For this month's book group at church I read The Shack by William P. Young. Simply put, not nearly as bad as I feared it would be given the beginning reminded me of Left Behind which as a pretty good story but "nauserating" theologically. In fact, Young's novel was quite thought provoking.
The book tells the story of a man irritatingly named Mackenzie Phillips (Young never saw One Day At A Time apparently...) who holds a lot of emotional pain from a abusive father and kidnapped daughter and is summoned by note to the scene of his daughter's murder supposedly by God.
What I liked about the book: though The Shack is fiction, Young writes it as if Mack related the story to him to write down. It's a plot device I really want to use someday.
As I implied earlier, the book's writing style was similar to Left Behind but, as the story gets going, it turns out it's more in-line with where I am theologically. Hint: God isn't an old white guy and Jesus is Arab...
What I didn't like: Young likes to crack people's heads open. It happens twice in the first fifty or sixty pages... Seriously though, I ave to warn you the ending is a ::facepalm:: for me. First, it takes Mack a whole book, and God coming right out and telling him, to figure out what his other daughter's problem is. Trust me. You don't need to be a child psychologist to figure it out...
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Also, and I refuse to give it away, the ending is pure science fiction clique.
Don't just take my recommendation though; Winona Judd liked it too...
The book tells the story of a man irritatingly named Mackenzie Phillips (Young never saw One Day At A Time apparently...) who holds a lot of emotional pain from a abusive father and kidnapped daughter and is summoned by note to the scene of his daughter's murder supposedly by God.
What I liked about the book: though The Shack is fiction, Young writes it as if Mack related the story to him to write down. It's a plot device I really want to use someday.
As I implied earlier, the book's writing style was similar to Left Behind but, as the story gets going, it turns out it's more in-line with where I am theologically. Hint: God isn't an old white guy and Jesus is Arab...
What I didn't like: Young likes to crack people's heads open. It happens twice in the first fifty or sixty pages... Seriously though, I ave to warn you the ending is a ::facepalm:: for me. First, it takes Mack a whole book, and God coming right out and telling him, to figure out what his other daughter's problem is. Trust me. You don't need to be a child psychologist to figure it out...
javascript:void(0)
Also, and I refuse to give it away, the ending is pure science fiction clique.
Don't just take my recommendation though; Winona Judd liked it too...
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