PositiveThe Star TribuneSet in rural Bethany, N.C., the eight pieces of Thornton\'s debut novel-in-stories mostly build off Gentry\'s death, incisively examining small-town life and the way that people inadvertently allow tragedies to unfold in their attempts to preserve social mores ... Thornton is especially adept at making us understand grief\'s varied forms ... Thornton takes her book\'s title (and Bethany\'s name) from the gospel of John\'s story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. But where the biblical story suggests that belief alone will allow someone to experience God\'s glory, Lord the One You Love Is Sick argues that far more is required to tackle the problems her characters face. Here, faith that things will work out only creates a willful blindness to reality.
