Weekend Writing: Reviewing Karen Kingsbury's "Sunset"

 

"Elaine was his wife, and he didn't only enjoy her presence and company. He wasn't only glad for her friendship and camaraderie; he felt something much stronger, something he'd fully acknowledged to Elaine long before this day. He loved her." - Karen Kingsbury, "Sunset" 

It's difficult to move on from the past. The future can be uneasy, especially if the next chapter in your life is completely different from what you expected. The Baxter family patriarch John in Karen Kingsbury's Baxter Family series knows this feeling better than most. His beloved wife passed away from cancer. His adult children were getting married, having children, and starting their own lives separate from him. Everything was changing, and it was a life he didn't expect. 

He thought he would be growing old with Elizabeth. He thought they would both get to watch their grandchildren grow up, and they would do everything in their senior years together. 

But he was alone. He lived in the Baxter family house by himself. He did everything by himself, and he thought that's how the rest of his life would be. Just John Baxter. 

Then, he started a friendship with Elaine Denning, a woman Elizabeth had been close friends with. He wasn't looking to grow close to Elaine, but life had different plans for John. He grew to rely on Elaine as a friend, and then he fell in love with her. He loved that she respected him and that he still loved Elizabeth, too. He always would, and Elaine will always love her deceased husband. Elaine wasn't interested in replacing Elizabeth in the Baxter family. Instead, she would add to the family and be John's partner as they grow older together. 

Karen Kingsbury's Sunset.

Kingsbury's final book in her Sunrise series, Sunset, focuses on John and Elaine's marriage. John has to make plenty of changes, including selling the Baxter family home. He can't live there with Elaine. It's not her house. It was John and Elizabeth's home. In order to have a fresh start and a new chapter with Elaine, he has to move out of the home he shared with Elizabeth. John struggles with this life change, as most of us would, but he knows this is the right decision. After all, it's just a home. Moving away won't erase all of the memories he had with his family. 

"Yes, his years in the Baxter house were over. The time had come to move on, and with God's help, that's what John would do. He gripped the windowsill and breathed in deeply the familiar smell of his home. He would survive letting go of this place because he had no other choice. Even if it all but killed him to say goodbye." - Karen Kingsbury, "Sunset" 

In the end, John marries Elaine. They move towards their new future, and John finally feels peace in his heart after feeling so much guilt for falling in love with Elaine. Would Elizabeth approve of his decision to remarry? Are his children okay with him remarrying? 

John ultimately realizes that Elizabeth wanted him to choose life over everything else. Before she passed away from breast cancer, she wrote him a letter explaining that he must choose life. She wrote: "What I'm saying is you must choose life. I would never want you to waste away in the shadow of all that was. Not if I'm no longer here to be a part of your life. In that case, you must embrace new adventures and new friendships, and you must follow where those friendships lead. If it means remarrying someday, then remarry. And do so with a full and whole heart, knowing that somewhere in heaven, I'll be cheering you on." 

Elizabeth is happy for John, and once John accepts this truth, he lets go of his fear and uneasy concerns. He marries Elaine, and he's excited to choose life--over and over again. Always. Just like Elizabeth wanted. 

Like always, Karen Kingsbury did a phenomenal job of presenting her characters as realistic, flawed human beings. Yes, they're Christians, but that doesn't mean they're perfect. John struggles with his future. He doesn't always understand the plans God has for him. His youngest son, Luke, has to repair his failing marriage to his wife, Reagan. John's daughter, Kari, has to face the woman who caused her first husband's murder, and she struggles with her emotions. Finally, John's other daughter, Ashley, is nervous about her new pregnancy after losing her third child (recounted in Summer). Will this baby be okay? 

Everyone has their struggles, which is what I appreciate most about Kingsbury's books. Her characters are just like the rest of us. They face real-life situations. They sometimes pull away from their faith and family. They need valuable lessons, but in the end, they come back together. They turn back to God and wait for the sunset. 

"Life was like a sunrise, full of newness and hope and opportunity, but in this, the summer of their lives, there was no more reason to long for someday. The hope and life they'd longed for was here...Because on a night like this, there really were a million colors in the sunset." - Karen Kingsbury, "Sunset" 

I love sunsets and how symbolic they are. They're signaling the end of a day. We can welcome the peace that nighttime brings, and we can also know we're about to start another new day. For John Baxter, he's starting a new chapter in his life, and it's going to be beautiful. 

Just like the colors in a sunset. 

-KJL-