More than Conquerors: A Memoir of Lost Arguments

The daughter of Christian evangelical missionaries, Hustad (How to be Useful) offers an earnest, at times brain-rattling and murky, overall very human attempt to reconcile the ideals of her parents with the clash of the secular world. In 1978, the Minnesota-based family, consisting of her father, Stan, a teacher, her mother, Karen, a secretary, Hustad, then three, and her older sister, Amy, embarked on several years of mission work: first to Bonaire, in the Netherlands Antilles, where the parents worked at the evangelical Trans World Radio. The family had to rely on donations by the home congregation, indeed they were a "charity case," as Hustad and Amy recognized only much later, yet rich in faith and a willingness to fit in, such as learning Dutch in the Catholic school the girls attended. Relocated with her family to Bussum, Holland, in 1983, then back to Minnesota four years later, Hustad was considered by her contemporaries as a kind of exotic, clueless about cultural cues such as music and dress as she was beginning to doubt her own faith in God. Full-throttle secularization accompanied her move to New York City and work in publishing. Yet she remained forgiving toward her family's unconventional trajectory, as amply demonstrated in this groping, endearing attempt at "fumbling [one%E2%80%98s] way back toward hopes we called God." (Feb.)