born and then had her earliest life experiences. Some of those experiences came while China lived under Japanese occupation. As the book proceeds, we follow her life journey from China to the United States, then back to China, and then back to the States. Her early years were rather nomadic and yet they helped form her as a Christian and as a writer. While she tells her own story, other important figures in her life appear. These include stories about her father's exploits in China, including his attempts to smuggle medical supplies under the nose of the Japanese occupiers to those in need further inland. She tells us as well of the family's attempt to return to China after the war that ended up with them having to leave behind their beloved China after the Communist takeover led to the expulsion of western missionaries.

As she achieved adulthood, she earned a degree in English literature and taught English for a time in the United States. While that was satisfying in some ways, the call to missionary life still grabbed her. Though she wanted to return to China, that was not possible. Instead, the Presbyterian mission board assigned her to Japan. With her earlier unpleasant experiences with the Japanese occupiers of China, she wasn’t eager to go to Japan. Nevertheless, she took up the call. While she struggled at times with the culture, it was not long before she came to love the people of Japan, who in turn loved her. She spent four years in Japan, often living with Japanese families. After she returned to the United States after four years in Japan she decided to pursue graduate theological education. She initially planned on applying to Yale Divinity School, but in the end, she enrolled at Union Theological Seminary in New York. It was there that she met the young Presbyterian minister whom she would later marry. Marriage led to motherhood, and eventually to a writing career. All of these exploits appear in the book. Along the way, we meet numerous interesting people, a few pets, and more. Regarding her award-winning writing career; that came sometime after motherhood ensued. With her writing career, came recognition and awards, including several Newberrys and National Book Awards. With time she became one of the most recognized and decorated children’s authors in the country.

While I'm sure her books, most of which are fictional, are intriguing, I'm not sure they can top her life story. At least that would be true for an adult first encountering her writing. As you might expect from an award-winning author, Stories of My Life is a well-written book. The fact that it is a collection of stories rather than a traditional memoir, might make it even more interesting. Rather than a straight line from birth to the present, we meander through life hearing stories to open the imagination, even if they are real-life stories. As this is a religious press (Presbyterian at that), it should not surprise anyone that a thread of the life of faith runs throughout the book. Of course, now that I know her story, I may have to check out her other books, including the children's books. I’ve read somewhere that preachers (and I’m a preacher by trade) can benefit from reading children’s books. 

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