The Weekly Wrap: July 19-25
Goodness in Literature
I finished and reviewed Theo of Golden this week and I understand what makes this such an exceptional book. It is more than just a “feel good” novel. Rather, it is a novel that quietly invites us to explore whether it is possible to live in our heartless and heartbreaking time without becoming self-protective or cynical. Theo opens himself to others to notice and name the exemplary qualities in their lives. He is genuinely kind, self-effacing, and generous. He knows deep sadness, yet lives joyfully and in the hope of heaven.
Literature often explores the darkness of the human heart. And this is not absent in Allen Levi’s book. But most writers find it easier to write about us at our worst than the possibilities of a different kind of life. That’s what Levi does. Not only that, he challenges us to ask whether our current fraught cultural story is the only one in which to live.
The Bruderhof use a motto or tagline of “another life is possible.” That’s what Levi show us. Or rather, he invites us to find ourselves in a different story. It’s rare that books do this in such a powerful way in my experience. I think it is what makes the Lord of the Rings compelling for so many of us. We not merely want to go to Middle Earth, but to bring something of its goodness here.
For me, the biblical story is one of those compelling stories of a God who wants to display his glory and love through his people, as wayward as they are. He even enters the story as one of us, exchanges his goodness for our evil, and through resurrection makes new life and a renewed creation possible. I’ve spent my life living in and into that story. Sadly, many who call themselves God’s people choose to live in our fraught cultural story, instead.
We need such stories, I believe. What stories have been compelling to you in their goodness?
Five Articles Worth Reading
Walking into my bookstore can be overwhelming. Sure, I like to browse for those serendipitous finds. But sometimes it helps to have an idea of what others think worthwhile of the many new books. published. And that’s what The New York Times has done in “The Best Books of the Year (So Far).” I like it because it is not overwhelming.
About ten years ago Amitav Ghosh argued that climate change required a new kind of novel. In “The Crisis That Novelists Can’t Handle,” Robert Rubsam reviews Ghosh’s Ghost Eye and assesses whether Ghosh lived up to his own critique.
Using Percival Everett’s James, Geoffrey Mak explores in “Misreading the Past to Chart the Future” the genre of “remake literature” and what is involved in literary remakes.
This month’s Atlantic’s cover story is “The End of Reading Is Here.” In Trevor Aleo’s “Three Theses On the Literacy Crisis” he offers a rejoinder to Rose Horowitch’s article.
Lastly, birthright citizenship has been much in the news in recent years, particularly with the Supreme Court’s decision upholding it. Richard A. Greenwald, in “Birthright and Belonging,” digs deeper into the political economy that has led to challenges to the traditional American creed.
Quote of the Week
Emma Lazarus was born on July 22, 1849. Her poem “The New Colossus” was written in 1887 to raise money for the Statue of Liberty and is inscribed on its pedestal. I thought it worthy as an example of our American creed to reproduce it here in full:
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
Miscellaneous Musings
Believe it or not, my mail has include a couple of Advent books already. Advent in July! I will be featuring them on my social media and reviewing them well before Advent. I appreciate that lead time from publishers.
In writing this post I discovered that The New York Times has joined The Atlantic in allowing subscribers to share unlimited articles from behind their paywall. Previously they allowed ten a month. I’ve made the case that this is both a great benefit to subscribers and very cheap advertising for their product. I hope you will enjoy the articles as well as subscribe if you like them and as finances permit.
I don’t review many books for middle school/high school readers but I’ve been enjoying Don Everts Oscar and the Mystery of the Glowing Orbs which talks about the challenges of moving to a new city during school as well as dealing with a disability.
Next Week’s Reviews
Monday: Richard Hughes Gibson, The Way of Dante
Tuesday: Richard B. Hayes, The Moral Vision of the New Testament
Wednesday: Laurel Richardson, Falling Into a Good Life
Thursday: John Green, Everything is Tuberculosis
Friday: Ellis Peters, A Nice Derangement of Epitaphs
So, that’s The Weekly Wrap for July 19-25.
Find past editions of The Weekly Wrap under The Weekly Wrap heading on this page.
