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Straight Down a Crooked Lane
Used Book
- GenresChristian FictionFiction
256 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1959
12 people are currently reading
72 people want to read
About the author
Francena H. Arnold
17 books25 followersFRANCENA H. ARNOLD was a schoolteacher, talented storyteller, mother of four children, and author of ten novels. Her first, Not My Will, was originally written "just for the eyes of the family" and has since sold more than 500,000 copies. Her other novels include Then Am I Strong, Three Shall Be One, Brother Beloved, Straight Down Crook Lane, The Road Winds On, Fruit for Tomorrow, and Light in My Window. Raised in rural Illinois, Francena lived with her husband, Frank, in the Chicago area. (Biographical detail courtesy of Moody Publishers)
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
August 2, 2008
This lady wrote Christian fiction before Christian fiction was cool. She is worth consideration
Read
April 26, 2013THIS:
"Marriage had appeared at that moment to be the ultimate state of bliss toward which all things in a girls life had been in pulling her ever since she was born." pg 203 sigh
glad it was a "christian" couple struggling this time, yet once again it was tied up in a neat (happy) ending with both coming to the Lord. not always so.
objections:
-not only one person for each person
-this feeling the main character wanted...kept looking for...it's harped on... then called love.. then abruptly "realized" in the end ???
-pg 255 you cannot forgive yourself!No where do i find this supported in scripture. If i could forgive myself then what need would i have of Him and His sacrifice and forgiveness? We either accept His sacrifice or we do not. There is no more that I can add to what He did and that is FREEING! I can't forgive myself. That is the whole point!I really think when people say ' i need to forgive myself' it is really 'i haven't accepted His forgiveness'.
-disagree that "their lives wouldn't be complete if they were separated"
that being said, i could relate to the struggle therein after having made marriage happen. i have recognized the lies of the enemy, confessed my part to the Lord and am now entering into marriage in our 4th year, for the first time. http://habeckerlife.blogspot.com/
February 22, 2013
One of my favorites from my teen years. Really shaped me and the decisions I made in life and romance.
July 1, 2019
I haven’t read this book in years, so it was “almost” like reading it for the first time
Well written, as all this author’s books are, this story deals with a problem that was growing rampant in the late 1950s and early 1960s– teenage marriages. What would you do if someone you loved wanted you to marry him before you were graduated from high school?
While I loved the characters, there were times when I wanted to shake some sense into Mary Jo, and tell Jack a thing or two. Life isn’t a bed or roses for the young couple, and they have many lessons to learn. The author handled the tough situation wonderfully with lessons that would benefit any reader. I really appreciated the stance on divorce since that seems to be shrugged at in so many modern “Christian” books these days.
This is a clean, Christian book, and I would recommend it to anyone in high school or older.
Well written, as all this author’s books are, this story deals with a problem that was growing rampant in the late 1950s and early 1960s– teenage marriages. What would you do if someone you loved wanted you to marry him before you were graduated from high school?
While I loved the characters, there were times when I wanted to shake some sense into Mary Jo, and tell Jack a thing or two. Life isn’t a bed or roses for the young couple, and they have many lessons to learn. The author handled the tough situation wonderfully with lessons that would benefit any reader. I really appreciated the stance on divorce since that seems to be shrugged at in so many modern “Christian” books these days.
This is a clean, Christian book, and I would recommend it to anyone in high school or older.
August 23, 2018
Slow-burner, definitely dated, and a tad anticlimactic, but a sweetly didactic love story. No flash or flesh. Just an old school romance about young lovers getting married too young and learning to love one another truly, through ups and downs. Cute, but not a top favorite. Not My Will is better by far.
March 31, 2008
These books have such a tender place in my heart--they were a huge part of my teenage years, and probably contributed a lot to the person I am today. Love you, grandma!
February 27, 2016
C. Inspirational fiction, 50s, mom's stash, discard
August 9, 2018
Tremendous message! Makes you want to think twice before jumping into marriage or marrying too young.
November 12, 2018
Read many times as a teen. Certainly not great fiction, but influential for me.
November 15, 2018
I read and enjoyed this many years ago.
April 19, 2021
This book is an excellent Christian fiction work. Beginning with a young teenage couple led by emotions than wisdom and how that lead up to a rough beginning in their marriage. Throughout the book I was struct by so many similarities between our main characters thoughts and struggles and my own those first few years of marriage.
While I was ready to be married and I have no regrets whatsoever about when I married, it was a hard beginning and a huge time of growth.
I would strongly encourage our teens to read this, especially those that yearn for prince charming without fully grasping that marriage "is a oneness, divine and indivisible" (Peter Marshall). Letting go of your perfection ideals of marriage and still wanting that which God instituted is a very teetering lane to walk down. I have enjoyed the two Francena Arnold books I have read and I would love to read more of her works. She knows how to wind a sermon that we all need to hear. Her characters are flawed but you just love them to pieces, and this author has a way of getting deep into your soul and pointing you in the straight and narrow path that you need to get on.
Highly recommend and love!
Some of my favorite quotes:
"She was alone in her home for the first time. She had often wondered what it would be like, but she had never considered no dreamed of a place like this. She had thought they would have a few spacious rooms where she could practice her knack for decoration and make a home that would compare favorably with the one she left-- a place which she would be proud to insist that Mother and Daddy visit-- the kind of gracious home to which an appreciative husband would escape the heat of the summer, the cold of the winter, and all the discomforts and inconveniences that could ever beset a man out in the world." (p. 51)
"Don't be embarrassed. We all have our low moments and wish we'd never heard of these men we are following around the globe. But we don't mean it. We love 'em... But we have a few tears occasionally. They wash away some of the feelings that we don't dare let men know we possess." (p.55)
"I guess I'll always remember this time as marking my good-by to girlhood. I guess I'm a woman now who has to act wise even if she feels foolish... This business of carrying a grudge into the next day can be poison!" (p. 74)
"You can do for him what no one else can. Be on the job when he [Jack] needs you. " (p. 158)
"Growing up is always a somewhat painful process, no matter how happily the years seem to pass. There is a lingering hold on the things of the past and a too eager reaching for the things just beyond. There are thorns to prick and stones to bruise in the pathway. But ahead is ever the vision of a more pleasing land, a place, youth is convinces, where questionings and uncertainties will be changed into glorious sureties. So the memories of the pricks and bruises are very short and the bright vision very entrancing. The journey becomes, to most adolescents, a pleasure jaunt." (p. 178)
While I was ready to be married and I have no regrets whatsoever about when I married, it was a hard beginning and a huge time of growth.
I would strongly encourage our teens to read this, especially those that yearn for prince charming without fully grasping that marriage "is a oneness, divine and indivisible" (Peter Marshall). Letting go of your perfection ideals of marriage and still wanting that which God instituted is a very teetering lane to walk down. I have enjoyed the two Francena Arnold books I have read and I would love to read more of her works. She knows how to wind a sermon that we all need to hear. Her characters are flawed but you just love them to pieces, and this author has a way of getting deep into your soul and pointing you in the straight and narrow path that you need to get on.
Highly recommend and love!
Some of my favorite quotes:
"She was alone in her home for the first time. She had often wondered what it would be like, but she had never considered no dreamed of a place like this. She had thought they would have a few spacious rooms where she could practice her knack for decoration and make a home that would compare favorably with the one she left-- a place which she would be proud to insist that Mother and Daddy visit-- the kind of gracious home to which an appreciative husband would escape the heat of the summer, the cold of the winter, and all the discomforts and inconveniences that could ever beset a man out in the world." (p. 51)
"Don't be embarrassed. We all have our low moments and wish we'd never heard of these men we are following around the globe. But we don't mean it. We love 'em... But we have a few tears occasionally. They wash away some of the feelings that we don't dare let men know we possess." (p.55)
"I guess I'll always remember this time as marking my good-by to girlhood. I guess I'm a woman now who has to act wise even if she feels foolish... This business of carrying a grudge into the next day can be poison!" (p. 74)
"You can do for him what no one else can. Be on the job when he [Jack] needs you. " (p. 158)
"Growing up is always a somewhat painful process, no matter how happily the years seem to pass. There is a lingering hold on the things of the past and a too eager reaching for the things just beyond. There are thorns to prick and stones to bruise in the pathway. But ahead is ever the vision of a more pleasing land, a place, youth is convinces, where questionings and uncertainties will be changed into glorious sureties. So the memories of the pricks and bruises are very short and the bright vision very entrancing. The journey becomes, to most adolescents, a pleasure jaunt." (p. 178)
November 21, 2022
A romance, but not mushy. Good practical thoughts for marriage
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews