{"id":352,"date":"2018-12-31T11:54:49","date_gmt":"2018-12-31T11:54:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/?p=352"},"modified":"2018-12-31T11:54:49","modified_gmt":"2018-12-31T11:54:49","slug":"lone-star-book-reviews-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/?p=352","title":{"rendered":"Lone Star Book Reviews"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Lone Star Book Reviews
of Texas books appear weekly
at LoneStarLiterary.com<\/a><\/span><\/h1>\n
\n
\n

First-time novelist Diana Finfrock Farrar<\/span> is a native Texan and financial adviser representative who loves snow skiing and traveling, she is an advocate for social justice issues and an ordained deacon and elder in the Presbyterian church (PCUSA), where she sings in the choir every Sunday. Blessed to have been born into a family that taught her how to live a life of faith, love, and relationship, she has always found the idea of family at her center.<\/p>\n

Feeling called to make a difference in a world full of polarization and intolerance, Farrar has penned her first novel with the hope of educating her readers on issues of empowerment, injustice, and compassion. She and her wife, Charlotte, were married in Ontario, Canada, in 2010. They live in Texas and share five children and three grandchildren.<\/p>\n

The Door of the Heart<\/span> won a statewide fiction award in April 2015.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/a><\/span>FICTION<\/p>\n

Diana Finfrock Farrar<\/span><\/p>\n

The Door of the Heart<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

AuthorHouse<\/p>\n

Paperback, 978-1-4918-7124-9 (also available in hardcover and as an ebook), 425 pgs., $18.99<\/p>\n

March 2014<\/p>\n

Diana Finfrock Farrar\u2019s first novel begins with fifteen-year-old Jamie O\u2019Dell, gay and closeted,<\/span> in the principal\u2019s office at his high school, victim of chronic bullying since middle school. This time the football team\u2019s intimidation has been so blatant that school officials can\u2019t ignore the problem. The bullies have been sent to the alternative campus and banned from extracurricular activities for the remainder of the school year, but Texas Land Commissioner Ed Sloan\u2019s son, Michael, is one of the bullies and Ed won\u2019t take this punishment lying down. Tammy, Ed\u2019s wife and Michael\u2019s mother, is torn between remaining silent as she has for twenty-two years, or speaking out for what she knows is the right thing. As the controversy rages, Ed and Tammy\u2019s jeopardized marriage mirrors the polarization in the media, the community, and the schools.<\/p>\n

The Door of the Heart <\/span>is a timely story, well plotted, evenly paced, and thoughtfully told with pleasantly surprising plot twists. Farrar has imagined complex characters while still allowing room for development. Ed is the exception; he is one-dimensional \u2014 but that is the point of this story. Can even the most obstreperous understand the need to change? It is a pleasure to witness Tammy\u2019s transformation from well-meaning but oblivious mouthpiece and smoother of Ed\u2019s rougher edges to an adult human being with agency and convictions all her own.<\/p>\n

Farrar\u2019s subject matter is provocative and understandably elicits strong emotional reactions, though sometimes the character\u2019s language is overwrought. \u201cIf he could only allow his trumpet to sound on the side of justice and mercy and not just judgment,\u201d Tammy thinks of Ed. \u201cWe got Osama for cryin\u2019 out loud,\u201d Ed complains. \u201cSurely we can contain this threat which is every bit as serious to the continuation of American culture as we know it!\u201d<\/p>\n

There are many layers to Farrar\u2019s tale. She\u2019s eager to touch all the bases \u2014 emotional, physical, legal, cultural, theological \u2014 and at times can sound pedantic. Other times she uses her obviously vast knowledge of the subject matter to produce an enlightening and impeccably reasoned argument, such as in Ed\u2019s confrontation with a preacher which produces an easily understood discussion of covenant theology and dispensational theology. \u201cWe must remember that we modern readers are picking up the Biblical conversation midstream,\u201d the preacher argues. \u201cWe can\u2019t ignore the cultural, doctrinal, and historical context those scriptures addressed. Reading twenty-first century concepts into ancient scriptures will guarantee an incorrect interpretation every time.\u201d<\/p>\n

As an elder and deacon of the Presbyterian Church, Farrar infuses The Door of the Heart<\/span> with her faith and confronts head-on the prejudices, ignorance, and misunderstandings involving homosexuality and biblical teachings in a balanced manner and a spirit of compassion. As Tammy says to Ed, \u201cI seem to remember a story about a teacher in sandals, a woman, and a circle of angry men with rocks.\u201d<\/p>\n

* * * * *<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lone Star Book Reviews of Texas books appear weekly at LoneStarLiterary.com First-time novelist Diana Finfrock Farrar is a native Texan and financial adviser representative who loves snow skiing and traveling, she is an advocate for social justice issues and an ordained deacon and elder in the Presbyterian church (PCUSA), where she sings in the choir […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}