the shoot

i just read the shack by william young. it seems (by the amount of hubbub i've heard about it lately) to be the next big thing in 2008 among Christian books. and as much as i long for the next pilgrim's progress, chronicles of narnia or lord of the rings, the shack just isn't it.

it's a great story. beautiful and heart wrenching. but it's like an amazing bacon cheeseburger wrapped in a diaper. is the burger still great? yes, but the wrapping is off-putting. the writing of the shack is abysmal, the chapter titles seem intentionally bad (long ago in a garden far, far away for example) and the quaint foreword and quaint writing style just comes off like a hallmark movie special. i realize that the mass of the Christian book reading audience won't even pick up on what i'm talking about, and they're the same crowd that will be shocked when they give the shack as gifts and are offended that people don't appreciate it.

but at the end of it, it's still an incredible allegory, one that will help millions of people as they aim to connect with God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. i guess my expectation is that Christian authors would write with the same standard of excellence that you find at any large publishing house. i have this same objection to the christian music industry, but that's not changing either (getting worse really).