(Free for review from the CFBA Tour)
I love Dr. Harry Kraus' writing. I've been a fan of his for a long time. If he were my doctor, I might actually go once in a while. An Open Heart by Harry Kraus, published by David C. Cook, takes advantage of Dr. Kraus' African medical missions and surgical knowledge and plants the reader smack dab at the Kijabe Hospital where his protagonist Dr. Jace Rawlings, a celebrated heart surgeon, and his now deceased sister Janice were raised in Kenya as missionary kids. Jace hopes to start up a heart program for the local people in this place of bittersweet memories, thinking if he returns, he might be able to pay a debt of some kind or find a remedy for his immense guilt.
The problem with Jace is the bitter memories far outweigh the sweet, and they've taken a toll on his spiritual heart leaving it cold, dead, and closed to all the things that gave his twin sister her vibrance and confidence. If ever there were two twins who represented the lost and found, it would be Jace and Janice. And if ever there was a patient who needed spiritual open heart surgery, it's Jace Rawlings.
When Jace operates on the governor of his state and saves his life, the governor's attractive model wife takes a liking to her husband's surgeon. Jace denies the appeal of her attention to him after his wife Heather's objections but struggles with his attraction to her. After a fatal car accident which leaves the governor's wife dead with Jace injured, confused, and the subject of scandal, he begs his wife to go back to Africa with him because of some kind of vision he experienced immediately following the wreck - one he believes is from his dead sister beckoning him back to Africa where she is buried. His memory of the events preceding the accident are missing, and Heather isn't sure she believes him.
When Jace heads to Africa alone, his operating equipment is detained at customs, and his initial experience involves a goat, jail time, and the first evidence of supernatural interference. With politics dictating whether or not he will be able to retrieve his donated equipment, he faces the disdain of the head surgeon at the Kijabe Hospital who lives with the reality of unavailable blood supplies not tainted by AIDS and the lack of skills and finances to perform such surgeries at this hospital.
When political pressure inserts itself into Jace's life, he performs his first Kenyan open-heart surgery on a young woman from a ghetto town after securing two of his best assistants from back home. All goes well until she wakes up to deliver a startling message to Jace which he ignores and attributes to a drug reaction. However, when two other patients come out of surgery with equally disturbing messages, Jace begins to sense the spiritual drama playing out in his life over which he has no control. Fear begins to make a stark entrance into his hardened heart, reminding him of the powers unleashed on the "dark continent". He has no idea how much danger he's in until he has no choice but to see it face to face.
And in looking at that fear, he finally sees himself face to face, who he is, who he was, who he's become.
I've been told by people in the medical community that surgeons are a unique breed. Some aloof, some almost seeming sociopathic in order to make impartial and medically necessary decisions, they can be persistent perfectionists, structured and demanding. Dr. Jace Rawlings is a dedicated surgeon who fails to see the big picture if it doesn't exist outside of himself. He has moments of reflection but mostly he's defiant until humbled by circumstances he created. It's hard to hope for Jace because of his cynicism and consequently his self-absorbed attitude, but somehow Harry manages to keep just a hint of a tender heart visible in the man to keep us turning the pages.
Heather is equally unsympathetic. Taking on the full-dress of a woman scorned, she fluctuates between likability and self-righteousness. While her distrust and suspicions are understandable, she consciously decides to push her husband away before gaining the truth of his accident and his involvement with the governor's wife.
With two characters who stretched my ability to like them, I kept reading this story because of Harry's quality writing, his authentic depiction of Africa, capturing politics both there and here, showing acute spiritual warfare which is more visible there but certainly not any more active than here, the stream of background information supplied to add depth to the two main characters, and for a satisfactory conclusion I knew would eventually arrive. Sometimes you have to open a heart to see the problem, and then you have to fix it.
Another fascinating look into the medical and spiritual fields of endeavor, Harry Kraus creates An Open Heart to demonstrate the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of the human heart and how to fix them when they're sick and damaged.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/078140535
Father, please continue to bless Dr. Kraus as he alternates his practice in the USA and Africa where he serves you with his healing gifts and his writing. Meet the supply to enable him to do as you ask. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.