Book Review: Construyendo una familia feliz

A Book You Can Buy From Me

Book Title: Construyendo una Familia Feliz


Author: Nancy Van Pelt (English: Blueprint for a Happy Home)

Author's web page: http://www.heartnhome.com/

Translator: Ada Garcia Marenko

Date: 1985

Publisher: Publicaciones Interamericanas

ISBN: 0-8163-9911-5

Length: 136 pages of text

Quote: "Lo que mas se necesita en muchas casas hoy en dia es la presencia de una familia que haga de la casa un hogar."

This is a book of good, sensible advice for families from a professional Christian family counsellor. Her style of writing is perhaps unusual. She doesn't have a very distinctive way of using words, but she makes interestingly odd connections among thoughts. After recounting the story of the murder of a Christian father on orders from Idi Amin, she concludes with, "En el mundo occidental nos cuesta comprender tales tacticas. Sin embargo, es posible que estemos haciendo lo mismo, solo que bajo un disfraz mas 'civilizado'. Nuestras familias estan siendo divididas, desintegradas--no por la fuerza, como fue el caso en Uganda--, sino, peor aun, !por nuestra propia eleccion!"

(In the Western World it's hard for us to understand such tactics. Nevertheless, it's possible that we may be doing the same thing, only under a 'civilized' disguise. Our families are being divided, broken--not by force, as was the case in Uganda--but, even worse, by our own choice!)

No-fault divorce was written into our laws in order to reduce the incidence of murder, and did...not that anybody would call divorce a good thing for children, but it's like growing old: consider the alternative. There are passages, like this one, when Van Pelt can seem a little shrill.

Still, for readers who would prefer some alternative to either divorce or murder, this book offers useful advice. Marry a good person. Treat that person well. Communicate. Share the chores. Satisfy your mate in bed. Enjoy each other's company. Worship together. Discipline children. And so on.

This book was originally written in English, which is Van Pelt's native language, and mine; the Spanish edition is the one I still have for sale. I'm qualified to say that the Spanish vocabulary isn't nearly as challenging as the thoughts are. Regardless of which language you read these thoughts in first, there will be a tendency to distract yourself with "Yadda yadda, she's preaching again," and start skimming or skipping. (I recommend paying close attention to this tendency when you notice it, because it's likely to appear when you come to something your family would like you to think about in depth.)

Because the long words in the European languages are almost always alike, it's likely that anyone who can read this book in one language, who has studied the other language for a year, will be able to read it in both languages. However, getting real benefit out of this book will involve more than merely translating the words, or adding new words to your vocabulary.

Construyendo una familia feliz is recommended to anyone who can read Spanish well enough to think seriously about their own family life while reading in Spanish.