Jill Carlson

Run Baby Jake was an easy-to-read, suspenseful and very entertaining story. True, the plot needed an awful lot of highly unlikely coincidences to arrive at its conclusion, but, hey, it's FICTION, right?? It has a Christian background, so some coincidences aren't really coincidences at all, just the hand of God in answer to prayer. One thing I really, really loved about this novel was the unique and incredibly beautiful way the author told the story in part from the baby's point of view. The story begins with Baby Jake's impressions of life from his mother's womb, and how he loves to hear her sing to him. It tells how cold and frightened he felt as he was being taken from his mother by cesarean section. Later, returned to the hospital with a bump on his head, he doesn't like seeing the frowning face of a strange doctor staring down at him, and he hopes that if he cries, someone who loves him will come lift him up and press him into a soft, thumpy warmth.
Another thing I enjoyed about the book was the name the author gave to her fictional town - Cedar Bend. That's the name of the street by our house that runs along the Cedar river. Carlson herself lives in Cedar Falls, and a number of street names she uses for Cedar Bend are actual streets in Cedar Falls. I wonder how many other authors make use of their roots in such amusing ways?… (mer)