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Reviewed by:
  • The Book of Jude
  • Karen Coats
Heuston, Kimberley; The Book of Jude. Front Street, 2008. 217p ISBN 978-1-932425-26-0 $17.95 R Gr. 6-9

Expecting to move from New York to Provo, Utah, Jude is disconcerted when her mother's studies instead lead the family to Prague, behind the Iron Curtain. Jude's disruption is internal as well as external, as she begins exhibiting the symptoms of Borderline Personality Disorder while in Prague and needs to be hospitalized in Nuremberg, away from her family, in order to begin the process of recovering and learning to live with her disorder. Since all of this takes place in 1989, there is a lot going on historically, and the perspective of American Mormons in Prague in a time of surveillance, upheaval, and transition would seem to be enough to carry a plot without the addition of Jude's BPD; surprisingly, though, her inner chaos provides a particularly apt metaphor for the events of the time, and vice versa. References to their faith are coded at first, but as the story progresses, the family's Mormonism and its implication for issues of health, persecution, and spiritual strength become important. The nature of Jude's disorder is less clearly articulated, evoked through fragments that reflect more than explain, but Jude's inner turmoil will resonate with readers, and the wise philosophy of living a life in the midst of loss and oppression, offered by an elderly friend, is worth the price of admission.

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