When I first started reading The Shack, I had a hard time moving through the B-/C+ writing. (I have to temper this by stating that I am not a writer and, therefore, don't try to be one. I certainly could write no better than William Young.) The writing certainly isn't as clever or brilliant as the only two fiction books that I've finished in the past couple of years: Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt (that is some hilariously haunting Irish goodness right there) and Peace Like A River by Lief Enger (his writing is as intriguing as his name).
I read the comments below to "Is Mack Real?" after I read the first two chapters. This comment of Nicole's changed the way that I began to read the book:
"It was easier for me to read and enjoy The Shack knowing that Mr. Young isn't (wasn't?) a professional writer. He wrote it as a gift to his family, who encouraged him to get it published. So the poor writing, I guess I can't hold that against him, and it's not fair to compare him to McCarthy because they're in different leagues..."
I began to read it with a little more forgiveness, but it still makes me wonder if the only reason that it is on the bestseller list is because Evangelical Christianity has embraced it and is curious about it. (In my opinion, most Christian fiction is not "readable". Is that a word?) I haven't read past Chapter 4, though, and it sounds like everyone is saying to focus on the content, rather than the writing.
Also, I would recommend that you not read Chapter 4 right before going to bed. At least, not when your husband is in Chicago and you are the sole protector of your three sleeping babies. It leads to some OCD impulses and some nutty nightmares.
I have a really hard time with cruelty to children. I just can't stomach it or even let my brain go there. For that reason, I'm grateful to Young for being a little ambiguous about the murder. I couldn't read past the bully rape scene in The Kite Runner. I never picked it back up, despite it's brilliant writing, and that scene still haunts my memory.
This is Ashley SHAVER, by the way. I noticed there is another Ashley on the blog.
12 years ago
21 comments:
I totally agree with you, Ashley S. That quote from Nicole helped me, too.
all y'all is right: nicole has the quote of the season with that one right up there. helped me too.
ashley shaver -
two quick notes about me: i do not play the guitar, nor do i brew my own beer. however, i love the long, intricate metallica guitar solos, and rather despise the quippy high pitched standard solos in late '80s hair bands like poison or ratt. also, i love beers with big hops (IPAs) and hate beers with big malts (bocks).
all that to say - kick those parenthetical disclaimers to the side, homegirl: you know the good stuff when you see it. i like what you said, particularly the perspective of the violence you have as a parent. this is a perspective that i do not have - yet - but i do look forward to in the future.
ps. the wife is praying for twins, but she said we cannot name them "hobby" and "lobby." "shake" and "bake" are still up for debate.
Mmm. "Shake" and "Bake". I'm lovin' that. I dare you! :) My "three babies" aren't actually triplets; they're 5, 3, and 1. (Titus, Audra, and Justus) They just felt like helpless babies last night...and I was feeling a little helpless to guarantee their protection in light of reading The Shack. --Ashley S.
First of all, I agree with you about the Kite Runner. I have almost read it several times, but violence against children is something that haunts me so I don't go there anymore. (too much L&O SVU episodes?)
I liked the Shack, the writing style bothered me a lot, but the meaning behind the words won out over my critical nature. (I still can't read the Left Behind series though...)
A guy in my community group wrote a great review on the book, he's on my blog roll, Sol, and the author himself actually commented on it. Oddly enough I just bought the book last week while on vacation and was going to re-read it this week.
I think the popularity of it is because that is the world's biggest question regarding the perfect loving nature of God. How can a loving God allow this, ect, and he actually attempted to answer it. Write another post after you finish it!
or just get to page 66. :)I have read more on this page and understand this blog better now.
clarks - i'm not sure the question even concerns God allowing things to happen to people; i think the bigger question here that is keeping people in knots and awake at night - even people who have grown up in the church - is if God actually speaks to us anymore. i think that is the question that this book addresses that is driving so many people bonkers. and william young can write like like a pile of white dog turds all day long if it will get people thinking that maybe, just maybe, God still speaks today.
A couple of quick notes before I move to the realm of ideas:
(a) I love beers. Big hops? LOVE 'em. Big Malts? I drink 'em;
(b) I play guitar and like any guitar solo. Especially ones I can "ware, ware" with my mouth;
(c) I most especially love the guitar work on Matt Brock's new song "Wait it Out" on www.commonguild.blogspot.com (shameless plug);
(d) SPOILER ALERT... and to the substance... I do not like when authors or screen writers use children or animals for any emotive theme. It seems to be the easy way to evoke emotion because we all believe that innocence should be protected (at least until the innocence becomes jaded and sarcastic, at which point it is considered reasonable to kill them to set the scene). However, I will wait to make my final judgement re whether this was necessary. If so, I will forgive Willie. I'm forgiving like that;
(e) Willie goes to far in his writing, spelling out every thought and every statement (in trite cliche or abundant overstatement) without leaving anything to the imagination. Sometimes in life, it is the things that go unsaid that make the strongest impact;
(f) for the above stated reasons, and for those which will be more specifically set forth by others below, this court concurs with the opinion of Shaver and grants Willie a C+ (at best) for his style. I hope to grant him an A on his ideas as I read further.
Yes, I agree with Seth: Willie says too much!
Re: Christian fiction (maybe this should be its own post - oh well): Has anyone read "A Voice in the Wind" by Francine Rivers? I haven't read much Christian fiction but this was recommended to me by someone I trust and I loved it.
seth:
1) oh, i'll drink the malts - i just don't like 'em as much. i'm a hophead through and through. the more hops, the grapefruitier the hops, the better.
2) "ware, ware"ing with the mouth is a beautiful artform i pray the children of the future never lose. seth, teach your kids in the way they should go; they will return to it in due time.
3) dedgum it! i do not have a computer that allows me to listen to matt brock's new song! i will go to the fancy computer tomorrow, the one at the school that lets fancy things happen.
4) seth and amber - i need one of you to email me your home address. you may be rewarded for doing so.
5) i appreciate the way you juxtaposed children with animals in your "easy way to evoke emotion" note. i can watch pretty white people and the one token black actor/actress get it badly in every film, but you touch the dog or the horse and i get really sad really quickly. i ain't no PETA member - i freaking eat animals by the pasture-load - but don't go shootin' the horse or kickin' the dog, bro. it ain't decent. i just can't emotionally abide that.
6) i love cottage cheese at breakfast.
Seth and Amber--Where did you find "The Hamster"? He's freakin' hilarious!
"The Hamster"--Do you have another name? :) Why "The Hamster"?
Ashley SHAVER.
The hamster in all his folly can be found at hamsterfolly.blogspot.com, and that's where I found him after searching the bloglines of another perfect stranger, who I've grown to love. (This perfect stranger also happened to be close friends with the sister of one of our dear friends.(God is cool.)) I became a big ole hamster fan, and then I realized that he is the friend that we'd been hearing about for a few years from some of our dearest, closest friends - who happen to also be members here (the Baker and his bride, the other Ashley- a hot tamale of a voracious reader). Did that make any sense?
Anyway, the point is that God is good at orchestrating stuff. You can quote me on that.
so i feel as though i'm in caught between a pickle and a really old hard pickle. if i continue my shinanigans about william being the rembrandt of writing, then i will shoot my own foot with anything i say in the future, because nobody will give any value to what i say. But, if i say, you are all right and he stinks like hamster droppings (not really about you, Kev), then i am a crowd-pleaser.
Last thing i will say about the writing style or ability:
William P. Young writes decently, but is by no means polished or even presenting something brilliantly composed. William is writing contemporary christian fiction, which is hard to do, and does not get to use witches, dragons, crystal balls, victorian anything, or any of the staple things that fantasy writing allows.
To me, the creativity of the book far overshadows the writing: the plot, the characters, and i even believe his ability to elicit emotion.
Ok, now i can start on dinner.
i think the first 66 pages are the worst in the book. Especially if you have to stop and write about them without knowing what comes next. i will do my darndest to not spoil anything for anyone.
These 4 chapters were a setup, no more, no less. this is the equivalent to watching all of the flashbacks in a row from any of the Bourne movies or stoping after watching Star Wars episode one and before you even knew that one day you would see a movie with little koalas yelping and tripping large mechanical devices on a forest moon called Endor.
Endor awaits my friends. Ha.
Actually both of those were poor exampes, but actually you must trudge through this portion to have any real understanding of what Mack is up against, specifically himself.
If do not recognize this before we move forward, then Mack will seem like a whiny, ungrateful, jerkface...
and he is.
This is a big deal, but without knowing what Mack has been through, well written or not, we as the readers cannot empathize with him, and if you are human, i think everyone can relate on some level with the frustration coming.
i have so much more to say but i write more than anyone anyways with about half the substance, so i will retire for now.
I onehundredpercently agree with you, Baker.
matt - good notes. i have determined to let the writing go. besides, i've just been on big flannery o'connor kick lately. nobody reads well after you've been waltzing about with flannery o'connor. she's the mo-fo-ing bee's knees, jack.
Baker, I completely agree with you. The first 66 pages are the worst. Persevere People! It gets better!
How interesting, Hamster, that you got a completely different take on the book than I did. Perhaps it is b/c when I read the book I didn't believe in a perfect/good nature of God. I mean, I would have said I did but deep down I didn't. It challenged a lot of preconceived notions I had about God and theology learned in Baptist Sunday School rooms. I think b/c of what I was going through with my baby (long story short- therapy, genetics testing, possible heart surgery, eye surgery, developmental delays, etc.) that I was angry with God when I read it. The Seth thing- innocence shouldn't suffer stuff. It spoke to me on a basic level. I see where you are coming from about the whole God speaking to us and CAN THAT HAPPEN? and that being the driving force behind the interest.
PS did you guys hear the rumor that The Shack is being made into a Hollywood movie with Tom Hanks being chased for the main role? How badly will this get screwed up???
Heidi (Clark), that's crazy! Seth was just talking about how he bets this will be made into a movie and that Oprah would end up being Papa.
And who wants to get struck by lightning this time?
i would cast Whoopie as Papa, Lucy lu as the Spirit Character, and Saied from LOST as Jesus.
For Mack, someone very basic looking. i'll think on this one.
Whoopie or that lady from the Matrix who is the Oracle. That is how I pictured Pappa looking the whole time I was reading. VERY Good job on the other casting!!
Mac is a toughie. I'd say (Don't cringe!) a clean and sober Mel Gibson but I don't think he'd want his name tied to another "religious film" and with his "sugar T---" and racial slurs I don't know if we'll see him again. He's believable as jaded and sarcastic but still can cry without looking like a snively wuss.
Is Eric Bana too young?
"but it still makes me wonder if the only reason that it is on the bestseller list is because Evangelical Christianity has embraced it and is curious about it."
I do not want to turn into a naysayer, but I've been thinking so far (c. 50 pages) about the marketing of this book and wondering, "What if evangelical Christianity embraced [insert edgy artful probing classic Christian novel] and that book then became a bestseller?"
the clarks - shit. we need a beer. i wish you could have just kept talking. southern baptist past, personal tragedy, the goodness of God - i could listen and nod my head all day.
as a sidenote - i have always wanted to see steve buscemi play john the baptist.
Hamster, I'd love to talk over a drink but it'd have to be a marg or some such fruity beverage. My surprisingly tolerant-of-alcohol-(being a southern baptist and all) mother let me sip beer and wine as a child so I'd never be "curious" and I've had an aversion to the stuff ever since. Kind of backfired with the love of fine rum, whisky and tequilla though.
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