books in august

Bridget Jones's Diary, by Helen Fielding

This was the ultimate summer read.  Not only was it so lighthearted and funny and honest that I wanted to immediate write a book just like this one, it was the perfect way to pass the time while my family and I were on vacation in Annapolis.  Pure, sugary entertainment.  The movie was a good adaptation (I'd seen it before I read the book), and the casting was spot on.  I love that Mark Darcy is based on Colin Firth's portrayal of Mr Darcy in the P&P miniseries, and the movie has Colin Firth in that role.  It's all too perfect.  A little more sentimental than the book, but still so perfect.

Helen Fielding's writing style here is so approachable and funny.  I wish I would have thought of it first - segmented journal entries, beginning with an update on calories, cigarettes smoked, weight, and whatever else Bridget's keeping track of that week.  I should have written this book.  

Perelandra, by CS Lewis

Such a different book from the other one I read this month.  I struggled with Lewis's first book in his Space Trilogy (Out of the Silent Planet, which I wrote about two years ago - oy), and this one started little better.  His imagination creates literal worlds, and it takes half of a book to give the reader that setting.  The plot doesn't take off till you get a feel for your surroundings.  Is this to the detriment of the story itself?  Probably not.  We're just not used to having to stick with something that reads a little more... classically.  I've got to exercise that muscle a bit more.  By reading something tedious.

Halfway through, though, this book is anything but tedious.  All I'm going to say is the scene with the frogs.  True horror.  The Un-Man, as Ransom names the villain of this adventure, is truly horrifying.  He's reminiscent of Dracula to me... and I cannot really explain why.  I just know I felt the same terror and dread reading about his mutilation of this beautiful world of Lewis's imagination as I did about the vampire's activity.  Sheer evil.

No matter what Lewis writes, he rewards you for walking through his world, no matter how long the journey may have taken.  Please take this journey.  You won't be sorry.

books in july

The Pilgrim's Regress, by CS Lewis

I enjoyed this.  It's difficult for me to not enjoy something by my friend Jack.  However.  I felt like this was something I'd have written in a literary analysis course... obviously not to the same effect as his, but it was very much a response to a prompt, in my opinion.  The way he used names of literary/psychological/cultural movements was even more overt than Paul Bunyan's original Pilgrim story.  I realize this was one of his earlier works, post-conversion, and that it detailed (in allegorical form) that very conversion, but it certainly does not do justice to the imagination and brilliance we see in his other works.

Go Set a Watchman, by Harper Lee

A much-anticipated sequel to what is perhaps the great American novel did not live up to its hype.  My opinion.  While it was fun feeling like I was reading something out of a time capsule (Lee wrote this before To Kill a Mockingbird), the plot was undeveloped, and the characters were not likable.  The highlights were the flashbacks to Scout's childhood, naturally - that was the character we fell in love with in the first place.  I didn't like grown-up Scout.  When you read about a book about a precocious young girl, don't you automatically assume she would grow up to be just like you?  I know I do.  And did.  But Jean Louise is nothing like me.  And that made me dislike her.  Ha. 

Perhaps the biggest hit to my soul was the tainting of Atticus's character.  How dare she.  The greatest father in all of literature... is not.  It's a sad story.  It's a messy reality.  And what about Jem?  He's simply been dead, without much ado or explanation.  Eh.  Not what I wanted.  I feel a bit disillusioned with Atticus, and with Scout, strangely.  An interesting read, but certainly not on par with her first published novel.  Read that one again. 

books in june

The Shack, by Wm. P. Young

Oh, The Shack.  Although I was rereading it to discuss with a friend, I realized about halfway through that I had never finished it when it was assigned for my Triune God class at college.  Sorry, Dr Hirt!  But I aced the term paper, so....

The story was better than I remember it being, to be honest.  I empathize with Mack (the main character) more now that I have a daughter.  That section was truly heartbreaking, and caused me to ask some of those same questions he struggles through (e.g.: "Is God a good father?").  But the writing is still awful, the dialogue trite, and the characterization of God not necessarily accurate or helpful.  It's interesting, in its way, but ultimately, just not great.  Young brings up a great topic for discussion - the nature of the Triune God - but as far as the portrayal of God Himself, it often falls into the two main heresies surrounding that doctrine: either the Persons of the Godhead are too one (to the point of being indistinct), or too three (to the point of being too distinct and separate).  God is three in one.  The more we try to put this mystery into words, the more we try to rationalize, the farther I think we get from the truth.  Truly.

I also think, unintentional though it may be, the author falls into other heretical ideas.  It's probably for the sake of story, plot development, characterization, etc, but the fact remains that God the Father was not on the cross; there is a hierarchy within the Godhead; and the Bible is the reliable and necessary source of truth.  I don't appreciate the treatment of church and/or religion as a manmade god, either.  The church is the body and the bride of Christ.  All who claim Christ are not all His, obviously, and the church is full of fallen human beings who misrepresent Him all the time.  But we are called to structure and order and relationship with one another as well as on an individual basis with God.  

Are these points nitpicky?  Is it really just semantics?  As a work of fiction, can we gloss over these seemingly little details?  I suggest (firmly) no.  While I appreciate the portrayal of God in the way He will reach down into our lives, radically change our hearts, and demonstrate His nearness, I think it's closer to the heart of God to believe truth about who He is above a heartwarming and imaginative, but ultimately dishonest, dream sequence.  

Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer, by CS Lewis

This was such a timely read.  Written by Lewis in the format of letters to a fictional friend "Malcolm", this book answers many of the questions raised by Wm. P. Young in The Shack.  Jack's main discussion point is the way we relate to God, and how God relates to us.  Hence the "Chiefly on Prayer" subtitle.  In some ways, he supports the conclusions of The Shack: "We must lay before Him what is in us; not what ought to be in us."  God not only invites, but requires us to be honest with Him - in our moments of joy and especially in our times of despair.  He emphasizes the importance of communing with other believers through worship services, daily life, and the Lord's Supper; church is the way God relates to His people.  

The biggest, most important quote of the book in my eyes is, "Every idea of Him we form, He must in mercy shatter."  We as believers need to daily surrender our idea of who God is unto Him to be destroyed and built up in truth.  What a risky business is this faith!