Her Daddy's Eyes

by Gary E. Parker

This is the first book that I've read by Gary E. Parker and I was quite pleased. It is a thin novel (189 pages), but packed in quite a few weighty issues. At times I wondered if the author was over-ambitious in introducing such deep themes and worried that he wouldn't have time to deal with each issue thoroughly. While I think this was the case in a couple of the smaller issues (such as the hereditary disease that made her father ill), I think that most of the issues were there just to weave the story through and not as projection for a soap box stand. (Don't mistake me, I am all for novelists who bring to light or try to improve certain social issues - I am a bit of a soap box stander myself!) This novelist isn't, at least in this novel.

I appreciated the sturdy craftsmanship of each character. Although it has been a few days since I put this book down, the characters are still as real to me as they were when I was reading the novel. I always mark that as a sign of a great novelist.

Because the novel is so short, the plot had to be quick moving and it was.

There is a gentle theme of Christianity that reveals itself in the one main character, but there is no last page "saving" of any one character. Which is just fine in this novel.

I would definitely recommend this to anyone desiring a thoughtful, entertaining read.