Barry's Blog

Jacques Ellul once observed, "The fact of knowing how to read is nothing, the whole point is knowing what to read." Last Friday The Wall Street Journal came out with their summer reading suggestions, and on the same day The New York Times came out with an interesting article titled, "Volumes to Go Before You Die." The article is a review of a recently published British book entitled, "1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die," and aspires to suggest to us what any reasonably well-educated person will have read before they die. It also suggests to us, as writer William Grimes suggests, that it is not necessary to read many books, like Anne Rice's "Interview With a Vampire" before we die, even if, like Lestat, we are never going to die!

As summer approaches, it seemed like a good idea to suggest a few titles that would be worth your consideration. This handful of selections have been chosen are more focused on fiction than non-fiction (evangelicals tend to eschew fiction, preferring the didactic non-fiction, this is our Achilles' Heel); they tend to deal with faith and life, yet are not "preachy"; and they are relatively brief, so shall we say, easy volumes to get through. Besides, if I suggested Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment," who would really read it? So here are five selections worth your consideration, listed alphabetically by author.

Godric: A Novel,  by Frederick Buechner. Buechner is a prolific author who has had a significant impact on many, including novelist John Irving (whom he taught at Philips Exeter Academy), the author of such bestsellers as A Prayer for Owen Meany. Godric, Buechner's tenth novel, was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in 1981, and retells the life of Godric of Finchale, a twelfth-century English holy man whose projects late in life included that of purifying his moral ambition of pride, and his desire for rebirth and spiritual yearning, which leads him to a fierce asceticism.

How The Irish Saved Civilization, by Thomas Cahill. While a non-fiction work, this winsome volume by Cahill, which was a national bestseller, traces this little known "hinge" of history, the story of the island of saints and scholars, the Ireland of St. Patrick and others. Cahill tells the story of Ireland's heroic role in saving western civilization. The New Yorker review wrote, "When Cahill shows the splendid results of St. Patrick's mission in Ireland--among them, the preservation and transmission of classical literatute and the evangelization of Europe--he isn't exaggerating. He's rejoicing."

The Inklings, by Humphrey Carpenter. This is a favorite volume of mine, and wonderfully portrays the friendship of these Inklings, C.S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, Charles Williams, and their friends. Carpenter does a magnificent job of weaving a tapestry of the lives of these men that met weekly at the Eagle and Child Pub on St. Giles in Oxford, as well as Lewis' rooms on Thursday evenings at Magdalen College, Oxford. Carpenter, whose father was the Bishop of Oxford during the Inklings days at Oxford, also served as the authorized biographer of J. R. R. Tolkien, one of Lewis' most loyal friends. 

A Good Man Is Hard To Find and Other Stories, by Flannery O'Connor. This little volume of ten short stories served to establish O'Connor as a master of the short story, and, as many have suggested, one of the most original and provocative writers to come from the South. The New York Times Book Review said of her works, "They are characterized by precision, density and an almost alarming circumscription...Her characters tend to move in the hard, white glare of a searchlight...In these stories the rural South is, for the first time, viewed by a writer whose orthodoxy matches her talent. The results are revolutionary." The lead short story, for which the book was titled, is one of the most disturbing, yet truthful, pieces of literary art that you will ever encounter. O'Connor used to say that, "When people stop believing in the Gospel, you have to yell to get their attention."

The Moviegoer, by Walker Percy. Another American Southern writer like O'Connor, Percy had interests in both philosophy and semiotics. He is best known for his philosophical novels, and this first of his novels, The Moviegoer, won the National Book Award for Fiction in 1962, and established Percy as a leading voice in Southern literature. It tells the story of Binx Bolling, a New Orleans stockbroker who is adrift in life, occupying himself with dallying with his secretaries and going to movies. But one fateful Mardi Gras, Binx embarks on a spiritual quest to discover the true purpose of life. Percy was accused of writing the same novel seven times, of modern man's vertical search for God, and this first work is exemplary of his exploration of what he came to refer to as "the dislocation of man in the modern age." Although written over forty years ago, The Moviegoer still asks the same questions that remain central to our humanity, and the place of faith in our world. "A brilliant novel...Percy touches the rim of so many human mysteries." - Harper's Magazine

For FinishingWell,

Barry Morrow