The Shack: The Reader's Digest Da Vinci Code

So as I understand it, Amazon buggered up my neighbors book delivery, something about a botched address, so after a little song and dance from the squeaky wheel, he ended up getting the same delivery of books twice, the second of which he kindly passed along my way in the form of a literary care package.  I scored Steven King's new encyclopedia, a Vonnegut novel and The Shack by William P. Young.    

Thanks buddy!

I was anxious to read the latter right away, because my stolidly agnostic friend was ranting and raving about how his whole perception changed  thanks to the book, and how he wanted to start going to church (Still waiting...).  

I polished it off in about 3 days of casual reading when I should have been minding my children.  It was.... okay....

Here's the thing.  The Shack is not written particularly well.  Not really... It's not much good at all, except that it is, kinda.  It's written with a cadence Toronto Sun readers would probably find familiar, and while that might out me as a special kind of snob, that is shitty writing.  The whole time I couldn't help but think how better served the story itself and the themes it tackles (the nature of love, of the Holy trinity, of forgiveness) would have been in the hands of a gifted scribe who used words as more than a means to an end.  A great deal of fuss has been made over this book, and it pokes a few holes in the sensitive underbelly of religious dogma in plain down-to-earth english your reader's digest reading, Stephan Harper loving grandparents would probably find enlightening (not my grandparents though, they're sharp as all hell).   

That is not to say the book is not without it's strong points.  Alright, the guy's daughter gets murdered, and it just so happens I have a daughter, so if a fella gets sort of teary eyed when he's reading about it, that doesn't mean he's soft.  That point needs to be established.  The book tugs pretty hard at the heart strings but in terms of theology its nothing I haven't heard before.  I would have a harder time recommending this book if it wasn't such an easy read.  As it stands, it was a pretty bizarre change of pace after reading the Fountainhead, but if you've got the luxury of a cozy Christmas day to read Chicken soup for the lackadaisical Christian soul, this will do the trick.