Review: English Lessons by Andrea Lucado

English Lessons: The Crooked Path of Growing Toward Faith

By Andrea Lucado (Waterbrook)

In this memoir of a year spent in the old city of Oxford, England, the author testifies of God’s faithfulness to keep his children safely in his hands.

Andrea Lucado, the daughter of pastor and author Max Lucado, is a freelance writer living in Austin. In English Lessons—her first book— she reflects on faith missteps and non-steps during her first adventure alone, far from the Bible belt. Her ambling tales read honestly, with frequent visits to pubs and sometimes too much wine.

The young writer’s personification of the River Thames is just one example of her wonderfully descriptive writing. Readers feel Oxford’s relentless cold and damp—in great contrast to recalled images of hot and dry West Texas, where Lucado attended Abilene Christian University.

The author confesses that her faith, especially at first, did not travel well: “I looked for the God of my childhood, the faith of my childhood. But it wasn’t there. I never found any rough blue pew cushions in Oxford.”

Although the book reveals Lucado’s struggle to wear her faith in Christ boldly, the chapters read like essays. The lessons she learned became clearer over years since her days of traversing the streets of Oxford and the muddy footpath of the River Thames.

English Lessons paints a picture of young adulthood, with its uncertainties, insecurities and fledgling faith. But it’s a promising picture.

Patti Richter

Heath