Summer reading

I read four books over the holidays - here they are ranked in order from absolutely brilliant to a good read. (I will add them as time permits.)

#1 The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

This is one of the best books I have ever read. Set in 1940's Germany, Zusak introduces some memorable and delightful characters, Liesel, Rudy, Max, Hans and others who live in desperate times with honour and hope and quite a few references to pigs. Zusak's way with words - minimal - makes its own statement in the context and invites the reader to savour each word. It was necessary to read slowly to savour the experience for as long as possible - I didn't want the experience of reading this book to end.

I talked to a woman camping at Anauru Bay (north of Gisborne) who felt that this book was not good holiday reading. Thematically I can understand why a story narrated by Death might seem a bit morbid in the summer sun, but the images of light and the ability to live hopefully in the lives of these people was anything but morbid despite the tragic circumstances. I found it to be deeply moving and among the best things that happened on my holiday!

John Boyne's The House of Special Purpose

I've just finished reading this - a good story offering a perspective on the fall of the Romanov dynasty in Russia from a servant who escaped to England and built a life. While some aspects of the story (the identity of his wife, for example) were kind of obvious fairly early on, and the outcome was kind of heralded at the start simply because of the decision to mix the time frames up, it was very enjoyable and informative.

more reading

Someone sent me a book voucher - what a joy!

Along with The Shack Anne and I purchased Carlo's Ruiz Zafon's fantastic novel The Angel's Game. We read The Shadow of the Wind last year and loved the clever storyline (set in Barcelona) and the quite wonderful characters. The Angel's Game keeps up the fine tradition. It is set in an earlier time and briefly involves two characters who appeared in Shadow...

I number these books among the best novels I have read - they are gripping mysteries told by a craftsman author who brings Barcelona alive and offers up fascinating characters.

The boy with no shoes

William Horwood's books have long been among my favourites - in particular Duncton Wood, Skallagrigg and The Stonor Eagles. It has been interesting, in reading this book, to see how his early life experiences shaped the approach he took to his novels...

There is a lot of heart in this memoir - as well as courage and hope... it is fascinating to reflect on how at just the right times in his early life he had caring adults about him who believed in him.

Of anything Horwood has written, this story could easily be turned into a film, a film to rival Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes.

Vacation Over

I haven't really been on vacation (apart from a wonderful week in Sydney, Australia) - I'm involved in a process in our church that has mostly kept me silent. While it is still going on and I haven't heard anything, I've decided that I'll blog anyway!

Three things that have pushed my buttons:
1. World Youth Day in Sydney. While Anne and I didn't go over to be 'pilgrims' in this mega Roman Catholic Youth festival (Pope Benedict included) - we did enjoy catching up with our German 'daughter' Hannah who was a pilgrim - and mostly enjoyed the buzz in the city. What intrigued me the most (and this probably reflects NZers unease with flag-waving) was that the pilgrims mostly wandered the streets in their ethnic groups, singing and chanting as they waved their national flags. I would have thought they would have been more interested in mixing together - I'm sure that must have happened, but it didn't seem to be happening. I don;t believe we will address the world's concerns or even celebrate the Christian faith by flag-waving.
Nevertheless, the colour and vibrancy was neat, the city was grand and the heightened police presence was a welcome and pleasant security.
2. a few good novels - Water for elephants - a very thoughtful and readable adventure in a 1930's circus train - highly recommended! My name was Judas by C K Stead (a NZ novelist) - while from the angle of modernist skepticism it is an interesting perspective on the whole Jesus adventure that I am aware many buy into, thus it is useful to trawl this particular ocean. And, Mark Haddon's A Spot of Bother a fun romp into the messed up lives of a British family and their rising above their troubles.
3. William Stringfellow - I'm reading Free in Obedience again and just love his provocative perspective on the church. The book was written in the mid-60's in the US - he addresses the church and its role in the city and its too willing participation in death (denial of Christ's sovereignty) - I'll get back on this as I read more.

A Touch of Sleeve

On Monday night I was involved in the launching of my friend Susan Bell's amazing book, A Touch of Sleeve. Susan asked if I would be the launcher which was an honour and a privilege (if the two things aren't the same!). Around 90 people gathered at the University Bookshop and we had a lot of fun... the neat thing was that Hisashi (who the book is about) was able to be there. He is in his late 80's.

Hisashi is Japanese and has done what Japanese men don't do - he has recounted to Susan his experience of life in Japan during World War II, the defeat and occupation. Culturally he has broken a kind of taboo - and according to a proverb he relates, been the frog who opens his mouth so wide that the contents of his insides can be seen...

The insight into Japanese life that comes from this opening his mouth widely is profound. I read some of the early draft chapters (that have since been radically revised as the book took its current shape) and the account of the fire bombing of Tokyo in particular was both harrowing and astonishing.

Until now, little has been known of the Japanese side of the war experience.

Susan with Hisashi's help has opened the window for us to look in - it promises to be a break-through book and I wish Susan well!

It is available around the country for $39.95 - I hope people get the opportunity to read it.

http://www.longacre.co.nz/books/Sleeve.html

Two more Ben Elton books

I've just finished reading another two Ben Elton books (not at the same time you understand... I do have my limits!) and they have once again been very good reads. In both books, Elton plays with the irony of those critiquing the fads also participating in them.

The most enjoyable of the two was the whodunit Past Mortem, it has a great interplay between the two investigating officers, a clever plot, rather horrible serial killings and a gripping climax. The theme of bullying is cleverly addressed, and its dimensions in both school, workplace and beyond are well-covered.

Dead Famous manages to expose the pathetic, fluffy, and morally decadent side of the whole reality TV thing (Big Brother etc) yet, of course, without such programmes achieving their high ratings, Elton would have not had the material on which to base a novel...

I am no great fan of the maniuplative side of TV - that's part of why I hardly watch it and why I detest so-called reality TV. I watch TV for escape not reality!

I have another of his novels in the bookshelf, but I might have take a few days off to reacquaint myself with the others in the reality of my house!

Forgiveness

About 30 of us have just finished four weeks thinking about grace using Philip Yancey's What's so amazing about grace as a guide. The whole area of forgiveness predictably gave us a few difficulties.

One of the questions I asked last night was: "Can you forgive someone who doesn't have a sense that they need to be forgiven?" Through the Gospel lens the answer to all our problems with forgiveness is always 'Yes' - seventy times seven etc etc. But this is never an easy yes...

A friend reminded me this week that forgiveness is usually costly... the one who makes the move to forgive may have to bear the burden for a long time, I think this is especially so if the one forgiven doesn't have a sense that there is anything they have done that needs forgiveness.

One conclusion we did come up with in the group is that forgiveness is a gift... a grace... our struggles with it are set within a broader context... God's gracious pardon of us... with God's help nothing is impossible... even the possibility that someone who considers themselves the most wronged can take the first step.

Here's a quote I found helpful... "Because it goes against human nature, forgiveness must be taught and practiced, as one would practice any difficult craft. 'Forgiveness is not just an occasional act: it is a permanent attitude,' said Martin Luther King Jr. What greater gift could Christians give to the world than the forming of a culture that upholds grace and forgiveness?"

p137 What's so amazing about grace

Reading 'The First Casualty'

I'm immersed in Ben Elton's novel The First Casualty at the moment - what a great read!

Here's a summary I found... [The First Casualty] "...is a gut-wrenching historical drama which explores some fundamental questions. What is murder? What is justice in the face of unimaginable daily slaughter? And where is the honour in saving a man from the gallows if he is only to be returned to die in a suicidal battle? As the gap between legally-sanctioned and illegal murder becomes evermore blurred, Kingsley quickly learns that the first casualty when war comes is truth. "

And, as I have now finished it, some thoughts of my own.

1. This is the second of Elton's books I have read (I'm a slow starter!) the other was High Society. I found both books got me hooked very quickly, kept me enthralled and both seemed well-researched.

2. the themes in The First Casualty are clever. The morality theme especially... as thing become blurred the conscientious objector becomes involved as a participant in the very thing he objected against. Don't we all? Elton leaves his reader with this unwelcome realisation. Some justification is offered that this is what happens in war, thus the title of the book - but Kingsley recognises that in his work as a policeman he has been part of another kind of war that he cannot any longer agree with in relation to the way that suffragettes and communists had been treated by the law and its agents.

3. some may not like the revisionist nature of his work - it is easier to see the folly of the Great War from this side of it and this distance (and I'm currently enjoying Elton's contribution as a co-writer of the Blackadder 4 series). But I believe that there is no possibility of looking at history through any other means than the eyes we have now... we will always revise history, and we should... if we can get as big a picture on what has happened before us then we might be more attentive to the things that might lead us into another folly - might.

I am looking forward to delving into Elton's nine other novels!

Birthday!

Anne did well today... I received a good sized print of Michael Smither's stunning Rocks with Mountain to put up on the wall in my study/office. It is mounted on a thick black block - it will be near my Colin McCahon print In truth - but alas, they have to be copies!

I'm also looking forward to reading a new U2 book... U2 Show by Diana Scrimgeour which includes interviews with behind the scenes crew and organisers who have helped the band on tour over many years. Yay!

On the Move - Bono

I've just ordered a copy of Bono's little book On the Move - his speech to a White House Prayer Breakfast and photos he took when he and Ali first went to Ethiopia in 1986. I have a copy of the speech and it is great - and I probably don't need the book (just as I don't really need every CD by U2, a dozen U2 books, pretty much every CD single since 1993 and a pile of rock magazines with articles on U2) but if having it in any way supports his mountain-moving work in Africa, then I'm in!

Sunday looming

I've found my entry point for Sunday's sermon. Usually I only need the start and the rest unfolds... sometimes it is a thought, sometimes and image, sometimes a quote...

“…transcendence cannot be forced upon us. It doesn’t yell, doesn’t announce its presence with a bullhorn, doesn’t advertise itself on roadside billboards. There is nothing bullying about transcendence.
What it requires is noticing. Witnesses to transcendence don’t create transcendence. The transcendence is already here, or there. But in our hurry to get someplace else, we miss it. There is always more than meets the human eye. We miss a lot. We need friends who will grab us by the shirttails, turn us around, and show us what we just now missed in our hurry to get across the street on the way to the bank. We need friends who will tap us on the shoulder, interrupting our non-stop commentary on the talk of the town, so that we can hear the truth. We need witnesses to transcendence. Writers. Angels. [and Preachers!] We stop, we look, we listen.”
Eugene Peterson in Subversive Spirituality Eerdmans 1997 p42

I added the 'and preachers' but in the sermon I might also add 'and Christians' - a bit of salt and light.

The text is Acts 10 - the Spirit calling the early church through Peter to cross the lines and see the bigger picture, the ministry of God to all people, even Gentiles! One of the ways we might cross the lines in our community could be through pointing to the transcendence at work in the everyday of people's lives. How might we be more attentive to the transcendence?