What We’re Reading Now - April 2007

All good books are alike in that they are truer than if they had really happened and after you are finished reading one you will feel that all that happened to you and afterwards it all belongs to you; the good and the bad, the ecstasy, the remorse, and sorrow, the people and the places and how the weather was.
- Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast

Luke Neff

Road-side Dog, by Czeslaw Milosz: A small (but chiseled) strike force of snippets, aphorisms and anecdotes from the great Polish poet.

Gayla B. Hall

Ines of My Soul, by Isabel Allende: About Dona Ines Suarez - the “cofounder” of Chile. Full of adventure, sex and magic realism. Nope, I don’t really get/can’t explain the latter, but the former two keep things interesting.

Jeffrey Donaldson

Dancer, by Colum McCann: Dancer is a fictional biography of the prominent Russian dancer Rudolf Nureyev. Dancer seeks to tell his story through the stories of those touched by Nureyev’s ballet, in a sequence of narratives by various characters: his maid, his sister, and many others.
McCann is, by trade, a storyteller as much as a novelist. He is an Irish expatriate living in New York City, and he seeks to tell the tales of the world in order that the life of each individual might be understood.
Nureyev was a tragic figure, suffering for his art through alienation; his dance, however, served as a vessel for those numinous moments of life when beauty breaks free.

Larry Shallenberger

Sex God, by Rob Bell: Great book. I, uhm, finished fast, though. That’s because Sex God is a breazy, conversational look at the links between our sexuality and our spirituality. Bell avoids all the pitfalls that present itself when writing such a book (Sex God avoids preachy, crass, or cliqued presentation). Bell returns context to sex and we all feel new dignity because of it.

The Prescence of the Kingdom, by Jacque Ellul: Jordan’s recent posts on Ellul provoked my curiousity and I dove into Ellul. The French philosopher requires careful reading, but the pay off is worth it. Fifty years later, his insights on Christianty’s relationship to culture seem prophetic. I recommend that readers do not skip the forward. Advice is given on reading Ellul that will help you avoid misinterpretation of his dialectic approach to faith.

David Taylor

The Book of Bebb, by Frederick Buechner: “The trouble with (some) folks .. is they hold their life in like a bakebean fart at a Baptist cookout and only let it slip out sideways a little at a time when they think there’s nobody noticing. Now that’s the last thing on earth the Almighy intended. He intended all the life a man’s got inside him, he should live it out just as free and strong and natural as a bird.”

This quote from The Reverend Leo Bebb, one of the many memorable characters from legendary Pulitzer Prize-nominated author and Presbyterian minister Frederick Buechner’s epic work of fiction, The Book of Bebb, nicely sums up the author’s lay it all out - warts and all - eloquant and earthy brand of God-infused prose. Originally four separate novels released in the early 1970’s - Lion Country, Open Heart, Love Feast, and Treasure Hunt - The Book of Bebb chronicles the rise and fall of evangelist Leo Bebb, who may or not be a charlatan, an alien, or sincere but flawed believer with some skeletons in his closet. Buechner’s rich wordplay and colorful cast make this uproariously funny, deeply touching, and downright revelatory novel a piece of classic American literature not to be missed.

Mike Radcliffe

The Unraveling of America: A History of Liberalism in the 1960s, by Allen J. Matusow: All that glitters is not gold.

Traditional narratives about the 1960s herald its triumphs: Civil Rights, Women’s Rights and sexual liberation. These histories celebrate the purported freedom bestowed upon America by that tumultuous decade. Given this literature, Allen Matusow’s The Unraveling of America: A History of Liberalism in the 1960s constitutes a stunning counterpoint. Matusow includes the era’s high points, but also the dark side of the force, focusing on the failure of tax and spend liberalism to foment real social change and the chaotic, sinister consequences of the hip counterculture. The decade began with John Kennedy declaring “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country,” but ended with the murder of its liberal leaders (RFK and MLK) and the nationally televised chaos of its liberal party during the riotous 1968 Democratic Convention, and Matusow demonstrates the empirical why and how.

Liberal politics are in vogue these days, partially because of their appeal to compassion, partially because of the current President’s appeal to violent self-preservation. Unraveling is required reading for those of us hoping for some relief from Republican hegemony - not because the desire for relief is unwarranted, but perhaps because the hope in a political alternative is misplaced. Americans are trained from youth by political mythologies to admire and emulate Washington, Lincoln and other purportedly great men of the American past, but none of these men or the America they governed can ever substitute for Jesus Christ and his kingdom. In his kingdom the poor are blessed, the humble rich, the mourners comforted, and the pure see God. No politician can ever promise that.

“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” (Matthew 6:33)