Disaster status

I enjoyed this unusual story very well. The cast of characters is wide and interesting, and the story line hard to lay aside. Erin, though, seemed a bit of an enigma to me...her POV had an abstract sense to it, and I wasn't always entirely sure what she would do next. Despite this being a pretty long book, there were a lot of issues dealt with, and I was left wanting more on a number of them.

One thing I strong disagreed with was 1) Iris's “concentrated prayer” concept...Christians don't need to have a type of mantra or a special quiet prayer pose. We are told to ask God what we want directly, trusting as a small child does. We don't need to contort our bodies, sit very still, and think about a phrase or two repeatedly in order to pray an effective prayer. I believe two concepts (prayer and feasting on God's word) get badly tangled when married to eastern meditation techniques best suited to religions that don't have a Jesus. 2) Iris's deception about her job. She's a grown-up. She shouldn't be hiding from her granddaughter...and she never really apologized for her lies, either.

Other than that, recommended! Again, some frank discussion of medical process which left me queasy a few times.