{"id":1207,"date":"2024-12-02T12:28:00","date_gmt":"2024-12-02T12:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/?p=1207"},"modified":"2024-12-02T12:28:00","modified_gmt":"2024-12-02T12:28:00","slug":"book-review-where-heaven-meets-cheyenne","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/?p=1207","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: Where Heaven Meets Cheyenne"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Where Heaven Meets Cheyenne<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

by Charles Macduff Westerman<\/p>\n

Genre:<\/strong> Literary Fiction<\/p>\n

ISBN: <\/strong>9798891324268<\/p>\n

Print Length:<\/strong> 236 pages<\/p>\n

Publisher: <\/strong>Atmosphere Press<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Reviewed by Nikolas Mavreas<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>A moving novel about illness, faith, and good spirit<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Charles MacDuff Westerman\u2019s debut Where Heaven Meets Cheyenne<\/em> explores illness, faith, perseverance, and humor in the face of suffering. In alternating chapters jumping decades, it relays the stories of three connected individuals faced with their own weakness and mortality, as well as the effect this has on the people around them.<\/p>\n

Chuck Westerman is a brainy young pastor living in Cheyenne, Wyoming with his bright wife Diana and their three young boys (Jeremy as in Jeremiah, Mick as in Jagger, and little Charles). Despite their education\u2019s potential for lucrative jobs (Chuck has a degree in law from a high profile university), they opted for a modest life of doing good for the poor in their community in Chicago before settling in Cheyenne. When Chuck is hit with the symptoms of brain cancer, he is faced not only with his mortality and the grief of his family, but with the loss of personal identity as well.<\/p>\n

Aaron Hamilton is Diana\u2019s younger brother. A witty, promising, and all around impressive teenager, he is befriended by new schoolmate Tye after his and Diana\u2019s family moves to a new Wisconsin town. Aaron becomes enamored with Tye\u2019s popular older sister Alicia, who likes him too. However, his life takes an unforeseen turn after a bad fall at the nearby lake.<\/p>\n

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Paige Bainbridge lives with her husband Luke, a rancher, and their daughters in Chugwater, Wyoming. Their initial high-school romance was interrupted when the religious Paige realized it would not work out due to Luke not being a Christian, which he mends by trying to become one. Twenty years later, Paige, too, has cancer and is doing everything in her powers to fight it.<\/p>\n

Westerman, the author, narrates in the third person, but he never feels too far away from his subjects. His prose is engagingly conversational, and the dialogue is realistic. The style often reaches the lyrical, particularly in the beautiful descriptions of environment (that of Wyoming and the Rocky Mountains) as well as in the inspiring ruminations about faith and doubt.<\/p>\n

\u201cStiff, monotonous winter winds blowing snow from the west into stubborn drifts\u2014their forms conceived in December and still clinging crustily to the ground in February, daring the sun to warm enough to melt them. And above all, the splendor of the Wyoming night sky. So studded with stars you thought Heaven was on the brink of breaking through to dwell on Earth\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Where Heaven Meets Cheyenne <\/em>pursues with conviction themes of acceptance without surrender, the reconciliation of belief with harsh reality, and the pursuit of dignity in undignified circumstances. Endearingly, all the main characters are intellectual, even bookish. A character offers a comment about a Flannery O\u2019Connor story that applies to Where Heaven Meets Cheyenne <\/em>itself: \u201cIt makes me think about things worth thinking about, and that makes it worth-while.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

This novel evokes the feelings and experiences of living with and around cancer and disability, as well as their reconciliation or not with faith. A meaningful book.<\/p>\n

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Thank you for reading Nikolas Mavreas\u2019s book review of Where Heaven Meets Cheyenne <\/em>by Charles Macduff Westerman! If you liked what you read, please spend some more time with us at the links below.<\/p>\n

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The post Book Review: Where Heaven Meets Cheyenne<\/a> appeared first on Independent Book Review<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Where Heaven Meets Cheyenne by Charles Macduff Westerman Genre: Literary Fiction ISBN: 9798891324268 Print Length: 236 pages Publisher: Atmosphere Press Buy from Amazon Buy from Bookshop Reviewed by Nikolas Mavreas A moving novel about illness, faith, and good spirit Charles MacDuff Westerman\u2019s debut Where Heaven Meets Cheyenne explores illness, faith, perseverance, and humor in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1208,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bookreviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1207"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1207\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}