Tue 7 Jul, 2009
Catholic Book Review: The Shack (Part 1: Literary Review)
Comments (1) Filed under: Catholic Book ReviewsThis book review will is published in parts on the blog. Click here to see the entire review
Every few years, the Evangelical culture produces a flash top-selling book that “changes” everybody’s lives, and then disappears into the ether. Does anyone remember the Prayer of Jabez? Sometimes these books are pretty well written and do deliver insights (Purpose Driven Life is one example). Other times they are driven into popularity simply because they promote the Evangelical worldview. The Shack falls into the latter category.
The Shack is the story of a father who faces the worst nightmare any father could face: the abduction and murder of his daughter. In the midst of his sorrow, “Mack” receives a hand-written note from “Papa” inviting him to meet at the scene of his daughter’s murder – an abandoned hunting shack in the middle of the wilderness. “Papa” is the name that Mack’s wife uses for God the Father. Mack goes to the Shack hoping to meet God, or at least to find some answers to his daughter’s death. There he has an encounter with the three Persons of the Trinity. Most of the book consists of this encounter.
Literary Content
Not to be too harsh, but Author William P. Young tries too hard to remember his lessons in high school creative writing class. The Shack is an amateur novel of the kind made possible by self-publishing services. In fact, it seems that the publisher of The Shack, Windblown Media, was created specifically for the purpose of publishing this book. That is not to say that The Shack is a horrible read, or to demean self-published authors or printers. In fact, I plan to self-publish my moral theology textbook. However, it does mean that parts of The Shack fall flat, and parts were even difficult to get through.
For example, the opening pages are flooded with adjectives. Take the very first passage of the book:
March unleashed a torrent of rainfall after an abnormally dry winter. A cold front out of Canada then descended and was held in place by a swirling wind that roared down the Gorge from eastern Oregon. Although spring was surely just around the corner, the god of winter was not about to relinquish its hard-won dominion without a tussle. There was a blanket of new snow in the Cascades, and rain was now freezing on impact with the frigid ground outside the house; enough reason for Mack to snuggle up with a book and a hot cider and wrap up in the warmth of a crackling fire.
Not horrible writing, but a tad overdone in a paragraph with no other purpose than to describe the weather. The intense descriptions give the early spring cold spell a much greater importance than it deserves. It is indicative of a book that tries too hard.
The names of the main character, “Mack,” and his wife “Nan” are cardboard names that stick out to the reader like a bad cliché through the entire novel. While it is believable that “Mackenzie” would go by a shortened nickname, having both “Mack” and “Nan” was just too much. Further, Young decided to put a label on the sorrow that Mack felt over the death of his daughter. He calls it “The Great Sadness.” This label depersonalizes his sorrow, again lending to a cardboard feel of the entire story.
Most confusingly, “The Great Sadness” doesn’t play much of a role in Mack’s encounter with God. Young mentions it once in a while, and places Mack’s main encounter with “The Great Sadness” in an appropriate place for a climax to the plot, but most of Mack’s encounter with God is focused on correcting apparent theological misconceptions that only indirectly tie to Mack’s main issue (how could God have allowed such a great evil). Mack’s pain and the discussion of God’s will in our suffering does make enough of an appearance to serve as a thread through the story. However, it does not build to the climax of Mack’s conversion. In the end, Mack’s conversion is not entirely believable and the agenda of the book is all too obvious.
In the next installment of this review, we’ll take a look at William Young’s portrayal of God.
Please Link to this article!
Related posts:
- Catholic Book Review: The Shack (Part 3: Portrayal of God – What The Shack Got Right) This book review will is published in parts on the...
- Catholic Book Review: The Shack (part 2: Criticisms of the Shack) This book review will is published in parts on the...
- Catholic Book Review: The Shack (Part 4: Theological Problem with God as Father) This book review will is published in parts on the...
- Catholic Book Review: The Shack (Part 6 – Rejection of Religion & Final Recommendations) Rejection of Religion The largest problem with The Shack lies...
- Catholic Book Review: The Shack (Part 5: Theological Problem – Understanding of the Incarnation) The Shack does fall into major theological error in its...
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
Mairianna Clyde says:
Totally agree. It’s the most mawdling pedestrian book I have ever read. Totally juvenile (never mind the hippy-dippy theology). It’s the Waltons with a murder. I’ve never come across large subjects so badly treated. The literary equivalent of ham acting.
The names ‘Mack’ and ‘Nan’ got to me too. And the cliche of the Scots-Irish belting boozing Bible reading father.
Just dreadful.
The main character is a Lost Boy looking for his mummy. No wonder she shows up as God. A total wooss. No sympathy for the self-pitying wretch at all. It’s the wee girl who’s the realvictim, but she’s just a convenient prop for his mawdling self-pity. Disgusting to use the murder of a child like that.
Sorry, I weary you. But tragic that so many think this is a good book.