Review: English Lessons by Andrea Lucado

A year of big accents, big questions, and a bigger God. 

I received English Lessons from Blogging for Books  (a fun program that involves free books and a place to talk about them) in exchange for this review.

Born and raised in Texas, Andrea Lucado finds the city of Oxford cold, strange, and lonely. Cultural differences meet her everywhere she turns, and unexpected doubts about her Christian faith arise to unsettle her mind. Despite her original excitement over a year of study at Oxford Brooks University, a few months in England have her planning an early escape home.

But, in one of the twists on what she calls “the crooked little grace-filled path of growing up,” Lucado stays. She adapts to the accents, to the rain, to her tiny hallway and microwave-less kitchen. And she begins to explore her faith, discovering not only more questions but a God big enough to answer them.

In her brief memoir English Lessons, Lucado relives her year in Oxford with thoughtfulness and humor. Her reflections are deeply personal, chronicling brief conversations and fleeting events from her daily life. Relationships form the hub of her story as Christian and atheist friends alike alternately challenge and affirm her perspectives. For Lucado, this exchange of ideas stretches the boundaries of comfort—yet continually leads her back to a God greater than she had imagined.

Stylistically, Lucado bounces between detailed descriptions, sweeping and vaguely poetic generalizations, and odd scraps of lists, screenwriting, and quotations. The first two styles blend successfully, overall, as Lucado reflects on the influential lessons she imbibed during the ordinary struggles and triumphs of her life in England. For example, an anecdote about a stolen bike light battery morphs into a celebration of friendship. The quotations add depth to the narrative, although little variety—the majority come from a few ubiquitous Christian thinkers such as C. S. Lewis.

Lucado writes from the perspective of a young adult who grew up immersed in an evangelical American church, and her experiences of intellectual and spiritual wrestling are unlikely to resonate with non-Christians or even many Christians. However, for readers with a similar background to hers, Lucado crafts a story to affirm and encourage a faith journey that includes both confidence and questioning.