Marilyn & Me: A Timeless Love Story is the story of how a raw, frenzied and clueless woodcutter meets a former nun about renting a room at her boarding house in San Diego. Marilyn is teaching nursing in the Nazarene College, and Jack has just lost his axe, family and home. They sweep together the ashes of their destruction and start over in an adventure neither is ready for.
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READER REVIEWS:
Remember when a buddy lends you the great book they just finished, and you have to give it back and buy your own cause you just know you’re gonna get into it to the point of dog ears and bent binding? Remember hardly being able to wait to read the next chapter together? Remember joy?
That’s what I found in Marilyn & Me. Joy, love, humanity, snorts, conversations with the eitherland, wanting to know more about these people, and how in the world they got there. I’ll admit there was more than once I had to back up 50 pages before I could go on to the next page, yet somehow those 50 pages were more fun than the first time.
There’s no Dan Brown Formula here, no taking apart then putting back together with the polish of Barbara Kingsolver. What there is is honesty, a look at anyone’s past and a glimpse of their future. Did I mention love? You can’t miss it, it’s on every page.
Barb Justbarb, Fridley, MN
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Started reading the day I received it and read almost straight through ‘til I was done. What a good read – I loved it. I had such a good time. This guy is one of the great old-fashioned storytellers. Warm, witty, and wonderful. More, please…’
Stephanie Hamilton., Orme, AZ…
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Human, truthful and totally entertaining. Fascinating. Couldn’t put it down.
Barbara Matson, Borrego Springs, CA…
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I am enchanted by Underhill’s newest book. I open it, and dip in where I have read before, and find new things, so it is taking me forever to read. I think Underhill should write a new interpretation of the bible. I love his rewrite of the walk on the water. It gave me what a month a meditation would. The book is filled with sublime turns of phrase, like “I am on the porch dying of mold.” But what is spearing me like St. Theresa’s arrows are the self-descriptions by the author, which – if true – make him one of the most self-aware and courageous people ever. What fearlessness to look at yourself so clearly. What love, to do so without judgment. Only some one like that can love a woman so profoundly and humanity so sincerely. I think the author is a church unto himself, a portal to divinity. The depiction of Marilyn is so honest and loving and clear. It is a graceful portrait of love and acceptance that says as much about the author as it does about her. And over and over, right when my mind was struggling to bend around an insight, the author rescues me with a string of amazing stories set all over the world and deep in the human heart This is a depiction of life lived with joy and courage and abandon. Where do I sign up?
Kathleen A. Connelly, Golden Valley, MN…
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…The differences between them are many, but the attraction and the love is strong, and the lessons they teach each other are soul-widening…
Lake County News Chronicle
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The treasure of the author’s life so candidly shared makes me feel rich in sharing his journey…I keep opening the book to revisit his world and live in it vicariously… He gives the gift of an unbridled mind and a child-like honesty that nudges me back into my own life with new hope.
Loretta Chinn-Curran, Minneapolis, MN…
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For me reading Marilyn & Me was like going home. I guess going home is the same as going to one’s past. Each of their stories that includeded me was just like reliving that experience. I so remember making tacos in my San Diego Yacht Club hat laughing at the remembrace of Marilyn singing “She’ll Be Coming Around the Mountain” while riding in a golf cart on the way to her wedding. The funny thing is that I did not think this was weird. It was what I expected.
Jack is so raw and honest and so willing to accept that he does not fit into many of the traditional roles that are expected of us. He says it with such love and humor and with the naivite of a child. Perhaps that is what I most love about his writing, it has great innocence and vulnerablility to it.
I sure do love this guy!! Marilyn knew what she was doing when she connected up with him. She knew what she was getting into, and she loved going along for the ride. Still today, they both love the excitement of being together and having the opportunity to move outside their own comfort zone and into the zone of the other’s energy. Go guys!!
Love you and this book. I have gotten to know you each better.
Barbara Coates. Borrego Springs, CA
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Jack Underhill’s book carried me away to places I have never been and caused me to look at things in a new way. He connects with his readers in profound ways and through his off-beat style, we look right into the heart of the man. I liked what I saw!
Sandy Bloom, Minneapolis, MN