Local Author's First Novel

Book Review from The Lake - 2016.3

Pelican Rapids Author, Gene L. Thompson, published his first novel in 2015. The story and characters reveal a group of men and women whose lives are little understood by most of our society even though they exist in every community of our land.

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The Carpenter's House

By Gene L. Thompson

Gene had been on the road and homeless for three years when he arrived at Dorothy Day House, a homeless Shelter, in Moorhead Minnesota. His stay there lasted for over ten years because he joined the team of men and women who dedicate their lives to caring for the homeless of our society.

After I read the novel I asked Gene if the characters in the story were real people that he met on the road or while he was at Dorothy Day House. He responded that he had met over a thousand homeless men, women and children but that the characters in his book were fictional, each with life stories and personalities that were composites of many he had come to know over the years. 

While the story is populated by homeless men and women, it is also a love story involving a man and a woman and their struggles to over come the financial, political and regulatory roadblocks to the achievement of their dream. You also meet the heroes and villains among the public, the politicians and the clergy that mark the progress of their journey.

Pope Francis has called upon all Christians to bring God's love and mercy to the margins of human society. The Carpenter's House  will bring you closer to knowing one way of doing that. In the final scene the couple are talking:

"For some of us, maybe all of us, there's only one reason we're alive. For me and you, I think it's the same reason. We're here to help people, be nice to people. It fulfills us, gives us what we need. Makes us happy, The only reason we're here is to help people, babe."

   She leaned over and kissed him. "Your right,"she told him. "But it's not just us. Its everyone. The only reason anyone is here is to help each other."

The Carpenter's House is only available in Ebook (Kindle) format 

and can be ordered by clicking here. .

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Local Secular Press highlights the work of a Potential Saint

In the late 1950s my wife (girl friend at the time) and I met and briefly talked with Dorothy Day when she spoke at North Dakota State University where we were students. The Catholic Worker Newspaper, that she published, was always available in the college library. Now she is being proposed as a saint of the Catholic Church.

We were pleasantly surprised to see an article about about Dorothy, her life and our local Catholic Worker House Ministry in our regional secular newspaper. Here is a snippet and a picture:

Dorothy Day 1934

"Born on Nov. 8, 1897, Day grew up in Chicago and started the Catholic Worker movement with a French peasant, Peter Maurin, in 1933, the year her first homeless shelter opened in New York City. She peacefully picketed on behalf of the poor and was arrested several times for civil disobedience, including at age 80 just three years before her death.

Now, her life is being reviewed by the Vatican for possible canonization to sainthood."

 The article appeared in the November 9th issue of the Fargo Forum and is written by fellow blogger and author, Roxane Salonen. You can also read her article on her blog, Peace Garden Mama" by clicking here.