My mother read this a couple of months ago and loves it so much that she begged me to read it. I had long ago sworn I never would. But then she said she’d read a Harry Potter book if I’d read William P’aul’ Young’s Ode To Selfish Spirituality. Actually it was my fault. I threw the Potter gauntlet down knowing she’d refuse. Clearly I’ve not played a good game of poker in awhile because here I am, having spent time in this dreadful universe in recompense.
This was the most singularly awful reading experience I’ve had in the last decade.
It reads like an extended raunchy joke (“A Mammy, a Rabbi and an Asian Gardener walk into a shack…”), but this time the laugh is on the reader.
Theoretically this book is to open your eyes at a new way to have a relationship with God. But all it does is replace the old stereotypes–a man in a white beard and long robe–with new ones. Magical Negro, anyone?!? Instead of truly examining actual mysticism it merely suggests you shuffle the deck to come up with a new hand to describe your personal God in human terms.
The first quarter of the book was passable and read with easy familiarity for anyone who has seen two or three Law & Order:SVU episodes. But when Mackenzie Phillips (I kid you not, that is the man’s name) goes to have a deep intercourse with his Papa (again, I kid you not) in the Shack it becomes this dreadfully mawkish combination of a minstrel show combined with a really long episode of Harold And The Purple Crayon. William P. Young, the author who considers himself to be now so enlightened that he goes by his middle name, Paul, has managed to cram all the usual bits of fantastical lore long familiar to readers of L’Engle, Dickens, Lewis as his New Century Vaudeville Trinity flies through the imagination in an attempt to gain spiritual understanding.
My mother is enthusiastic this book now that Eugene “The Message” Peterson claimed it was this generation’s Pilgrim’s Progress–vomit, I shall. She would have a heart attack if she knew how closely it resembles many New Age teachings and how much of a debt it owes to the LSD culture.
Of course, as a devout Christian mystic myself, I had many of my own issues with the book beyond its sloppy Godhead. True mysticism is the attempt to know the Divine through communication and study. In the journey of mysticism one learns that the truth is always more remarkable than our mind could have dreamed. Somehow William P’aul’ Young has found a lesser truth peopled with insulting jokes and parlayed that into a new and bastardised form of communion.
I found the book grotesque and disturbing, facile and mocking. I’m just so very sorry that so many people think this feeble thing is remarkable. Then again I suppose God is bigger than even one lousy book and if God can talk through Balaam’s ass then perhaps God can work through this piece of crap book.
Nevertheless I plan to beg everyone I meet to read something else instead.
I just read “Under the Dome” by Stephen King. Regular Stephen King fare but you might like the way he wrote about a small town under duress.
I love your book reviews. Going to avoid “The Shack.”
There are times when I’ll be singing this or that song in some place (doesn’t matter where, could be a megachurch or a nursing home), and the song will be one I’ve done a million times.
When I sing it (I must confess), I am just going through the motions. Yet, I’ll look out of the corner of my eye and see someone so overcome with emotion they are bawling like a baby. (This is impossible not to notice, if it’s, say, a 300 lb prisoner).
If my travels have taught me anything, it’s that my way of processing the world is only one of billions. To place mine above others as more enlightened would be folly, and counterproductive.
It is such a pleasure to see God work in methods and places unexpected. He will not be confined to a box, literary or otherwise.
On a lighter note, when I saw this post, I said to myself, “Wow, something is loved by the masses and Kat panned it…who could have seen THAT coming?”
🙂
I can see by your sidebar that you are
a cowboyabout to read Wolf Hall. It is written in the historic present, a tense that generally makes me stop reading in exasperation about 30 pages in. But it’s very good, enough that I have persevered almost to the end now. Cromwell is a great character in that book. It’s just that I keep shaking my head about how the character as written could possibly have done the things we are aware that the historical Cromwell did. OTOH, I find the picture of More strangely convincing.Oh, darn it, that last post is me, using Barry’s computer because mine is acting up, and not changing his settings. Sorry about that.
‘Coma, Funny you should mention! Under The Dome is on deck, right after Wolf Hall, which I’m blissfull about thus far.
Slarti, I appreciate that you might find merit in this book. That I do not does not make me less of a Christian. I don’t know if that’s how you meant to come across, but it was.
nm, Of course I knew it was you right away. I’ve met Barry only once, but I’m sure he doesn’t share your inimitable style of delivery. ;-p
And I’m just starting Wolf Hall, which is so beloved by so many people I respect that I was actually leery of it. But just a few pages into it I’m swept up in Thomas’ story. Because right now he’s just Thomas, a poor abused kid. I’m trying very hard to keep the historic person of Cromwell in the far back of my mind for awhile. Don’t know if I can, but we’ll see.
I am iffy on Historical Present as a genre. I’ve loved Katherine and Morgan’s Run and Roots, but have many problems with the wider genre as a whole. Especially when Historic characters talk in modern cadence. Or, worse, in a modern idea of what Olden Time Talk would sound like. I can’t remember which recent book I read did that but it made my head all screamy.
Yeah, Mantel does a good job of establishing a character before the HISTORY sets in. I was able to forget that Cromwell was Cromwell for quite a while. Let me know (once you reach that point) when in the book he turns into the historical personage for you — it will be interesting to see whether it’s the same point that switches over for both of us.
I absolutely agree with your assessment of The Shack. What insulting dribble. The only book worse? 30 Minutes in Heaven.
The information presented is top notch. I’ve been doing some research on the topic and this post answered several questions.
Hi there just wanted to give you a quick heads up. The text in your content
seem to be running off the screen in Chrome. I’m not sure if this is a format issue or something to do with web browser compatibility but I figured I’d post to let you know.
The design and style look great though! Hope you
get the problem resolved soon. Cheers
Hey there. I’m wondering if you’d be interested in doing a website link exchange?
I see your website: https://mycropht.wordpress.com/2009/12/31/my-diatribe-about-the-shack/ and my website are based around
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