Tapestry: The Journey of Laurel Lee by Laurel Lee Search Amazon for other books by or about Laurel Lee. Rating: Reviewed by: Po Wong

Who is Laurel Lee--and is her journey really worth tagging along for? The questions are understandable if, like me, you pick up this book without any familiarity at all with the author's past work.

Long-time Lee fans, however, will automatically see this book as a complementary volume that fills in some of the gaps from the earlier works. That body of work began in 1979, when the author wrote Walking through the Fire, an inspiring journal about how her Christian faith helped her in her struggle against terminal cancer--a fight she went on to survive, to the surprise of her doctors. The book itself went on to spawn a CBS TV movie of the same name. Lee went on to write several other anecdotal, inspirational titles.

To the author's credit, she and her book turn out to be so interesting that, even if you'd never heard of her before, you feel that the time invested in reading this collection of journal entries is well rewarded. Religious convictions pervade the volume, but it's personal, never intrusive or preachy. The author's personality emerges so vividly--from the effective storytelling, playful language, family photos, and pen-and-ink drawings--that you come away feeling that you've actually met the person behind the book. (Above all, her way with language wins you over. Describing a suitor, for example, she writes: "Whenever he called, it was like we were playing catch with words. He could put ideas on swings, and we took turns pushing them. I liked how he had genuine muscles in the language playground.")

The account spans several decades, starting from 1966, when a 21-year-old Laurel marries her boyfriend Richard, and the couple boldly sets off from Oregon, heading for Alaska in a makeshift mobile home of sorts, hoping to settle on free government land.

As this is a compilation of journal entries rather than a biography, you find yourself on fast-forward every now and then. After chronicling the hardships experienced while chasing the elusive Great Alaskan Dream, the book jumps 7 years forward, and the next entries are about Laurel and family back in Oregon. The quest for land hasn't panned out, and neither has the marriage. Laurel's husband of 10 years can't handle it when Laurel is diagnosed with late-stage Hogkin's disease, and runs off with the babysitter, leaving the impoverished Lee to cope alone with the disease and her three children.

Lee turns her struggles into her first book, and when the book unexpectedly takes off, she is freed from her problems--or at least the financial ones. Aware that cancer lurks somewhere in the background, she decides to take her children to experience the world while she still can. Hence there are journal entries from Mexico, Thailand, Russia, and China. Equally well chronicled are Laurel's adventures in finding a new husband and father for her kids. Remarkably, she never turns nasty even when describing the obvious failings of a couple of potential husbands and one more failed husband.

You find yourself hoping for a "happily ever after" ending for the author, and there is one, even if it's accompanied by a cliffhanger. Laurel does find happiness in a third marriage and she does have reason to celebrate as her son prepares to marry, but the book ends with her coping with a diagnosis of inoperable pancreatic cancer. Yet such is her personality that the ending is not somber. Having gone through her journal entries, you realize that, whether or not she beats the disease this time, Laurel Lee has the kind of faith and spirit that helps her triumph under any circumstances.