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Resting Places
A woman’s journey of self-discovery and spiritual awakening
After receiving the devastating news of her son’s death, Elizabeth ekes out a lonely and strained relationship with her husband, Zach. While he takes comfort in support groups, Elizabeth becomes withdrawn and seeks solace from the only thing that helps her forget: alcohol. A chance meeting with a man on the side of the road spurs her to travel cross-country to the site of her son’s death in the hope of understanding what had happened.
During the trip, she undergoes a transformation, one which allows her to confront the demons of her past but also to acknowledge the possibilities of her future. Through the wisdom and kindness of a man she meets along the way, she finds a means not only of dealing with her pain and her guilt, but of opening herself to the redemptive power of love, and of faith in something. Resting Places is an inspiring, upbeat story, a tale of real faith in what we cannot see except with our hearts, a novel that follows a character from despair to hope, from despondency to renewal.
After receiving the devastating news of her son’s death, Elizabeth ekes out a lonely and strained relationship with her husband, Zach. While he takes comfort in support groups, Elizabeth becomes withdrawn and seeks solace from the only thing that helps her forget: alcohol. A chance meeting with a man on the side of the road spurs her to travel cross-country to the site of her son’s death in the hope of understanding what had happened.
During the trip, she undergoes a transformation, one which allows her to confront the demons of her past but also to acknowledge the possibilities of her future. Through the wisdom and kindness of a man she meets along the way, she finds a means not only of dealing with her pain and her guilt, but of opening herself to the redemptive power of love, and of faith in something. Resting Places is an inspiring, upbeat story, a tale of real faith in what we cannot see except with our hearts, a novel that follows a character from despair to hope, from despondency to renewal.
276 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 2016
About the author
Michael C. White
28 books45 followersAuthor of Resting Places
One woman’s journey of self-discovery and spiritual awakening
After receiving the devastating news of her son’s death, Elizabeth ekes out a lonely and strained relationship with her husband, Zach. While he takes comfort in support groups, Elizabeth becomes withdrawn and seeks solace from the only thing that helps her forget: alcohol. A chance meeting with a man on the side of the road spurs her to travel cross-country to the site of her son’s death in the hope of understanding what had happened.
During the trip, she undergoes a transformation, one which allows her to confront the demons of her past but also to acknowledge the possibilities of her future. Through the wisdom and kindness of a man she meets along the way, she finds a means not only of dealing with her pain and her guilt, but of opening herself to the redemptive power of love, and of faith in something. Resting Places is an inspiring, upbeat story, a tale of real faith in what we cannot see except with our hearts, a novel that follows a character from despair to hope, from despondency to renewal.
One woman’s journey of self-discovery and spiritual awakening
After receiving the devastating news of her son’s death, Elizabeth ekes out a lonely and strained relationship with her husband, Zach. While he takes comfort in support groups, Elizabeth becomes withdrawn and seeks solace from the only thing that helps her forget: alcohol. A chance meeting with a man on the side of the road spurs her to travel cross-country to the site of her son’s death in the hope of understanding what had happened.
During the trip, she undergoes a transformation, one which allows her to confront the demons of her past but also to acknowledge the possibilities of her future. Through the wisdom and kindness of a man she meets along the way, she finds a means not only of dealing with her pain and her guilt, but of opening herself to the redemptive power of love, and of faith in something. Resting Places is an inspiring, upbeat story, a tale of real faith in what we cannot see except with our hearts, a novel that follows a character from despair to hope, from despondency to renewal.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
March 2, 2016
Resting Places is a moving testament to the power and depth of a parent’s love. Elizabeth Gerlacher takes a journey across country after her son’s death, following the same route he was traveling when he died in an automobile accident. While she can't understand or know the full circumstances of his death, she gradually uncovers greater mysteries about him. Michael C. White reveals these mysteries slowly over the course of her trip, with humor and unexpected turns of events, including an unlikely, unforgettable guide who has also, it turns out, lost a child. Ultimately, her journey ends up revealing much larger truths--ones that lie at the heart of what it means to be human and to have a fleeting identity and a fleeting but deeply important purpose.
The imagery of the "resting places," crosses along roadsides memorializing victims of automobile accidents, is beautifully rendered. Michael C. White is a master storyteller, and in his hands this difficult subject of loss becomes palpable, bearable, and finally revelatory. This novel speaks so deeply and clearly to the heart, that it lingers there long after you’ve put the book down.
The imagery of the "resting places," crosses along roadsides memorializing victims of automobile accidents, is beautifully rendered. Michael C. White is a master storyteller, and in his hands this difficult subject of loss becomes palpable, bearable, and finally revelatory. This novel speaks so deeply and clearly to the heart, that it lingers there long after you’ve put the book down.
February 8, 2016
I have often wondered how those without religion find their way through painful loss. “Resting Places,” Michael C. White’s seventh novel, is the heart wrenching but in no way maudlin tale of such a mother’s journey through guilt and grief. Michael White’s characters are so well drawn that you find yourself wondering, on a rainy afternoon a year after you’ve finished reading the book, what they’re up to now. So it is with Elizabeth, the heroine of “Resting Places,” who finds herself in a quagmire in the aftermath of tragedy. Elizabeth is away from home on a business trip when her only child dies in a car wreck far from home. She did not pick up the phone for his last call because she was, at that moment, in the process of breaking up with her lover. The message on her phone was that her son had something very important to tell her, but Elizabeth can find no clue as to what the important thing could be. In the aftermath, her marriage and work suffer as she struggles for something she cannot quite define – forgiveness, closure, revelation, comfort, truth.
She stops, on the way home from work, to do something many of us have contemplated but not everyone has done – she pulls over to take a good look at a roadside memorial shrine, in Spanish a descanso, a resting place, one of those wooden crosses that are too many places by our highways. She encounters George, who built the memorial for his daughter who’d been killed on that spot in an accident. Moved by what she feels and learns at the site, Elizabeth take the credit card receipts from her son’s last journey and sets out to visit all the places where he stopped before he died, in answer to questions she has not fully formulated.
The places she stops and people she meets teach her about her son, about herself, about the nature of love, marriage, and loss. Grieving parents find each other, in this work, offering companionship and solace, and the conclusion is as fitting as it is surprising. The book is masterfully written – after you read it for the story, you can analyze it to see how the characters reveal their back story through conversation, the use of setting, style, syntax, scene – but first read it for the story. The beginning will take away the breath of every parent. The ending is satisfying, but not pat. It is a book that will come back to you long after you finish reading.
She stops, on the way home from work, to do something many of us have contemplated but not everyone has done – she pulls over to take a good look at a roadside memorial shrine, in Spanish a descanso, a resting place, one of those wooden crosses that are too many places by our highways. She encounters George, who built the memorial for his daughter who’d been killed on that spot in an accident. Moved by what she feels and learns at the site, Elizabeth take the credit card receipts from her son’s last journey and sets out to visit all the places where he stopped before he died, in answer to questions she has not fully formulated.
The places she stops and people she meets teach her about her son, about herself, about the nature of love, marriage, and loss. Grieving parents find each other, in this work, offering companionship and solace, and the conclusion is as fitting as it is surprising. The book is masterfully written – after you read it for the story, you can analyze it to see how the characters reveal their back story through conversation, the use of setting, style, syntax, scene – but first read it for the story. The beginning will take away the breath of every parent. The ending is satisfying, but not pat. It is a book that will come back to you long after you finish reading.
March 21, 2018
What a story about a mother's love, strained relationships, comfort, alcohol, adultery, and faith. When Elizabeth's son is killed in a car accident while traveling cross the United States, she goes into a shell that she cannot seem to get out. She carries much guilt about the final call from Luke that she was too busy to take. As her life spirals out of control, she meets a man at a roadside cross that helps her make a decision - she is going to visit the place where Luke died and stop at the places Luke stopped along the way. Elizabeth finds that some remember her son and others do not. What she learns surprises her and releases her. An awesome story that changes Elizabeth from despair to hope.
February 25, 2016
Few books feel as essential as this one. “Resting Places” is one of those rare books that quietly, almost imperceptibly, fills a void, a need to understand how we, as humans, deal with loss, and whether it is truly possible in an ordinary life to find redemption. As a mother of sons, I wondered if this book, the story of a mother, Elizabeth, losing her 21 year-old son, Luke, in a car crash, would be too heart-breaking to bear. It is, in fact, heart-breaking and powerful, a story of unimaginable sorrow from which I could not hold back my tears. And yet, I found in it great comfort and tenderness - in the genuineness of Elizabeth’s struggle to cope; in seeing her as any one of us – a woman who is flawed and sometimes weak, but also a woman who has a heart full of love and a deep need for forgiveness; and, ultimately in her journey - physical, psychological and spiritual- to find her son. Her need to know what happened and to connect with him, though she might be grasping at straws, is one every mother, every parent, indeed everyone who has ever loved somebody, could feel and understand. The sorrowful mother, the Pieta, Mary and her lifeless son, is a theme beautifully echoed in this novel which, as it weaves subtle biblical allusions into the story, is ultimately universal in its themes of love, loss, guilt, desperation and, in equal measure, hope, determination, and restitution. This book touches the most fundamental fears and hopes in all of us, the fear of losing someone we love and the hope that we can overcome grief, find peace and even redemption in the face of tragedy. Through the masterful story-telling of Michael C. White, this tragic tale leaves us somehow happy to be human, living a fragile existence but deeply grateful for the joy and hope to be found in it.
January 31, 2016
I loved this beautifully moving story about a mother's search for meaning behind her only child's death. Tracing his reflective path across country, Elizabeth's sorrow and grief help guide her own journey of self discovery.
March 12, 2018
I read this book in a matter of a few sittings because the story lends itself to the reader moving forward with the protagonist as she heads west to find the place where her twenty-one-year-old son was killed. The main character’s drive is complicated by guilt and questions why and where her son was headed before his fatal car crash. This adds hints of suspense in the context of a spiritual quest that I could see myself compelled to do under the circumstance. Descriptions of setting were often simple and beautiful. “The white gloss shone like a baby’s first tooth,” has touching and profound meaning in the context of a cross that the main character paints to mark her son’s grave. The dialogue between characters is frequent and engaging, making it difficult to find a “resting place” as I became swept into the journey.
February 5, 2018
I have read several books by Michael C, White and have really enjoyed them all. This one is different - more introspective. Lots of good insights into the world of grief.
April 7, 2016
Resting Places by Michael C. White is the kind of novel that echoes through your thoughts long after you’ve finished. After receiving the tragic news of her son’s death in a car crash, Elizabeth Gerlacher begins a heart-wrenching journey through denial, grief, guilt and ultimately the painstakingly indirect road to redemption.
It is a novel that celebrates the power of faith. Faith in following the wisdom of instincts no matter how bizarre. Faith in the healing power of love even in the most unlikely places. And faith in the transformative power of hardwontruth because it is so hard-won.
It is also about the impenetrable bond between parents and children, specifically mothers and sons and the energetic connection that death cannot dissolve.
It is a novel that celebrates the power of faith. Faith in following the wisdom of instincts no matter how bizarre. Faith in the healing power of love even in the most unlikely places. And faith in the transformative power of hardwontruth because it is so hard-won.
It is also about the impenetrable bond between parents and children, specifically mothers and sons and the energetic connection that death cannot dissolve.
April 7, 2016
Resting Places is a great read. It’s one of those stories that leads me, at times, to say almost aloud to a protagonist – “Oh, no, don’t do that!” – knowing full well that she will do exactly that. Michael White makes the missteps credible, I was swept up in learning how she extricated herself from the mess. More than that: I was absorbed in this woman's grief and resurrection. And . . . you'll never again pass one of those ubiquitous roadside crosses without remembering this book.
February 21, 2016
I win this book in a giveaway. It started slowly and I had a hard time connecting/believing the main character's thoughts in the first chapter. However, I stuck with it and was pleasantly surprised by the depth of thought that was brought out in the rest of the book. It was an interesting concept and definitely encourages the reader to think.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews