Cozy fireside conversations with a dozen contemporary writers on their faith, carefully arranged and thoughtfully conceived. Brown (English/Calvin Coll.) has gathered together conversations with 12 Christian writers, most of whom say they are uncomfortable with that term. The authors range from those renowned in Christian circles (Frederick Buechner and Walter Wangerin) to the more widely famous (Garrison Keillor, who is very provocative and outspoken about his vision for the church, and southern hellion Will Campbell). Brown also includes writers who are not yet household names, like newcomer Elizabeth Dewberry and longtime novelist Doris Betts, and popular authors most readers probably don't think of as Christian, like mystery writer Robert Goldsborough. Compiler Brown is fully engaged in these conversations, but allows the writers to speak for themselves (his introduction is less than three pages long, a refreshing brevity). Implicitly, his subtext seems to be that for these writers, there are a dozen different ways of manifesting their faith in their work. Brown is very critical of the throw-away fiction found in most Christian bookstores, and is intrigued by the fact that some of these bookstores won't even stock meaty novelists such as Campbell or Buechner. The writers discuss their stylistic and theological influences (Graham Greene, Annie Dillard, and Walker Percy win high marks from many). They reflect upon their perceived audiences, occasional hate mail, and stinging reviews; it is difficult, it seems, to write fiction with a Christian message when many Christian readers seem to prefer simplistic morality tales with squeaky-clean language, and when ``secular'' readers are often turned off by theology. Brown has included a useful bibliography for each writer, pointing to further pleasures. The book's only real flaw is its fairly narrow perspective: All but one of the subjects are mainline Protestant (the exception being Jon Hassler, who is Catholic), most are male, and all are white. (12 b&w photos, not seen)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1997
ISBN: 0-8028-4313-1
Page Count: 280
Publisher: Eerdmans
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1997
If the authors are serious, this is a silly, distasteful book. If they are not, it’s a brilliant satire.
The authors have created a sort of anti-Book of Virtues in this encyclopedic compendium of the ways and means of power.
Everyone wants power and everyone is in a constant duplicitous game to gain more power at the expense of others, according to Greene, a screenwriter and former editor at Esquire (Elffers, a book packager, designed the volume, with its attractive marginalia). We live today as courtiers once did in royal courts: we must appear civil while attempting to crush all those around us. This power game can be played well or poorly, and in these 48 laws culled from the history and wisdom of the world’s greatest power players are the rules that must be followed to win. These laws boil down to being as ruthless, selfish, manipulative, and deceitful as possible. Each law, however, gets its own chapter: “Conceal Your Intentions,” “Always Say Less Than Necessary,” “Pose as a Friend, Work as a Spy,” and so on. Each chapter is conveniently broken down into sections on what happened to those who transgressed or observed the particular law, the key elements in this law, and ways to defensively reverse this law when it’s used against you. Quotations in the margins amplify the lesson being taught. While compelling in the way an auto accident might be, the book is simply nonsense. Rules often contradict each other. We are told, for instance, to “be conspicuous at all cost,” then told to “behave like others.” More seriously, Greene never really defines “power,” and he merely asserts, rather than offers evidence for, the Hobbesian world of all against all in which he insists we live. The world may be like this at times, but often it isn’t. To ask why this is so would be a far more useful project.
If the authors are serious, this is a silly, distasteful book. If they are not, it’s a brilliant satire.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-670-88146-5
Page Count: 430
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1998
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
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