Jan Karon's Mitford novel, To Be Where You Are ~ my review

To Be Where You Are by Jan Karon

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Fans of Jan Karon’s Mitford series will be pleased to know this 2017 novel, To Be Where You Are, continues the stories. Chapters alternate between Meadowgate Farm with Dooley’s and Lace’s family/veterinary practice and the town itself with Father Tim and the motley Mitford crew. Briefly, Dooley and Lace face financial and artistic challenges in the process of adopting Jack as their own son. Father Tim and townsfolk rally around some who need help with a variety of problems.

When I read a Mitford novel, I appreciate Karon’s light touch with life’s highs and lows. The plot in this novel feels like real life. I hold my breath with the characters’ pains and sorrows, breathe easy with their joys and celebrations, and laugh with their silly human foibles. But I do not wig out over anything, because Karon infuses the plot with an “It is well with my soul” mentality.

Although I feel grounded in a Mitford story’s realness, I also feel challenged. I could appreciate and trust God more in order to approach life’s realities with more thankfulness and certainty that “It is well with my soul.” I could show up with a casserole or cake more often when I know a family is having a hard time. One attraction of a Mitford novel might be that it inspires readers to aspire to make the world a better place, one small kindness at a time.

Just as Dooley and Lace were adopted in previous novels, in this one, they adopt Jack. In To Be Where You Are Karon repeats the adoption concept and describes again what they were adopted out of and into. It’s an apt picture of Jesus’ inviting us to be with Him now and forever just by admitting we are sinners needing to be saved by grace and wanting to be with Him now and forever.

I liked a few sweet moments when a character said to a loved one that all he or she wanted was “to be where you are.” That’s love.




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